NextBus

ANDY RIGA

The Gazette

Saturday, February 07, 2009

CREDIT: PETER J. THOMPSON NATIONAL POST FILE PHOTO Users of downtown Toronto's Spadina streetcar are getting a taste of the future. One screen shows the real times of the next streetcars; the other shows a live map featuring the location of all streetcars on the route.

With public transit, schedules are more a rough guide than a set-in-stone
certainty. Weather, traffic and mechanical problems throw them off.

In an effort to attract new users and keep current ones happy, some
transit authorities are using technology to give passengers
up-to-the-minute info about the location of buses, subways and trains.

Fifty North American municipalities, including San Francisco, use technology known as NextBus, sold by Toronto's Grey Island Systems. Toronto's TTC just started phasing in NextBus so its real-time info is not online yet.

Here's how it works.

Each vehicle is fitted with satellite-tracking and wireless-communication technology.

The global positioning system equipment retrieves the bus's location from satellites, and the wireless equipment transmits that data to a central computer.

That computer continually estimates the vehicle's
arrival time at upcoming stops. The system takes into account the
vehicle's current position, its intended stops, average speed on a
given segment of road, the season, and traffic patterns.

"If there's a snowstorm, it can be tweaked for a given day," said Owen
Moore, president of Grey Island Systems. The system can also take into
account delays due to road work and detours.

"The idea is if you take the biggest unknown out of public transit - not knowing exactly
when that bus is due to arrive - then hopefully you can make the
experience more enjoyable for passengers and get them to use public
transit next time."

Those predictions are made available on the Internet, cellphones, hand-held computers and signs at transit stops. The signs are rugged and placed out of reach to avoid vandalism. Their size varies. Signs as big as large flat-screen TVs can be installed at major hubs, other smaller ones providing one line of text can be
installed at bus stops.

Transit users can also sign up for email or cellphone alerts for specific transit routes. If you regularly take
the same bus at the same time daily to go home or to work, Moore said, "it will send you a message at a predefined time to let you know it's going to be early or late."