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Futurefleet Chosen By Dublin Sightseeing Operator

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

Dualway Deploy Futurefleet for Ticket Sales Management

Dualway

Dualway, based in Dublin, Ireland, is Avego’s latest customer, having selected FuturefleetTM as the on-board ticket sales and fleet management solution for its award-winning transport and tourism services.

With 25 GPS-enabled Futurefleet Mobile Data Terminals (MDTs) installed on their sightseeing, day tour and local scheduled services, Dualway can now easily manage ticket pricing and access real-time reports online for any of their vehicles. Drivers are also provided with advanced ticket sales management capabilities, as well as real-time schedule adherence notifications for ensuring on-time performance.

“Having been in operation since 1979, we know that we must constantly strive to improve the efficiency of the services we provide,” said Linda McConn, Marketing Director at Dualway. “Avego’s Futurefleet has rapidly become a very effective tool for us to streamline our ticket sales and reporting, and to easily provide more flexible ticket pricing for our customers.”

The rapid in-vehicle MDT ticketing system enables drivers to improve customer satisfaction with faster loading times. And using Futurefleet’s intuitive web interface, operators can quickly and easily add or modify routes, schedules and ticket pricing from anywhere with an Internet connection and have those updates immediately reflected on the Futurefleet MDT. Operators can also track vehicles in real time and access comprehensive reporting on tickets sold and on-schedule performance.

“The lifeblood of any transport operator is their daily passenger throughput,” said Sean O’Sullivan, Avego’s Managing Director. “Avego’s analytics allow transport operators to see where and when the thousands of people who are using their buses daily purchase their tickets, and the flow of their transport services throughout a city or country, in real time. Legacy ticketing systems and standalone AVL systems cannot provide the intelligence or convenience of the end-to-end Futurefleet system. We are delighted to have Dualway upgrade their systems to Futurefleet.”

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Cars Emerge as the Key Driver of Climate Change

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

NASA study analyzes the main contributors to climate change

A new study by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) has concluded that motor vehicles are the greatest net contributor to global warming.

Car emissions are driving climate change

Car emissions are driving climate change

Rather than analyzing impacts by chemical species, the study based its findings on a climate model, which was used to estimate the impact of 13 sectors of the economy. The unique portfolio of pollutants, greenhouse gases and aerosols released by cars, buses and trucks was found to contribute the most to climate change.

This new analysis provides urban planners with a greater understanding of how to more effectively target emissions reductions. While emissions from the power, biomass burning and industrial sectors of the economy promote aerosol-cloud interactions that exert a powerful cooling effect, on-road transportation and household biofuels exacerbate cloud-related warming.

“Targeting on-road transportation is a win-win-win,” said Nadine Unger, who led the study. “It’s good for the climate in the short term and long term, and it’s good for our health.”

With so few commuters (less than 5% in the US, less than 20% in Europe) using public transit and the vast majority of all transport journeys occurring in cars (82.1% in the EU, 85% in the US), there is a clear need to improve the efficiency of passenger transportation by making it easier to fill up the vast amounts of empty seats that travel our roads every day.

  • Download Avego’s iPhone application here to experience the future of sharing transportation.
  • Learn how AvegoTM makes it easier to fill up empty seats in cars, buses and vanpools.

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Avego’s EU Transportation Projects

Friday, February 26th, 2010

Avego Participating in Major EU Showcase of GNSS Projects

As a leading developer of location-based transportation applications, Avego is very involved in the development of several cutting-edge GNSS (global navigation satellite systems) technology applications for the European Union. Some of these projects will be showcased at the Galileo Application Days event in Brussels next week.

The Galileo Speed Warning Project

The Galileo Speed Warning Project

For example, attendees can view a demo of the Galileo Speed Warning (GSW) CARAT Counter system, which uses location-based technology to incentivize safer driving behaviour. The end-product is an in-vehicle device that displays a counter of CARAT points which increments as long as a driver drives within the speed limit, and can later be traded for rewards, such as lower car insurance.

Attendees can also visit the OPTI-TRANS stand to learn more about an innovative location-based mobile traveler information and guiding system that Avego is helping to develop for the city of Madrid. The system will serve as a personal transportation navigation tool, presenting optimal routing to Madrid’s commuters, based on their current location and the real-time availability of empty seats on public transportation and in private cars (“shared transport”).

