Transit agencies: Have you looked at your website’s statistics lately?
There’s a lot to be learned from looking closely at your website’s visitor statistics. I recommend to my clients that they use Google Analytics to track visitors on their websites because it’s free, easy-to-implement and use, and provides a lot of information (much, much more than I’ll breeze through here).
Recently, I was digging around in the statistics for Redwood Transit System and thought I would share some of the things that stood out (with the manager’s permission, of course).
First, here are redwoodtransit.org visitor statistics for roughly the past year.
73,770 visits is significant traffic for an agency that posts about one-half million boardings per year. If people successfully find the information they are after, each one of those visits would probably result in at least two boardings — one to get there, and another for a return trip.
Note the “bounce rate” — that’s the number of visitors who immediately leave the site because they haven’t found what they are looking for or are at the wrong site. 16% is a low bounce rate. And note that once people are on the site, they stick around, looking at an average of 4.2 pages. Imagine the cost of printing all those 306,555 pages viewed, or answering those questions by phone.
Second, here is an “overlay” that shows the links visitors clicked on.
As I would expect, schedules are, by far, the most popular piece of content on the site. But one thing that stood out at me is number of people that click the button to flip start and end addresses. It looks like this (
). You can’t see it above because it’s obscured by the overlaid visitorship statistic (11%) after (”End”) in the trip planner box.
Anyway, statistics for the number of trips planned using the Google Transit trip planner are not available because trip planning happens off the RTS website, at maps.google.com. But that 11% figure gives a clue. If 11% of people who visit this page click that little button (which I’ve rarely used), then many, many more are clicking the “Get Directions” box without ever clicking the flip start/end address button.
And, don’t forget the people who plan transit trips by going to maps.google.com without ever visiting the RTS website.
Third, here’s a breakdown of the top pages visited on the site.
Note that the Redwood Transit System website includes a feature that shows service schedules by stop. The visitor statics show the relative popularity of these stops online, and, unsurprisingly, their popularity corresponds with the relative instances of boarding/alightings documented in the most Recent Transit Development Plan for Redwood Transit System.
This points to an interesting opportunity. Transit agencies could use logs from trip planners to assess customer needs and wants. That may supplement the picture that comes from demand statistics on existing scheduled routes.
Does anyone know of agencies that do this already? Or want to implement this?
Of websites, customer information and short-range transit plans
Recently, someone directed me to look the Santa Cruz Metro 2007-2008 Short Range Transit Plan.
One of its features is an evaluation of the Santa Cruz Metro website based on the results of a web-based public survey.
As part of the planning process, it makes a lot of sense to evaluate websites, and other components customer information, both offline and online, and discuss how they fit into an agency’s strategic goals. I believe customer information should be treated as an integral part of good transit service, not a separate, tacked-on component (see earlier blog post: Customer information: not a side dish but part of the main course).
The “Metro Website Evaluation” section makes some good, if obvious, recommendations on how to improve their website and online strategy: create a fast-loading, visually-pleasing, and user-friendly website; include the URL on printed materials and get partners to link to scmtd.com from their sites.
The document points out that “nearly half of passengers using the system are between the ages of 18-23″ (most are likely students at UC Santa Cruz) and that a modern, full-featured website necessary to serve these customers well. In addition, I would point out that this demographic presents some additional opportunities in the online space: College students like to have fun, so partnering with local event calendars to include transit directions, like Trillium helped make happen in Humboldt County, would make a lot of sense. Some transit agencies are reaching out on social networks like Twitter and Facebook to recruit new riders and build rider community and brand identification. That might make sense for SC Metro, because 85% of college students use Facebook.
Despite the inclusion of the website evaluation, online information strategy could have been better integrated in the overall document. The on-board survey of 1902 riders conspicuously did not include questions like “Do you have access to and use the internet… at home? work? school?,” “How often do you use the internet?”, or “What kind of mobile communications device do you carry? – [none, iPhone, Blackberry, cell phone, other, etc.]“
What do your passengers want most? A web-based survey gives answers.
In fall of 2008, SEPTA, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, surveyed web-visitors in anticipation of their website revamp.
The results are worth noticing. Here’s one question (and averaged responses).
Google Transit and interactive maps came it at the top of the list, along with real time bus information. In other words a lot of SEPTA’s customers, and customers of other agencies, are hoping for Google Transit.
Kudos to SEPTA for conducting the web-based survey. This kind of inexpensive outreach helps to deliver the services customers want, and, importantly builds relationships that will create active public transit advocates.
SF Bay Area Ferry routes, schedules and walkshed map
This week, an interactive map of San Francisco bay ferry routes and schedules became available on the baycrossings.com homepage. The map shows schedules for all services departing or arriving at a particular ferry terminal if a user clicks it. In addition, the interactive map has three other map views to help travelers plan their trips. These show connecting transit services (BART and SF Muni) at the San Francisco Ferry Building, ferry gates (so you know where to catch your ferry), and a map that shows a few of the amenities in the ferry building.
