Transit in an Emergency

Transit can help communicate critical information to riders during emergencies or major disruptions to transit services, such as strikes and labor disruptions, or extreme weather events. Accurate information can help riders know exactly which services are running, where, and when.

This article aims to provide methods and best practices to help you manage emergency situations effectively.

On this page:

Transit’s tools for emergency situations

• Alerts
• Banners
• Detours

Transit’s tools for emergency situations

There are 3 basic tools we have at our disposal to reach your riders during emergency situations:

• Alerts
• Banners
• Detours

Alerts

• Providing a comprehensive service alerts feed allows riders to adapt to incidents that might affect their trip. Knowing about stop closures, detoured routes, cancelled service, and significant delays in advance can save riders time and frustration.
• Transit uses these alerts to reroute customers and display information in the app.
  • If service alerts state that a stop or trip is cancelled, Transit will display the stop as closed and/or the trip as cancelled in the app interface, and route riders around those with the trip planner. This is often the fastest way for an agency to let the public know about cancelled trips and closed stops.
  • If app users subscribe to service alerts, they will receive a push notification on the lock screen of their phone as soon as a new service alert is published for that route. This can be particularly valuable in an emergency.
• You can do this on your own with your own GTFS-RT feed and tools.
  • For Royale partners, you can also edit and send alerts via Transit Terminal
• Learn more about best practices for formatting your service alerts, and to see how they will show up in Transit.

Banners

• While service alerts are effective for incidents on specific stops or lines, sometimes an emergency can affect the whole system. Banners work well in these situations:
  • Service changes that will affect multiple lines and/or all riders
  • System-wide disruptions (for example, due to extreme weather or strikes)
  • Emergency weather events (e.g. weather response to a storm or fire that may evolve over one or more days)
  • Major planned disruptions (for example, maintenance work)
• Banners display at the top of the main screen when a rider opens Transit within a specific geographic area. Riders can tap on the banner to open a web page for more information.
• If you subscribe to Royale for Agencies, we will work alongside your team to monitor your public communications during emergencies to ensure riders get the most up-to-date information. As well, if an agency sees a situation on the horizon (e.g. possible strike, forecast ice storm), we can work with you to create a contingency banner that we can publish as soon as it's needed
• Learn more about how to request a banner. We ask for banner requests to be submitted a week in advance, but in case of emergency, please email partners@transit.app and include "URGENT" in the subject line.

Detours

• Buses are often re-routed during emergencies. When detours are in place, keeping riders in the know is a huge trust builder during stressful periods.
• Transit’s automatic detour detection algorithms ensure that route shapes are up-to-date, without requiring staff attention, even during major weather events.