Orange County Transportation Authority Strategic Planning, Advanced Technology Operational Integration, Risk Analysis, Regulatory Assessment, Regulatory Compliance Evaluation & Safety Plan Evaluation
Orange County, CA
The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) is the award winning public transit planning entity and service provider for Orange County, California, home of the world famous Disneyland. To assist with maintaining outstanding transit service (as marked by being declared "America’s Best Public Transportation System" by the American Public Transportation Association in 2005), OCTA recently tasked JAI with multiple assignments including long and short term transit technology planning, inspection of existing OCTA bus transit facilities and vehicles (relative to regulatory compliance), and evaluation of OCTA fleet safety plans.
To create an effective future technology deployment plan and strategy, we analyzed and evaluated life safety and legal compliance issues, current (and future) functional performance of various systems, utility systems (electrical, other), and adequacy of existing structures in anticipation of future system modification and change. We evaluated and tabulated (in database format) various current conditions necessary to accommodate future systems and presented our findings to key OCTA decision makers.
Our evaluation activities focused on existing facilities and vehicles relative to requirements necessary to meet continued regulatory compliance, particularly in terms of operations, fueling, maintenance, and future technology procurement. This effort also included a comprehensive review of applicable (and pending) vehicle regulations, available emission/fuel technologies, an assessment of technologies (both existing and emerging), USEPA/CARB/FMVSS/NHTSA requirements, and the creation of a technology risk deployment plan for OCTA (including associated cost and risk implications). This deployment plan emphasized a holistic (whole system) strategy and further identifies specific technologies and subsystems for in-house test evaluation and observation.
We have also recently completed a complete review of the OCTA Bus Safety Program Plan to identify deficiencies and provide recommendations to increase the overall effectiveness of their projects.