Here’s what the map looks like before any buttons have been clicked:
And, after a route is selected, here’s a schedule:
The schedule data in this map comes out of information managed with Trillium’s WebSchedule application. One change in WebSchedule changes the schedule information shown in this map view, and in expored Google Transit Feed Specification information for Google Transit.
Trillium worked as a team with Viewpoint Geography to deliver this map for Bay Crossings using the flash Google Maps API. Bay Crossings maintains a shop that sells transit and ferry passes at the San Francisco ferry building, and publishes a monthly publication that features articles of interest on San Francisco Bay cultural, environmental and maritime issues. Bay Crossings, and this project in particular, are great examples of efforts to make transit information easier to use, reach new customers, and build and publicize a lifestyle brand around transit.
So, check out the map on the Bay Crossings website, and tell me what you think!
Online rural transit marketing project for easy-to-use coordinated information and service
Recently, Trillium worked with Transit Marketing to revise and re-launch deltarides.com, a website for Delta Rides, an association of about ten transit agencies in the Mississippi Delta region.
The website includes a service map that shows transit routes rom many different providers throughout the region on one map. Clicking on a route in the legend or in the map brings the user to more agency and schedule information. What would otherwise be a complicated web of disconnected information that the transit rider has to stitch together themselves is now easier-to-navigate.
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Conventional schedules and maps harder to use than you think
Rising gas prices are sending people who formerly drove to seek out other options. On Saturday, the New York Times reported that some public transit systems are seeing ridership increases of up to 10 and 15 percent or more over last year in Gas Prices Send Surge of Riders to Mass Transit.
While ridership is up, I hypothesize that even more people are interested in riding public transportation but that not all of them make it onboard the bus or train. Why? Hard-to-use schedules.
Imagine the experience of someone who has never rode their local bus or train but decides to give it a try. The third most common internet activity for Americans, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, is to “search for a map or driving directions,” (87%) behind only email and using search engines, so it’s natural to look online for public transportation information. If a transit provider’s website doesn’t offer a trip planner, the prospective rider will need to find the nearest stop to their home on a map, find scheduled service times for the stop, and, most likely, figure out where and how to transfer, by consulting maps and schedules for their destination and transfer point. The information-finding task is more complicated if it involves multiple agencies.
To someone who is unfamiliar with public transportation, this entire process may be sufficiently daunting to keep them driving. Consider a study conducted by the National Center for Transit Reseach at the University of South Florida, Design Elements of Effective Transit Information Materials (109 page PDF).
The study investigates how the general public (not necessarily existing transit riders) perform at planning a transit trip using conventional printed materials. For the purposes of the study, the trip planning process was considered as five stages. Most study participants were successful at identifying origin and destination points on a map, and at identifying nearby bus stops, but almost half of participants were unable to correctly identify bus times using the tabular schedules.
Good online information and Google Transit, a transit trip itinerary planner, can make a frustrating 5-step process that many new riders fail at (get one of the steps wrong, and the whole trip planning process is derailed) into a convenient 15-second experience. New bus riders have even told me that they spend a lot more time entering queries for trips to various destinations, not just their commute to work. Since it’s so fast, easy, and fun, they take the opportunity to explore and get to know the public transportation system, which means they will be much more inclined to get on the bus or train.
Every time someone goes to look for transit information looking for relief from high gas prices, but is frustrated by hard-to-use transit maps and schedules, public transportation misses a great opportunity. Partner with Trillium to reach the surge of people shifting from driving to public transit.
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Online store boosts transit pass sales
Selling transit passes with an online store that accepts credit cards is a great way of making it more convenient for riders to purchase fare media, keep buses rolling on schedule (by avoiding time-consuming on-board pass sales), and even streamline ticket sales that usually happen through a retail location.
Ask Humboldt Transit Authority. So far, they’ve had a great experience with their new online store. It’s easy for everyone to use, and has helped them sell more passes. Plus, it was another great opportunity for positive press attention! Read more
PDF schedules make unhappy riders & web-surfers
MetroRiderLA has a post on the PDF schedules on Metro’s website. The blogger, Fred Camino, expresses his frustration with the PDF format when used as the exclusive means to present transit schedule data. He calls PDF schedules “obtrusive, annoying, and unwieldy.”
An expert on web usability also cautions against misuse of PDFs online. PDF schedules are frequently difficult or impossible to use for sight-impaired user.
Trillium can help offer schedules in formats that make riders happy, like these user-customizable timetables in a stem-and-leaf format, or just a simple and usable grid. Read more
FTA names RTS website with Google Transit “Innovative Practice for Increased Ridership”
A new website, linked to Google Transit, and featuring downloadable schedules for PDAs, iPods, and mobile phones, has been part of more than 30% year-over-year ridership boost for Redwood Transit System in Northern California.
See more features and information here, FTA: Innovative Practices for Increased Ridership.
A new bus pass program also helped boost ridership, and the new website and Google Transit pushed ridership numbers up even further, attracting great press, and helping new and potential riders to understand schedules.
