SEPTA Uses Novel Digital Tools to Understand Customer Needs

Overview

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) provides bus, rapid transit, commuter rail and light rail services for nearly 4 million people in five counties in and around Philadelphia. Over the past year, SEPTA has conducted extensive outreach to current and potential transit users to make the transit system more convenient and useful to residents.



Impact

SEPTA used a range of methods to engage residents and collect their input on how to make the transit system easier to use. These efforts included traditional pop-up events and virtual meetings, as well as the use of emerging digital technologies. For example, SEPTA worked with the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Safe Mobility to use eye-tracking technology to study how people with a diverse range of mobility, sensory, cognitive and language experiences navigate the transit system. SEPTA also created an interactive mobile-first website that let residents make a series of “what do you think works best” decisions through a gamified interface.

This multi-faceted approach greatly increased engagement with residents. SEPTA had more than 200,000 views on project websites, collected nearly 30,000 survey responses, conducted in-person conversations with more 10,000 people, and held 56 in-person and 36 virtual meetings. Insights collected through these activities informed a plan to transform SEPTA's wayfinding system and create new branding that is easier for residents to understand. Before fully committing to the changes, SEPTA also sought feedback on the proposal. More than 1,000 people “rated” the proposal using an online web tool and interactive map, with an average rating of 4.3 out of 5.


Advice

SEPTA’s approach to community engagement emphasizes the importance of meeting people where they are. This included creating novel digital tools so people could learn about projects and provide feedback from their own device, “shadowing” customers through their experience while using eye-tracking technology to understand and document their experiences, and holding focus-group usability testing for mobile app design. The approach should be tailored based on who you are trying to reach and the problem you are trying to solve because there is no one-size-fits-all approach to truly inclusive engagement.