Hosted by the European Commission, Galileo Application Days will be held at the Charlemagne Conference Centre in Brussels from March 3rd to March 5th. In addition to Avego taking part in the “Applications Village”, Avego’s Eurasian Sales Director, Jonathan Guard, will also be giving a presentation on the GSW project at 11:40 on March 5th.

This post is extracted from the Avego monthly newsletter, which you can subscribe to here.

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Improving Local Transport Efficiency in Dalian, China

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

Avego China launches 2 new projects at Ascendas IT Park

Avego’s China office, which was officially opened last October, has just launched 2 new projects that are designed to improve transportation efficiency at the Ascendas IT park in Dalian, where Avego China is based.

Employees at Ascendas IT Park in Dalian

Employees at Ascendas IT Park in Dalian

A new Shared Taxi system will save costs for local employers and employees who pay to take a taxi home in the evenings when the public transportation services have ended. The system matches together people traveling to the same areas. Users interact with the system via a touchscreen interface in the lobby of the office building.

On average, 300 of the 3500 people working in the office building take a taxi home in the evening, which amounts to taxi charges of millions of Chinese RMB per year. Avego’s new system will reduce these costs by 40%.

An LED sign displaying real-time passenger information

An LED sign displaying real-time passenger information

Avego has also setup its Futurefleet system, with LED signs displaying real-time passenger information for a shuttle bus service between Avego’s office building and the entrance of Ascendas park. Employees can now make better decisions about whether or not to make the long walk to the entrance of the park, or wait for the next shuttle bus.

Anyone interested in learning more about Futurefleet or Avego’s Shared Taxi system should contact the Avego sales team today.

This post is extracted from the Avego monthly newsletter, which you can subscribe to here.

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The US Federal Budget 2011 – Transportation, Infrastructure & Innovation

Friday, February 12th, 2010

The Obama administration released its 2011 budget proposal on February 1st, which includes a request of $78.8 billion for FY2011, up from $77 billion in FY2010. The budget includes $530 million as part of the President’s Partnership for Sustainable Communities to help State and local governments invest in sustainable transportation infrastructure “that integrates with housing development and other critical investments”.

President Obama

President Obama

The DOT requested budget, which can be viewed in full here includes “High-Priority Performance Goals” for the coming year(s).

Additionally, the 2011 budget includes $4 billion to create a National Infrastructure Innovation and Finance Fund to invest in projects of regional or national significance. This marks an important departure from the Federal Government’s traditional way of spending on infrastructure through grants to specific States and localities. The Fund will allocate resources based on demonstrable merit and analytical measures of performance. It will provide planning, feasibility, and analytical capacity to help sponsors identify high-value projects from around the country and then carefully select the most worthwhile projects.

To learn more about securing federal funding for real-time passenger information implementations of Futurefleet, or for a Shared Transport pilot, please contact Avego’s Director of Government Relations, Jason Conley.

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Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)

Monday, February 8th, 2010

In the United States, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is growing in popularity as a transportation option for public agencies. Some agencies are putting out Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for  BRT installations, while many others are in the exploratory phase.

However, Orange County in Los Angeles already has a wildly successful BRT system that was launched in 2004. In conjunction with the local rail system and the addition of more bike racks on buses, the BRT is a unique multi-modal transportation system that is available to commuters in L.A. 24 hours a day and cuts commute times by half. The system is now being modeled by other cities around the world.

Check out this great film by streetfilms.org to learn more and to see BRT in action:

Learn more about Futurefleet, Avego’s end-to-end real-time management system for passenger transport operators here.

Follow Avego on Twitter.

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Avego Partners with VPSI

Friday, January 29th, 2010

World’s largest vanpool service provider incorporates Avego’s Shared Transport technology.

Avego is pleased to announce that it has partnered with VPSI to develop an integrated technology solution for the company, including providing its groundbreaking Shared Transport technology, all of which will make it easier and more convenient for commuters in the United States to join and use vanpools on their daily commute.

VPSI

VPSI

VPSI is the world’s largest vanpool service provider, with a fleet of more than 5,000 vans accommodating over 25 million passenger trips annually. Avego’s end-to-end vanpool management capabilities are already being enabled in some regions of VPSI’s nationwide transportation network.

“Due to the ongoing desire of commuters to save money on their daily commutes, as well as an increased awareness of the need for energy independence, reduced carbon emissions, and the sheer convenience of not having to drive to work, VPSI has seen record levels of demand for new vanpools,” said VPSI President Jeff Henning. “Our partnership with Avego will give our vanpool customers greater information services, while allowing us to even more rapidly deploy new vanpools.”

