Star: GPS, wireless, real-time info displays for TTC

[wyliepoon]

Viva comes to the TTC...

Link to article

TTC seeking way to ease riders' wait
Oct. 26, 2006. 06:33 AM
DAVID BRUSER
TRANSPORTATION REPORTER

Electronic signs could soon show bus and streetcar riders in real time how long they have to wait until the next vehicle rolls around.

"People don't mind waiting for a bus if they know how long they have to wait," said Toronto Transit Commission chair Howard Moscoe.

The service, dubbed next-stop technology, is already available in York Region's Viva bus shelters. A global positioning system aboard a vehicle would typically communicate wirelessly with signs at bus or streetcar stops.

Moscoe suggests two ways to pay for the service: Sell advertising space on the signs or naming rights to the stops; or swap services with a firm that can provide the technology.

He said he's considering the latter after meeting with Rogers Communications Inc. One scenario that was discussed, he said, included Rogers setting up the technology in exchange for receiving access to the TTC's underground fibre-optic network to set up a wireless service for subway riders.

"We have fibre-optic cables through the entire system," Moscoe said.

He called the discussion with Rogers "preliminary."

A Rogers spokesperson would not comment on what Moscoe said. But the telecommunications giant does have a partnership with a Toronto-based firm, Grey Island Systems, that specializes in next-stop technology.

Grey Island, through a U.S. subsidiary named NextBus, has set up systems in San Francisco and Washington D.C., and could do it here, Grey Island president Owen Moore said.

"Howard's idea is certainly a real idea," Moore said, adding that his firm recently equipped a couple of bus stops in Guelph, and has worked with Rogers to equip GO Transit buses with global positioning systems.

At its monthly meeting yesterday, the TTC approved outfitting its buses and streetcars with global positioning systems during the next few years. The devices will trigger an automated voice that tells riders of each approaching stop.

 

[TdotTrickyRicky]

What is funny is how i'm not a tech person at all but if you dig back into previous discussions I made a case for real time wait-time estimates and speculated about the mechanisms that could make this happen that are pretty close to what that article outlines.

 

[shmoopie nhi]

One scenario that was discussed, he said, included Rogers setting up the technology in exchange for receiving access to the TTC's underground fibre-optic network to set up a wireless service for subway riders.

Wow, am I reading this right?!

 

[Abeja de Almirante]

This will be the first thing destroyed by vandals at most unmanned bus and streetcar stops. For these cases, why not just bring back the old phone in system with the addition of accurate scheduling. Notwithstanding the above, I think it'll be a great system for the subway.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

Imagine how frustrated we'll all be when the timer keeps saying 1 minute as buses are caught in fluxuating traffic, at red lights, if someone in a wheelchair boards at the previous stop, if the rear doors are caught in snowbanks, etc.

edit - now why did i spell fluctuating with an x? it looks cool so i'll leave it.

 

[drum118]

Imagine how frustrated we'll all be when the timer keeps saying 1 minute as buses are caught in fluxuating traffic, at red lights, if someone in a wheelchair boards at the previous stop, if the rear doors are caught in snowbanks, etc.

That is the downside of GPS as it only can tell how far it is from the stop, not how long it going to take if any of the above happens. Add in someone is sick, bus breaks down and etc does not help the rider when they are standing at a stop for over 10 minutes where the time is saying the bus is only a minute away.

It will be better than it is now where you have no idea when the bus is to arrive if there is no time posted at the stop and you are new to the route. Even having FS service does not help when you don't know what type of FS service is being use or when the last bus departed. Unless time is divide equal, who has a watch that can show buses running every 11.32 minutes or 3.11 apart.

Having real time info will allow you to go for a coffee or what every if the bus is more than 5 minutes away or get out of the cold in the winter months to keep warm.

Once, the GPS system is up and running, it will cost about $2,500 per stop for next bus posting. A BIA, a store, and etc can sponsor a stop, but a route needs a big sponsor. This route is sponsor by GM, Ford....................

Been at various VIVA stop where it not only say the bus is a few minutes away, but the time increase. Even today, I see this considering the system is over a year old. Some has to due to false bounce back.

 

[unimaginative2]

Even more useful would be an online system that predicts the next bus so that people can check before they even leave their house. Countless other transit authorities have such a system, some tied in with Google Maps.

This will be the first thing destroyed by vandals at most unmanned bus and streetcar stops.

I highly doubt this will be a problem. Virtually every other major transit authority has them, and they don't seem to have a problem.

 

[spmarshall]

I highly doubt this will be a problem. Virtually every other major transit authority has them, and they don't seem to have a problem.

Well virtually every other major transit authority does not have shields for drivers (in NA at least), but the TTC is getting those as well (notice that there haven't been any reports about driver assaults lately?).

 

[fiendishlibrarian]

^ That we've heard about. Don't assume there aren't any because you don't read about them.

 

[spmarshall]

But it was funny that suddently there was a number of media reports back around the illegal wildcat strike and the debate about barriers, then they all stopped. I do support cameras on buses to put the asshats who do this type of thing where they belong, but barriers are too much, when even Detroit or New York don't have them.

 

[timeo]

Noticed on the Next Bus website that the TTC has been included on the list of systems that use their services. They seem to be currently testing the 509 and the 510. Anybody know anything more about a potential roll out for the entire system?

http://www.nextbus.com/

 

[jn_12]

Old news. They've been "testing" this for months (maybe a year now?). In fact when they first put it up it showed all of the streetcar routes but then people started being able to critique the Queen line with visual evidence and they quickly made it so it was only 509 and 510, which are two rather small and (you would think) easier lines to manage compared to something like the 501.

 

[benii]

They should show the 3 buses lined up back to back, being 50 minutes, 30 minutes, and 10 minutes late.