Inside Trapeze and Vontas

Recorded live at APTA TRANSform Conference and EXPO, Modaxo SVP Paul Comfort leads a panel with Sabrina Blais of Trapeze and Chris Tuff and Rahmin Azria of CENTRO https://www.centro.org/ talking about Trapeze RISC (Risk, Incident, and Safety Compliance) about implementing RISC and how it's transformed the entire agency

This year at ThinkTransit we did something a little different. Instead of doing the usual PowerPoint product update looking at the state of Trapeze and Vontas products, I led a talk show-style discussion focused on just two products—Trapeze RISC and Vontas OnSite.

The premise here was that these two products typified the new product development process being deployed across both companies. Instead of either delivering an exactly proscribed solution outlined in an RFP or creating something in relative isolation from the customer, both teams took to the approach of understanding the problem, proposing solutions, and then developing the product a piece at a time.

This process based on the Agile Product Development Framework, doesn’t presume what the problem is or how to solve it until working with customers and the people who will use the product first.

In this 45 minute discussion, you’ll learn how Trapeze RISC (Risk, Incident, and Safety Compliance) didn’t start out anything like it is today and Vontas OnSite came from turning an RFP on its head and trying something completely new and revolutionary. Listen to the whole discussion here or on your favorite podcast app.

Recorded live at ThinkTransit in Nashville, TN, April 3rd, 2023, Dr. Karen Philbrick, Executive Director of the Mineta Transportation Institute, giving the Day One keynote address on the challenges, and opportunities, facing public transit today.

Dr. Philbrick talked about:

• Building a stronger, more inclusive, and more resilient workforce by helping spread the word that there are more careers in public transit than drivers and mechanics
• Taking care of ourselves. Being mindful of our own mental health and overall health
• Facing the challenges of ridership and the new three-day cities by modeling what we want transit to be...and making it happen.
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Included in this episode is the Q&A after her address where she dives even deeper into workforce, equality, and making transit work for everyone.

Dr. Karen Philbrick will kick off ThinkTransit with our Day One Keynote. In this interview, learn about Karen, her passion for transit, her vision for the future of transit, and what we need to do to get there.

Randi and Tris sat down with Paul Comfort, SVP of Modaxo and host of Transit Unplugged to talk about the Executive Summit Paul hosts each year during ThinkTransit. Learn about the event and some of the special sessions and guests he has planned for attendees.

Learn more about the Executive Summit and register for the event.

We're kicking off the year with the team from EAM (Enterprise Asset Management), Brett Koenig, Satpal Bamrah, and Bill Boston join me to talk about how to set yourself up for success  this year by focusing on:

• Reviewing your KPIs
• Making sure you have all the data you need
• Taping into EAM workflows
• Getting prepared for NTD and TAM reporting with State of Good Repair tools
• Using EAM in your capital planning and grant writing process
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Listen in and enjoy!

Randi and I got to experience these awards for the first time last year and it was really inspiring to learn how agencies and people are pushing the boundaries of transit today. As people new to the industry, learning about the passion and drive people have for what they do gave us a real sense that what we do matters.

While innovation appeals to the transit geek in me, as a former teacher and speaker, I have a special place in my heart for the best live session award. It takes a lot of work to pull off a great session. The best sessions always seem so smooth and effortless—and that’s the magic, that’s where the hard work comes in—and it’s that hard work and dedication we honor with the award for Best Live Session.

Don’t believe us? Listen to last year’s Best Live Session winner Jay Washburn of San Diego Metropolitan Transit talk about his session, what he loves about the transit industry, and why he comes back to ThinkTransit every year.

Randi and I chatted with Jay and his enthusiasm is infectious. Listening to him, you just can’t wait to get to ThinkTransit and start connecting with people. I was lucky enough to interview him before about his work in San Diego MT’s paratransit operation but hearing him talk about his approach to operations in this interview is something we should all take to heart.

Learn more about ThinkTransit, the Awards of Excellence, and how to register on the ThinkTransit website.

Randi and Tris are back for Season 2 of Destination: ThinkTransit. We're kicking things off this year with ThinkTransit registration, some trivia about Nashville and some memories about ThinkTransits past. Join us in future episodes to learn about the speakers, the agenda, and everything else about ThinkTransit.

In this continuation of the ViewPoint plus series, Esmy Jensen and I talk with Nila Zaman about how ViewPoint helps you harness your mobility on demand data to get a handle on everything going on with your paratransit service. Paratransit is one of the most essential, and expensive, services agencies run. In order to make sure they can meet the demand, and even offer service to more people, agencies need to see where they can optimize.

ViewPoint helps agencies see where inefficiencies are and then make good decisions for how to fix them.

Read more in the blog post: Here's how to rein in your data and harness it for operational excellence.

This is a deep-dive chat with Risk Incident and Safety Compliance (RISC) Product Manager Sabrina Blais. Sabrina talked to me more about why RISC is important now and what she's learned from deploying RISC at pilot and early adopter agencies.

You can read more in her post about RISC on the Trapeze Blog--Everything You Need to Know About Managing Safety at Your Agency with RISC.