Presentation Proposals Invited for the 2013 GIS in Transit Conference

Des Plaines, IL (February 27, 2013) - The National Center for Transit Research (NCTR), Transportation Research Board (TRB) and Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) are pleased to announce the 2013 GIS in Transit Conference taking place October 16-17 at the Keck Center of the National Academies in Washington, D.C. The jointly-organized conference is co-sponsored by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). This conference is for transit planners, managers, researchers and GIS industry experts who are interested in sharing ways to use geographic and spatial analysis in transit planning, operations, and marketing to increase efficiency and effectiveness.

The conference will:

Provide GIS transit professionals an opportunity to learn from peers and industry experts (vendors, researchers, and practitioners)
Discuss emerging trends in geo-spatial analysis and transit informatics
Demonstrate the use of GIS data to improve transit efficiency and effectiveness
Provide a forum for public-private discussions about practical applications of new technologies

Presentation proposals are invited (until April 1, 2013) on a wide range of topics including:

Lessons learned using GIS to enhance service planning, analyze transit ridership, and improve transit performance
GIS tools and models for managing transit data; methods for collecting and maintaining data for transit scheduling and operations; standards and practices
GIS applications for the latest Census data
Use of GIS for Title VI and ADA complementary paratransit (for example, demographic analysis, accessibility standards, service analysis)
Data, data, data – Use of archived data for research
Implementing GIS within in a transit agency – Making the case for value added
Funding strategies for GIS initiatives
Ensuring consistent data integration – Incorporating GIS with other transit information systems (scheduling, dispatch, incident records)
Models for GIS transit applications
Opportunities for public-private partnerships to create practical applications of new technology
Access to GIS functionality for non-GIS professionals
Open source toolbox for GIS in transit
Cloud source data for planning and analysis
Interfaces between private data sources and public transit information
Third-party applications (apps) for transit
Using GTFS feeds to publish transit data
Role of social media in transit marketing and customer service
Examples of the use of GIS and transit informatics in successful non-traditional public outreach
State of the art for use of real-time/mobile technology for next bus and trip planning
Transit informatics to provide a link between public transit agencies and the riders (public)
Presentation of transit data; formatting spatial data to effectively communicate transit information, for example using GIS in schematic presentation
Transit data visualization

An abstract submission form and additional information is available on the conference website: http://transitgis.org/conference/2013-conferences/