At a Glance

Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is using TripShot Insights to better understand ridership demand, explore emissions data, and identify opportunities to improve campus transportation services.

The Challenge: Understanding What Riders Need

RIT’s Parking and Transportation Services team has conducted daily on-time performance and ridership reporting since before COVID. These reports help the team understand when delays occur, identify early departures, and determine whether recurring issues stem from scheduling, operations, or driver adherence.

The goal is to continuously improve the rider experience while ensuring transportation resources are aligned with actual demand.

“First and foremost, we want to ensure that our customers are getting the best experience they can.” - Joel Mazeika, Transportation Services Manager, Parking and Transportation Services, RIT

By regularly reviewing on-time performance and ridership, the team can identify opportunities to adjust schedules, address recurring issues, and better understand which services need additional resources or changes in service levels.

However, understanding broader ridership patterns and translating transportation data into actionable insights can require deeper analysis. RIT wanted a clearer view of how its services were being used and where adjustments might make the greatest difference.

The Solution: Turning Transportation Data Into Insights

RIT is using the beta version of the TripShot Insights dashboard to make transportation data easier to visualize and interpret.

TripShot Insights helps transportation teams explore operational data, recognize patterns, and use those findings to support decisions about service planning and resource allocation.

For RIT, the dashboard builds on an established reporting process while opening new opportunities to understand ridership demand and support campus sustainability initiatives.

The Insights: A New View of Ridership and Emissions

Two areas have already stood out as particularly valuable: emissions reporting and ridership visualization.

Improving visibility into emissions

RIT’s Campus Sustainability group has been seeking CO₂ emissions data for years, previously relying on rough estimates. TripShot Insights is helping the team develop a better understanding of emissions to support its reporting needs.

“Our Campus Sustainability group has been looking for CO₂ emissions data for years now, and have only gone with a rough estimate. With the Insights BETA, we can now provide a better understanding of our emissions for reporting purposes.” - Joel Mazeika

Access to this information gives RIT a stronger starting point for sustainability reporting and helps address a longstanding need for better visibility into transportation-related emissions.

Making ridership patterns easier to understand

The dashboard is also helping RIT get an initial visual understanding of when ridership demand is highest, without immediately needing to conduct extensive data analysis.

“I can get a better initial visualization of the ridership data in terms of peak demand without deeper data mining.” - Joel Mazeika

These early visualizations give the team a starting point for identifying potential pinch points, evaluating service demand, and determining where further investigation may be worthwhile.

From Insight to Action: Evaluating Routes and Resources

RIT is already using its initial ridership findings to reconsider how transportation services are scheduled and where resources may be most effectively deployed.

“Initial data on ridership has already begun route re-evaluation in terms of both adjustments to service hours as well as possible repurposing of resources to serve other service needs/wants.” - Joel Mazeika

Rather than relying exclusively on existing schedules and historical assumptions, the team can use emerging demand patterns to inform its evaluation of service levels and resource allocation.

The next step is to examine raw ridership data at the route and stop levels throughout the day. This deeper analysis will help RIT identify where demand is concentrated, pinpoint potential pinch points, and determine where operational changes may be most beneficial.

The Results: Building Toward More Informed Decisions

Although RIT’s use of TripShot Insights is still in its early stages, the initial findings are already informing discussions about potential system-wide changes.

The team is beginning to evaluate route schedules, service hours, and opportunities to repurpose resources. At the same time, new emissions visibility is helping address a longstanding need within the university’s sustainability efforts.

For RIT, the value extends beyond viewing data in a dashboard. It is about using that information to ask better operational questions and make decisions grounded in a clearer understanding of actual demand.

“The limited data set we currently have gathered has already given a preview of potential system wide changes down the line in terms of resource allocation.” - Joel Mazeika

About Rochester Institute of Technology

Rochester Institute of Technology is a private university in Henrietta, New York, known for its career-focused education, technology programs, and diverse academic community.

RIT’s Parking and Transportation Services supports campus mobility through shuttle services connecting campus destinations and surrounding residential areas. Understanding ridership across these services helps the university evaluate how transportation resources can best support its campus community.

About TripShot Insights

TripShot Insights helps transportation teams turn operational data into actionable information through dashboards and visualizations.

By making trends in ridership, on-time performance, and other available operational measures easier to explore, Insights helps teams identify opportunities, evaluate service needs, and support more informed planning decisions.

For transportation leaders, better access to data can mean less time spent uncovering patterns and more time determining what those patterns mean for service delivery, resource allocation, and the rider experience.

With TripShot Insights, transportation teams can move from reporting on what happened to better understanding what to do next.