The Association for Commuter Transportation’s 40th Annual Conference in Philadelphia was a chance for the Actionfigure team to reconnect with longtime partners, meet new people working on the future of mobility, and share how our software is evolving. We came to ACT with an updated view of what a journey planner can do, and left with a clearer picture of how people actually move around a conference.
A journey planner will always help a rider answer a practical question: how do I get from here to there? But the experience is becoming more useful when it combines real-time transportation information with intuitive mapping, destination-specific wayfinding, and clearer guidance at the moment a person is ready to travel.
At the same time, every planning interaction can help transportation network operators and destination organizations better understand what riders are trying to do. That creates an opportunity to improve not only the individual trip, but also the network, information, and environment around it.
ACT gave us the opportunity to demonstrate that evolution in a live conference environment, and to hear direct feedback from transportation professionals, partners, and attendees as they experienced it.
A Journey Planner for Events, Built for the Full Trip
For ACT’s conference, Actionfigure served as the journey-planning partner for more than 600 attendees. We embedded a live Actionfigure journey planner directly in Whova, the event app attendees were already using. With one link, attendees could plan multimodal trips to the Philadelphia Marriott, Philadelphia International Airport, 30th Street Station, the opening reception, and destinations throughout the city. They could explore train, subway, bus, rideshare, walking, driving, and park-and-ride options in one place.
The experience was designed to go beyond a list of directions. Our enhanced mapping and wayfinding capability helped connect transportation information to the physical places attendees needed to reach. Rather than simply showing available modes, the planner could help people orient themselves around the conference hotel, rail stations, the airport, the reception, and the surrounding Philadelphia street network.
That distinction matters. Riders do not only need to know which train or bus to take. They need help understanding where to go next: which station is most useful, how to reach a pickup location, where a destination sits relative to them, and how the final portion of the trip fits together.
For conference attendees, that meant more confidence navigating an unfamiliar city. For transportation network operators, campuses, venues, workplaces, and event organizers, it demonstrates how mapping and wayfinding can make transportation data more usable in the real world.
The Conference Was a Live Product Conversation
ACT was more than a deployment. It was an opportunity to introduce this expanded experience to the people who understand transportation challenges best.
Throughout the conference, we had conversations with old friends, new connections, transportation professionals, and potential partners about the information riders need when planning a trip, and the challenges organizations face in helping people navigate their systems and destinations.
Those discussions reinforced that journey planning is not a static product category. Riders expect real-time information, but they also need clear maps, contextual wayfinding, and guidance that is relevant to the location and moment. Organizations, meanwhile, need better ways to communicate with riders and understand where demand is forming.
Having the planner live within the ACT event app made the conversation more tangible. People could see the experience, use it in Philadelphia, and react to it in real time. That feedback is valuable as we continue to develop a more connected set of tools for rider information, location-based communication, and transportation insight.
Journey Planning Creates Useful Insight
The journey planner’s first responsibility is to help the rider. But when trip-planning activity is viewed in aggregate, it can also provide a clearer view of how people are trying to use the transportation network. Each search, destination, and recommended itinerary becomes a planning signal.
Those signals do not confirm completed trips. They do, however, help show what riders are seeking: where they are trying to go, when they are preparing to travel, which transportation options are being recommended, and how those needs vary by context.
This is Insight by Actionfigure. Insight turns aggregate journey-planning activity into information that can help transportation network operators and destination organizations make better decisions. Instead of relying only on assumptions, historic patterns, or broad system-level averages, organizations can see more immediate signals about rider demand and information needs.
For riders, better insight can lead to better transportation information, clearer wayfinding, and more relevant support. For organizations, it can inform service communications, shuttle planning, signage, staffing, access planning, and mobility partnerships.
What the ACT Deployment Revealed
Trip-planning activity closely followed the rhythm of the conference. There was a small spike when registration opened, a quiet period, and then a steep increase as attendees began arriving in Philadelphia. Usage peaked at 15% on the busiest day, then dropped to 12% the following day, and fell quickly as attendees departed.
For an event organizer, this kind of demand pattern can help identify when attendee communications, wayfinding, staffed help desks, or shuttle capacity may be most useful. For a transportation operator, similar planning signals can help reveal when rider information needs are increasing around a major destination or activity.
The deployment also showed that transportation decisions were primarily mobile decisions. iPhone represented the largest device segment; desktop was a distant second, followed by Android. That reinforces the need for a mobile-first experience. People often seek transportation information while they are moving or about to move, not while sitting at a desk. Mapping and wayfinding are especially important in those moments, because riders need to quickly understand both the transportation option and the physical path to their destination.
