A communication transmitted from Yi-An Huang, City Manager, relative to Awaiting Report Item Number #25-11 regarding EZ Ride ETA issues

To: Yi-An Huang, City Manager From: Brooke McKenna, Commissioner Date: May 15, 2025 Subject: Awaiting Report 2025-11: Improving real-time arrival predictions for EZRide In response to Awaiting Report 25-11 requesting that the City Manager exert all appropriate influence on EZRide and Passio to take immediate and concrete steps to resolve tracking deficiencies and improve real-time transit accuracy for riders, we report the following: City staff have communicated all concerns regarding real-time arrival predictions to Charles River Transportation Management Association (TMA) staff who oversee the EZRide service. Charles River TMA and city staff agree that providing arrival information in real time is important to encouraging people to use local transit, like the EZRide. The Charles River TMA and EZRide operator have recently made a number of changes that have improved overall shuttle service and shuttle arrival predictions. EZride now operates the following service schedule: • North Station to/from Cambridgeport via Lechmere and Kendall from 6 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. weekdays • Lechmere to/from Kendall/MIT from 9 a.m. to 8:40 p.m. on weekends These changes were the result of: • Expansion of service to all-day weekday service that simplified shuttle routing, operations management, and dispatching • Related modifications to shuttle dispatching and vehicle location information systems that provide bus arrival predictions The Charles River TMA staff reported that, in particular, the simplification of three separate routes with different destinations based on time of day on weekdays into a route with the same destinations all day has significantly improved reliability of arrival predictions. In particular, the TMA staff believe that the reduced opportunity for operator, dispatching, or management error is the cause for improvements. TMA staff gave some examples, like, fewer instances when an operator may be incorrectly “logged in” as active on out-of-service trips or on a different routing than is the appropriate one for the time of day. They also stated that they will continue monitoring the accuracy of arrival information. TMA staff have also engaged continuously with Cambridge constituents responding to concerns or complaints about shuttle arrival predictions. After the expansion of EZRide service in mid-April, Charles River TMA and EZRide operations staff have reported that they’ve been able to resolve all complaints about incorrect real-time information.