At the May 17, 2023 City Commission meeting, Vice-Mayor Ricky Arriola referred  a discussion (Item C4 G) to the Finance and Economic Resiliency Committee (“FERC” or “Committee”) to discuss investing in advanced passenger tracking hardware and software for the City’s public trolley system. This system upgrade would be aimed at improving the accuracy of the City’s ridership tracking and audit capabilities, allowing the City to optimize its services and resources more effectively.

At the June 23, 2023 FERC meeting, a discussion ensued regarding the reliability of the City’s current automatic passenger counters installed on board the trolley vehicles. The Committee recommended that the City explore new ridership auditing technologies to improve the accuracy of the ridership figures. During the meeting, City staff proposed to conduct a pilot program and test several companies that provide public transit ridership measurement services and software platforms for tracking. The intent of the pilot program is to test and compare the latest camera technologies for Automatic Passenger Counters (“APC”), including:

1.    Video analytics-based passenger counting: These systems utilize cameras mounted within the vehicles, combined with sophisticated algorithms to analyze images, identify, and count passengers as they enter and exit.

2.    Stereo vision-based passenger counting: This innovative technology uses dual cameras to create a three-dimensional (3D) depth map of the vehicle's interior, enhancing accuracy in passenger detection and counting.

3.    Time-of-flight (ToF) cameras: These advanced cameras measure the time it takes for light to travel from the camera to the object and back, allowing the creation of a 3D depth map, thus improving passenger counting accuracy.

Transportation and Mobility Department staff has contacted all the companies listed in referral Item C4 G and others, and, based on the feedback received, staff has selected several hardware and software vendors for the pilot program.

The Administration will conduct a pilot program consisting of independently testing (for 90 days) the below three (3) APC hardware technologies and software options for ridership data collection, analytics, and reporting on the City’s existing trolley fleet, managed by Limousines of South Florida, Inc. To ascertain the accuracy of the ridership data reported by the sensors and ensure an accurate count of passenger flow, Transportation and Mobility Department staff will conduct video inspections/audits of ridership data for each of the three (3) technologies used at various points during and at the end of the pilot program, and the results will be presented to the FERC. 

Pilot Program:

1. Urban Transportation Associates (UTA)

a. Hardware:

i. Hella APC-ECO (First Generation) – (stereoscopic vision-based technology)

ii. Hella APS-B (Second Generation) – (stereoscopic vision-based technology)

b. Software: UTA 2.   

2. DILAX Intelcom

a. Hardware:

i. DILAX PRT-400 (stereoscopic vision-based technology)

ii. DILAX SLS-1000 (video analytics-based technology)

b. Software: DILAX Citisense

3. Iris-GmbH

a. Hardware: IRMA Matrix (Time-of-Flight (ToF) technology)

b. Software: Swiftly, Inc.

UTA has agreed to conduct Pilot Technology #1 at no cost to the City. On July 12, 2023, UTA technicians inspected two (2) low-floor trolleys with existing Hella APC-ECO first generation sensors and installed (at no cost to the City) UTA Model 31 central processing units (CPUs) to process the raw ridership data transmitting into their software. In addition, as part of Pilot #1, one (1) high-floor trolley has been upgraded with a Hella APS-B sensor (second generation technology) and UTA Model 31 CPU. This setup will enable raw data to be collected directly from APC hardware and quality-checked through UTA software.

The Transportation and Mobility Department staff will continue working with DILAX Intelcom and Iris-GmbH on the terms, methodology and rollout of Pilot Technology #2 and Pilot Technology #3, respectively, which would require procurement of APC hardware and software. The anticipated cost is less than $20,000 and would not require approval by the City Commission.

The results of the pilot program will be used to inform the upcoming procurement for citywide municipal public transit service in order to ensure the City procures the latest state-of-the-art technology for ridership metrics.

FISCAL IMPACT STATEMENT
Pilot Technology #1 with UTA will be at no cost to the City. City staff is currently negotiating the terms of Pilot Technology #2 with DILAX Intelcom and Pilot Technology #3 with Iris-GmbH. In total, the pilot programs are expected to cost less than $20,000. Funding has been identified in the Transportation and Mobility Department’s Fiscal Year 2023 Operating Budget.

The Administration will conduct a pilot program (with each pilot technology used for a 90-day period following installation) to identify and select the most accurate APC hardware and software technology set-up to improve the accuracy of the trolley ridership figures, thus enhancing the efficiency and transparency of the City’s public transit service, and ultimately improving user satisfaction.

The results of the pilot program will be presented to FERC. In addition, the outcome of the pilot program will inform the upcoming procurement for municipal public transit service to ensure the latest and most accurate APC technology is procured.