Riders Plan Close to Departure
One of the clearest findings was how close to departure attendees planned their trips. The largest share of activity occurred within two hours of leaving. Same-day planning was more modest, and very few trips were planned three or four days in advance.
Static transportation guidance still has a role, but this finding shows its limitations. A transit page in a conference program, a venue map, or a pre-event email can prepare people, but much of the real decision-making happens later, when someone is ready to leave and needs current, actionable information.
For riders, live journey planning provides more relevant guidance at that moment. For organizations, the associated planning signals show when real-time information, wayfinding, or additional support may have the greatest impact.
Where Attendees Needed to Go
The Philadelphia Marriott, the host hotel, was the most-searched destination by a clear margin. Philadelphia International Airport, 30th Street Station, and the opening reception followed. Together, those destinations created a recognizable pattern: activity concentrated in Center City, with a steady pull toward the airport and major rail access points. The pattern reflected the structure of a downtown conference, but it also showed how journey-planning activity can reveal demand that might otherwise be assumed rather than measured.
For an event, destination-level insight can support better decisions about arrival instructions, shuttle routes, directional signage, and communications. It can also help determine where mapping and wayfinding information should be most visible: at a hotel, station, venue entrance, airport connection, or pickup location. For a transportation network operator, the same information can help identify the connections and destinations riders are most frequently trying to navigate.
Transportation Demand Does Not End After Sessions
We expected morning arrival activity to dominate. It did not. The heaviest trip-planning activity occurred in the evening, from 5 to 8 p.m., and later at night after 8 p.m. Attendees were planning for dinners, the opening reception, and their return trips after conference sessions ended.
The result is a reminder that transportation demand does not always follow the official agenda or the most visible operating periods. Social programming, evening activities, and the trip back to a hotel or transportation hub can create just as much need for information as the main event itself.
For riders, that means information must be available throughout the full travel experience. For organizations, it means mobility planning should account for the complete journey, not only arrivals and departures.
Mapping Context to Transportation Choices
Trip recommendations showed the importance of local transportation context. Train was the most frequently recommended option for travel into and around Philadelphia, ahead of car. When subway and bus recommendations were included, transit recommendations outweighed driving overall. For a rail-rich city, that is a useful signal. It suggests that rail arrival guidance, station-to-venue wayfinding, and transit information should be prominent in the attendee experience.
Planning patterns also varied by device. Desktop users more often received train and subway recommendations, while mobile users more often received car, rideshare, and park-and-ride options. These patterns do not necessarily reflect fixed transportation preferences. They suggest that riders’ needs change with their context. Someone planning in advance may be comparing transit options across the network. Someone planning on a phone may need an immediate route, a pickup point, or clear guidance for the final leg of a trip.
Mapping and wayfinding help make those recommendations more actionable by connecting a transportation choice to the actual place a rider needs to reach.
Extending the Experience Through Displays
The same principle applies to Actionfigure’s display solution. A real-time transit display begins with an essential rider need: knowing when the next bus, train, or shuttle will arrive. That information remains central to the experience of using a transportation network.
But Actionfigure is expanding the display from a real-time arrival screen into an always-on communications solution built on the same core transportation data. Displays can bring real-time arrival information together with maps, wayfinding guidance, service updates, event messaging, operational notices, and location-specific communications. A rider may use the journey planner to identify a route, rely on mapping and wayfinding to navigate the final portion of the trip, and then use a display at a station, venue, hotel, campus, or workplace to confirm the next step.
For transportation network operators, this creates a consistent way to deliver timely information across the rider journey. For venues, campuses, workplaces, and events, it creates a flexible communications channel that helps people navigate physical spaces while supporting broader operational needs.
The journey planner and the display are part of the same story: transportation information should be useful on a personal device and reinforced in the places where people move.
What We Took From ACT
ACT was a valuable opportunity to spend time with the transportation community, reconnect with colleagues and partners, meet new people, and introduce the evolving Actionfigure experience in a live setting.
The conversations and feedback we received reinforced what we believe: riders need more than a schedule or a list of routes. They need real-time information, intuitive maps, practical wayfinding, and guidance that reflects the context of the trip they are actually trying to make. Organizations need more than static transportation information, too. They need better ways to communicate with riders, support movement through their environments, and understand the aggregate demand behind those journeys.
Actionfigure is building toward both outcomes. Our journey planner helps riders move with greater confidence. Our mapping and wayfinding capabilities help them make sense of the places around them. Our displays extend that information into the physical environment. And Insight helps transportation network operators and destination organizations understand the patterns that can lead to better decisions.
We would love to bring this to your event, campus, venue, or transportation network. Request a demo
Thank you to ACT for hosting us, and to everyone who stopped by, shared feedback, and helped us think about what comes next.