I've seen MTA employees whose job it is to stand on a corner, and record the time when each bus stops there. These spot checks perform an important function. If certain drivers go too fast or too slow, it can mess up the entire schedule. For example, a certain driver for whatever reason is ahead of schedule. That means there is a greater than average wait time to the next bus, which means that more people than average will be boarding that bus. That will cause that bus to go slower, which in turn will leave a less than average wait time for the bus following it, which will have fewer people and will therefore go faster. This effect is why it is not unusual to see two buses scheduled fifteen minutes apart arriving together, one of them completely full and the other one almost empty.
It seems you can do a much better job and save a lot of money on salaries by putting GPS on the buses. It would be known precisely how fast or ahead of schedule every driver is, and they could be notified immediately to alter their speed. For example, a driver who is behind schedule may be told that there is another bus three minutes behind her, and that she shouldn't take new passengers, but rather let them get on the following bus. It would keep the schedule more regular, and identify those drivers who tend to go either too fast or too slow.
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Although they make no mention of GPS the Metro system in Seattle does this. You can watch in real time the location of any bus or even better see when the next bus is suppose to arrive.
This is not a new idea. GPS may not be utilized in your city, but it is in Portland, Oregon.
Not only are TriMet's busses monitored via GPS equipment (which also updates the video monitors downtown that announce the arrival and departure times of each bus at each stop), but they use GPS to assist blind customers with PDAs to punch in a location and have it guide them to the specific spot they need to be to catch their bus at each point of their travels.
Not only does this make sense and save money for city buses on fixed routes. It makes even more sense for tour buses, particularly those who will take groups off the beaten path, also for semi-trucks. And even for RVs. Just think how much more enjoyment you might get from a sightseeing vacation using the units' route-optimization capabilities combined with its Point-of-Interest Loader software, pre-loaded maps with custom POIs such as school zones and safety cameras, even Parking Lots for your rig, and Restaurants for the hungry family.
Two GPS units that are specifically suited to larger vehicles come to mind, i.e. the Garmin StreetPilot 7200, and the 7500. These units have huge 7" touch-screen displays. They ensure safer driving with their intuitive navigation, including automatic route calculation, voice-prompts that actually speak street names, so users will know to “turn right on Main Street, turn-by-turn directions; 2D or 3D map view; and automatic rerouting if a motorist strays off course.
It would be nice if bus stop signs had a readout on them--a bolted-on one-line one-inch high ticker-tape display, say--that indicated how many minutes it would be until the next bus would arrive. (The ticker tape feature would be used if more than one bus stopped at this bus stop.) This could be a simple system that just displayed times on the standard timetable. It would be manually updated whenever the schedule was updated--quarterly, say.
A more complex system could make use of GPS devices on the buses to give a more accurate estimate--but that wouldn't be necessary.
In 20 years everyone will have a smartphone, maybe, but until that time this would be helpful.