Ohio counties cleaning up transportation system with database software

Posted by Justin Hesser on February 22, 2012

Managing public transportation is among the more important functions of a town's leadership, but keeping track of, literally, all of the moving pieces can be very difficult. Oftentimes, problems arise from residents that displeased with the routing, stop frequency and operation schedules, but town managers can only make adjustments based on the complaints they receive and feedback from their drivers.

That's why decision-makers in one area of Ohio are coming together to clean up their public transportation systems using special database software. On Tuesday, Mike Paprocki, transportation study director for the Brooke-Hancock-Jefferson (BHJ) Metropolitan Planning Commission, and Shawn Price, senior engineering technician for BHJ, told the Regional Access Mobility Partnership that there would be a training program in place for the parties that will need to know how to use the systems so that it can be used to its full potential, according the Herald-Star, a periodical that reports on news in the Upper Ohio Valley.

With the new software, which is being financed by a federal economic stimulus funds, the collaboration between the cities and towns in BHJ is expected to improve public access between the counties and make schedule planning easier, the source reported.

Cleaning up the public transportation system in the BHJ area now is important if news reported by local NBC affiliate WTOV-9 is accurate. The media outlet said that while drivers in the Steubenville and Weirton, Ohio area were faced with 1.2 miles of congestion per lane of highway in 2003, they are predicted to experience 9.3 miles of congestion per traffic lane by 2030.

It could be reasonably hypothesized that more traffic means a larger demand for public transportation, but at the very least, the increase in travel congestion indicates that the area should be prepared to manage its own vehicles more efficiently.