The Trolley Tracking ProjectThe 20th Annual Steinmetz Symposium

7 May 2010

Interdisciplinary Team Students

• Johanna Geoghegan ( Biology ’11)• Sonika Raj (Biology/Music ’13)• Isaac Rogers (Electrical Engineering ’10)• Aung Soe (Electrical Engineering ’11)

Faculty• Shane Cotter (Electrical/Computer Engineering)• Kristen Gentile (Classics)• Janet Grigsby (Sociology)• Doug Klein (Economics/Dean of Interdisciplinary Studies)• Cherrice Traver (Computer Engineering/Dean of Engineering)

Staff• Gary Olsen (Traffic and Transportation Supervisor)• Diane McNamara (Director of Telecommunications)

Project Goals

↑ awareness ↑ efficiency

• Live tracking technology ↓ carbon footprint

• ↓ car usage, ↑ Trolley usage

Project History Winter/Spring 2009

• ENS 100 Survey – need for Trolley improvement• ECE Trolley tracking project idea

Fall 2009• Team formed, goals established

Winter 2010• Survey and usage data collection

Spring 2010• Prototype system completed

Winter 2010 Student Survey Goals

Assess Trolley knowledge and use Gather suggestions for

schedule/route changes Gather information about student cell

phone types and carriers

Selected Survey Results

Student car usage• About 33% uses their cars

Current routes are close to what students want

What else do students want?• Additional route (downtown)• Reliability/predictability!

Trolley Usage (Jan 26-Feb 6, 2010)

Tue Wed Thurs Fri Sat0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

16

82

26

144

98

15

96

38

67

177

1st week (January 26th - 31st) 2nd Week ( February 2nd - 6th)

Schedule: Sun-Thurs: 6 pm – 2 am, Fri-Sat 6 pm – 4 am

No.

of S

tude

nt

Map of the requested stops

Plans for raising awareness Distribute flyers around campus Send email to students Include in the student handbook Redesign Trolley stop sign

Trolley Tracking

Improve knowledge of Trolley location

GPS technology exists! A tracking system would greatly

improve usability Easy to use & reliable

Implementation

Future Work

Implement tracking via text messaging

Perform new survey Collect data of Trolley usage Continue to explore and suggest

alternative routes/times

Acknowledgements

Gary Olsen (Traffic and Transportation Supervisor)

Diane McNamara (Director of Telecommunications)