Advantages: Use Detour Management tools to define detoured areas for impact zones, such as road construction, public events, etc., in your myAvail software; and notify both vehicle operators and the public though its built- in messaging feature. The built- in messages include turn-by-turn directions for vehicle operators and also public messages that are specific to the impacted service ( route/s). You can even move stops where ridership use is high, to ensure pick ups/ drop offs, and include this in your public- facing message, so your riders know exactly where and when to board/ alight the bus at the temporary location. Then, enter any deviations due to a detour in DataPoint's Adjustment Calendar to ensure your S10 report for consumed miles and hours service is correct.
Passenger Information Benefits- The public message is generated after reviewing/ customizing/ saving the built- in messages.
It is important to notify your ridership base of specific changes in your public messages which displays on myStop, for their trip planning needs"
Vehicle Operator Benefits: When a vehicle operator logs into a route that has an active detour, the operator receives a message in their INBOX with turn-by-turn directions. These will also display on the MDT when the vehicle approaches the detour zone AND the driver presses 'Detour Upcoming':
Detour Upcoming: Vehicle is entering the detoured zone
Detour Active: Vehicle is using temporary driving directions
The vehicle operator can review turn-by-turn directions in two places: 1. Check the INBOX or 2. press Detour Upcoming on the MDT:
How it Works: The vehicle will 'recognize' the new travel directions, based on its GPS and the temporary roads designated to use instead.
Agency Schedule Benefits:
When defining detour areas in myAvail, vehicles logged into a route with an active detour will not be considered off-route, meaning trip sampling will remain robust for your reporting needs. Staff who manage entering system adjustments can use the miles and hours attributed to the detour as a reference when entering any system adjustments in DataPoint's Adjustments Calendar. Tip: Expired detours, located in your BI Operations reports, include these metrics. Use this information to calculate any deviations or additions to service for your NTD S10 reporting needs.
TIP: The temporary roads to be used during the detour are based on segments, which are really stop-to-stop distances. When you create a detour, you will edit the scheduled roads on a map and set up temporary driving directions instead. Example: "I just checked my INBOX. I can't take Main Street today to get to the Main & 3rd stop, due to that curb work. I have to go down to 2nd instead. The stop is going to be at 2nd and Main instead."
This tool uses a Google Maps interface that supports full-screen maps, satellite view, and street view. Create detour route traces using a drag-and-drop interface that is aware of one-way streets and no-turn intersections.
The result is that operators receive turn-by-turn directions, dispatchers see the new route trace, and the myStop® app can display the new route trace and any [temporarily] moved stops. Additionally, users can adjust the stop-to-stop running times for the detour and use these times to calculate schedule adherence accurately.
Detour Overview
After you click this tab, myAvail displays the screen below. To create a new detour, you will select the green plus sign:
Your web-based tools open, navigating you to the Detour screen:
You will use the upper menus to define the detour: select the date and time range, and map to define the area impacted. Begin by first using the zoom feature to pan into the geographic location. Use the buttons, located near the bottom right, or use the scroll wheel on the mouse to adjust the zoom level. It is important that you don't single-click on the map, as the software assumes this is the location to begin drawing the polygon.
If there are active detours, they will display in the 'Active Detours' tab:
The main Detour screen displays active detours that currently exist in the system. Click the tabs to change how myAvail displays the detours.
- Active Detours: Displays all detours that are Active, and the Date Range is current or pending. If the detour is in the system, but it has not started yet, myAvail considers it to be active.
- Detours by Route: Displays all active detours grouped by route.
- Detours by Stop: Displays all stops that detours affect. The stop ID number is the default sort order for this view.
- Expired Detours: Displays detours that are passed the end date. The list of expired detours can become quite long over time. Consequently, consider copying expired detours, then redefine the parameters: name, reason, date/time range, etc., to reduce the list length.
NOTE: The default length of time that expired details are listed is 90 days. Unless you have a custom configuration, expired detours will not be listed nor can they be copied or searched for beyond the default time range.
TIP: You can review expired detours in Business Intelligence> Operations> Detour report for further reference for expired detours.
In these tabs, click the column headings to sort the display and expand a row to view more details, such as the affected Routes or Stops. In the Active Detours tab, you can copy and edit existing detours. These tabs also display the following icons that provide additional functionality.
- Click the copy icon
to copy the properties of any detour in myAvail, including expired detours, and use it as the starting point for a new - Click the edit icon
to change the properties of an active
- NOTE: You can edit only Detour Name, Cause, Effect, Start and End Date/Time, and impacted days of the week.
- Click the expire detour icon
to set the end of the date range to the current - Click the public/operators message icon
to open a window that displays a list of all the notifications available for the detour. You must review each individual message type (operator and public) and save them. - Begin by clicking the Rebuild Messages button. Then review each message and save it.
IMPORTANT: The values for Public and Operator messages will display as ‘0’ until you review and save each of these messages individually. The value of ‘0’ will then update to the number of messages included for each detour after the review has been completed. This is a crucial step as it confirms the messages will be available for use for your drivers and ridership.
- To save changes to messages, you must click Save twice. First, in the message list, click the edit pencil or each message, make your edits, and then click Save on that screen. Then, click Save on the message list for the entire group, to complete the process.
- Active detours display on the Operations map in the dispatch office. Use the Detours dropdown menu, located in the Map menu, to display their locations on the map: