Shuttle and Shared Transport dramatically reduced need for SOV cars at transport conference
For the first time at an international conference, Shared Transport services were made available to conference attendees at this year’s Association for Commuter Transportation (ACT) Conference here, thanks to an innovative complimentary shuttle and shared transport service powered by VPSI and Avego.
The conference, which took place from August 29-September 1 in Indian Wells, California, brought together transportation demand management (TDM) professionals from around the world. This year, the conference helped reduce single occupancy vehicle usage and vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by offering attendees airport pickups and drop-offs, as well as a nightly “shared transport” shuttle service to the many attractions the Indian Wells, Palm Desert and Rancho Mirage areas have to offer.
Over the course of the event, attendees took 27, 97 and 187 Shared Transport trips on the three successive nights of the conference, showing a remarkable daily growth and usage rate. Over the entire conference, VPSI/Avego delivered over 529 trips for the 270 attendees, and a remarkable 43% modal shift in airport journeys alone.
“Normally, trade shows and conferences in locations not extensively serviced by public transit result in attendees using ‘single occupancy vehicles’ (SOVs) like rental cars to get around,” said Sean O’Sullivan, Avego Managing Director. “As ACT is an association of professionals dedicated to reducing wasteful travel usage, we thought it important to provide travel options that improve transport efficiency, reduce costs, VMT, and improve the quality of the travel experience.”
Avego teamed up with VPSI to offer shuttle services to all attendees, featuring, for the first time, “on demand” shuttle services, with an iPhone application that not only showed attendees real-time information on what transport services were available, but also allowed attendees to request rides dynamically for increased efficiency. While other trade shows and conferences in the past have offered shuttle services, this was the first conference ever to have its own iPhone app showing real-time passenger information services, among other firsts.
ACT’s Executive Director, Caryn Souza, commented, “ACT is constantly looking for ways to foster innovation in transportation. VPSI and Avego have combined their assets and technology to create a convenient, easy-to-use nightly shuttle service that our conference attendees greatly enjoyed.”
The shuttle service was powered by VPSI vans and a custom implementation of Avego’s Shared Transport and Futurefleet technologies. The free shuttle service allowed passengers to book a ride with the ACT2010 iPhone app, or with any cell phone. iPhone users simply downloaded the app from the iTunes store, selected a destination along the shuttle route, and tapped “Pick me up.” Cell phone users would text a code with their stop number to 41411. Once a ride was booked, passengers received real-time status updates via SMS leading up to their pick-up.
VPSI Vice President–Product Integration Ken Sieloff added, “Vanpools are an incredibly efficient, safe, economical and enjoyable way to travel. We’re delighted to have provided this complimentary shuttle service to ACT 2010 conference attendees.”