Initially the system is being used to provide automated reporting on passenger miles traveled to government agencies, streamlined vanpool formation and management processes, extensive in-vehicle driver management capabilities, and real-time passenger information. However, the prospect also exists for matching riders with vanpools in real time, if desired by the agency or VPSI’s customers.

Avego’s system includes an in-vehicle touchscreen mobile data terminal (MDT) with GPS and audio announcement capabilities, a web application for commuters to self-organize and grow their vanpools, and extensive reporting capabilities.

mdt2To find out how to get VPSI vanpools with Avego’s technology in your area, or to see how the system works up close, please contact info@avego.com.

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Twitter for Transit Agencies

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

Twitter. Most often described with the off-putting title of “a microblogging platform”, Twitter is actually a highly effective business tool, through which an organization can provide a stream of short (140 character) updates (“tweets”) to an expanding community of followers.twitter

In the last year, Twitter has grown in popularity amongst transit agencies in the US as a tool for communicating with their customers about service changes and general news. While the number of agencies using Twitter is still small, agencies are increasingly trying to figure out how it can be of real strategic value.

Some great articles have been written about the business benefits of “tweeting” (such as here, here and here), but the specific role that Twitter can play in your transit agency requires some internal analysis. A general rule of thumb is to start by considering Twitter in terms of “how we communicate with our customers”, including potential customers.

Twitter provides some specific benefits to transit agencies, such as the ability to provide real-time service updates to customers, but it also offers more traditional marketing benefits, such as generating leads and web traffic. Once a decision has been made about how Twitter will be used to communicate to the world, then it can be assigned to a particular group with specific objectives.

When deciding how to use Twitter in your agency, look towards other related organizations that are already using Twitter, by searching for “#transit” on Twitter.

Avego uses Twitter to communicate the latest in transit related news and technology. You can find us at www.twitter.com/AvegoUSA

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Avego Managing Director speaks at TRB 89th Annual Meeting in Washington, DC

Friday, January 8th, 2010

Avego Managing Director, Sean O’Sullivan, will be speaking next week at the 89th annual Transportation Research Board (TRB) meeting in Washington, DC, as part of a workshop titled “Reinventing Carpooling to Meet Transportation’s Greatest Challenges”.

Sean O'Sullivan

Sean O'Sullivan

Mr. O’Sullivan is joining other transportation industry luminaries during this three hour workshop, which takes place on January 10th (1.30PM – 4.30PM), to discuss carpooling, vanpooling, ridesharing and the use of mobile devices to enable real-time shared transport.

The workshop will focus on strategies for reshaping the political, policy, and practical framework for carpooling and vanpooling and will be a catalyst for reinvigorating and elevating this modal choice to meet transportation’s greatest challenges: climate change, energy security, traffic congestion, quality of life, environmental damage, and budget constraints.

To learn more about this workshop you can visit the TRB site here.

Sean O’Sullivan is founding partner at Avego and previously co-founded MapInfo, a $175 million software and services business, headquartered in New York State.

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U.S. DOT announces first grants in Livability Initiative

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood recently announced the availability of $280 million for urban circulator projects such as streetcars, buses, and bus facilities to support communities, expand business opportunities and improve people’s quality of life while also creating jobs.

US Department of Transportation

US Department of Transportation

The money represents the first batch of funding by the Obama Administration for its Livability Initiative, a joint venture of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

“This represents a significant effort to promote livable communities, improve the quality of life for more Americans and create more transportation choices that serve the needs of individual communities,” Secretary LaHood said. “Fostering the concept of livability in transportation projects will stimulate America’s neighborhoods to become safer, healthier and more vibrant.”

A maximum amount of $25 million per project will be made available from approximately $130 million in unallocated discretionary New Starts/Small Starts Program funds. Eligible projects include streetcars and other urban circulator systems. Priority will be given to projects that connect destinations and foster the redevelopment of communities into walkable, mixed-use, high-density environments.

Transit operators interested in acquiring FuturefleetTM to enable reliable real-time passenger information (RTPI) for their fleets can now apply for this funding.

Avego has compiled two documents with more information on funding opportunities for transit agencies in .pdf format, which are now available here and here.  Contact information is provided on each document if you have more questions or would like assistance in applying for these grants.

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