Situation.
Starting in mid-2019, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority partnered with Remix on the Bus Network Redesign initiative, which takes a comprehensive, borough-by-borough look at rightsizing bus service to better match current and future travel demand. They sought a platform that would help planners make improvements to the bus network and enhance collaboration with communities across New York City, ensuring that proposed changes to the bus network would improve public transit for those who rely on it.
After a COVID-related pause between March 2020 and August 2021, the MTA resumed working with Via using Remix Planning, a collaborative transit planning platform, to help draft, visualize, and collect feedback on bus route updates, all in one place. In December 2022, they released the Brooklyn Bus Network Redesign Draft Plan, marking its third bus network redesign using Remix. The team used Remix to analyze demographic, land use, and travel demand data and considered customer and interagency feedback in an effort to improve bus network connectivity.
The MTA’s redesign plans include improving inter- and intra borough connections, increasing bus frequencies, balancing bus stop spacing, and straightening routes — all of which aim to make travel faster and more reliable, improving operations and the customer experience. Remix also made it possible for the Draft Plan to be available to everyone from planners to riders, and through a series of platform updates, lowered the barrier for community participation.
Solution.
Thanks to Remix’s close collaboration with the MTA and their prior experience working on the platform, the teams were able to work together to implement updates that extended the tool’s public outreach capabilities. They were able to make the Brooklyn Bus Network Redesign Draft Plan accessible on mobile phones, align feedback with specific bus stops and geolocations, and download the feedback to review offline. These updates will streamline the MTA’s workflow when developing the Brooklyn Bus Network Redesign Proposed Final Plan, allowing planners to easily review public feedback when making edits to routes, frequencies, and bus stops.
"Input from MTA’s bus customers and other stakeholders is an integral part of our phased Redesign initiatives. Remix for mobile added a new dimension to our outreach with a new mechanism by which our customers could explore the proposed network and provide their immediate feedback utilizing technology that most New Yorkers have right in in their pocket."
— Agency Staff
"With mobile commenting, Remix enabled the MTA to meet riders where they are. Many riders access Bus Network Redesign project information from their phones after seeing an advertisement on the go. Instead of asking folks to wait until they can access a computer to leave their feedback on the plan, riders are now able to leave their feedback in real time, increasing our comment volumes."
— Project Team
