Employee Innovators
Monisha Reginald - Surveys, Customer Opinion Panel
If you have ever answered questions on a passenger survey–the ones that ask you to rate your travel experience or how many times you take the bus–chances are Monisha Reginald, Manager of Statistical Research at Office of Performance Management and Innovation, developed those questions.
Asking the right survey questions helps the T:
- Track how riders travel
- Predict how riders might travel in the future
- Understand what affects their choices or means to travel
- Understand their preferences, perceptions, and expectations
- Develop metrics that are responsive to riders’ experiences
- Plan at the network and system level
- Make data-driven policy decisions
- Gauge the success of pilot programs
- Evaluate our Title VI (Equity) compliance
Monisha also helped to develop and manage the Customer Opinion Panel, which periodically asks passengers about their demographics, their satisfaction with MBTA services, and how they travel. We use this date when making public transit safer, more reliable, and equitable. This panel also supports additional studies and research questions, most recently assisting in tracking and projecting ridership during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dorsey Dugan and Brian Clifford – Skate
In August 2019, MBTA launched Skate, an innovative bus dispatch app developed by Road Control Supervisors Dorsey Dugan and Brian Clifford in partnership with the MBTA’s Technology Innovation Department. Together, they designed and developed Skate, and got it into bus inspectors’ hands in fall 2019.
A true synergy between tech know-how and decades of operational experience, Skate is a web-based, user-focused dispatch tool. Bus inspectors can access this tool on off-the-shelf, inexpensive Android tablets, which they can use wherever they do their work—at stations, in mobile cars, or on the street.
The app’s visualization centers on an easy-to-understand route ladder that allows inspectors to track buses and their performance in real time. Because inspectors are able to see when buses are running behind or ahead of schedule, they can make adjustments (like dispatching the next bus earlier or later) to compensate for gaps in service.