Transit Planning Analyst

Position Summary

Capital Area Transit System (CATS) is seeking a detail-oriented and analytical Transit Planning Analyst to support the planning, evaluation, development, and continuous improvement of CATS fixed-route transit services.

The Transit Planning Analyst collects, analyzes, and interprets ridership, service-performance, operational, demographic, and geographic data to evaluate existing service and identify opportunities for improvement. The position provides analytical support for decisions involving routes, schedules, service levels, running and recovery times, bus stops, service changes, and other transit-planning initiatives.

This position works closely with Transportation Operations, the Transit Service Planning Coordinator, and other departments to help ensure service-planning recommendations are data-driven, operationally feasible, accessible, and responsive to community needs
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• Analyze ridership, passenger activity, on-time performance, missed trips, running and recovery times, service hours and miles, and route productivity.
• Evaluate route and system performance to identify trends, recurring issues, and opportunities for service improvement.
• Analyze actual versus scheduled running times and identify recurring delays, bottlenecks, and schedule deficiencies.
• Develop recurring reports, tables, charts, dashboards, and other analytical materials to communicate service-performance findings.
• Conduct before-and-after analysis of implemented service changes.

• Support analysis and development of recommendations involving route alignments, schedules, frequencies, service spans, running and recovery times, and bus stops.
• Analyze customer demand, population and employment patterns, community access, development activity, and other factors affecting transit demand.
• Support short-range service planning, including new routes, route extensions, schedule modifications, and service adjustments.
• Evaluate the potential operational and resource impacts of proposed service changes, including vehicle requirements, operator requirements, service hours, and service miles.
• Work with Transportation Operations to evaluate the operational feasibility of proposed changes.

• Maintain, analyze, and report information from available transit data systems, including CAD/AVL, scheduling, ridership, APC, customer, GIS, and related sources.
• Use GIS and mapping tools to evaluate service coverage, accessibility, demographics, bus-stop locations, and other geographic considerations.
• Support analysis and quality assurance of route, schedule, stop, GIS, and GTFS data.
• Identify data discrepancies and coordinate corrections as appropriate.
• Support the development of maps, presentations, reports, and other planning materials.

• Analyze bus-stop usage, spacing, accessibility, connectivity, and other service-planning considerations.
• Conduct field observations, ride checks, travel-time studies, and other field-based planning activities.
• Document field conditions and incorporate findings into service-planning analyses and recommendations.

• Prepare technical documentation, data summaries, maps, reports, and presentations supporting planning recommendations and service changes.
• Provide analytical support during implementation of approved service changes.
• Monitor service performance following implementation and identify whether additional adjustments may be warranted.
• Collaborate with Transportation, Mobility, Customer Engagement, Maintenance, Information Technology, and other departments as necessary.

• Bachelor's degree in Urban or Regional Planning, Transportation Planning, Geography, GIS, Data Analytics, Public Administration, Engineering, Statistics, Business, or a related field; or an equivalent combination of directly related education and experience.
• At least two (2) years of relevant experience in transit planning, transportation planning, service planning, scheduling, operations analysis, GIS, data analysis, performance analysis, or a closely related field.
• Demonstrated ability to collect, organize, analyze, and interpret data.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Excel or comparable spreadsheet/data-analysis tools.
• Ability to identify trends, discrepancies, and relationships within operational or performance data.
• Ability to prepare clear reports, tables, maps, presentations, and other…