Case Study: Capital District Transportation Authority achieves nimble route restructuring and improved rider outreach with Remix

Planning Better Public Transit In Upstate New York

The Capital District Transportation Authority (CDTA) serves a mix of compact towns, low-density suburbs, and rural areas across the Albany–Schenectady–Troy region and faced the challenge of restructuring routes—notably connecting Saratoga Springs and Schenectady via Route 50—to better match service to demand, travel times, frequencies, and coverage. CDTA used Remix’s planning platform, including its demographic mapping layers and the “Jane” accessibility tool, to inform public outreach and evaluate service change scenarios with a small planning team.

Remix enabled CDTA to rapidly create and iterate route proposals, instantly updating ridership and demographic impacts when frequency or routing inputs changed, export shapefiles for public maps, and demonstrate how far riders like “Jane” could travel in 15/30/45/60 minutes; this proved a major time-saver for CDTA’s limited staff (two schedulers/service planners and three long-range planners). The agency moved ahead with a planned route restructuring to be implemented in May, reporting clearer public engagement, more nimble planning, and improved targeting of transit-dependent populations thanks to Remix.

Capital District Transportation Authority

Chad Heid

Manager of Service Planning