[article] Satellite device to tell you where that bus got to

NavanJunction1

Irish Independent, Fri, Apr 21 06

EVER waited for ages for a bus only to see three of them arrive all at the same time?

Well now Dublin Bus is planning to utilise satellite tracking in a bid to improve the efficiency of the city's public transport system.

And harried passengers will soon be able to consult electronic displays at bus stops in order to chart the progress of their next bus.

The transport company has just invited tenders to fit out its fleet of 1,080 buses with a €10m-€12m automatic vehicle location and control (AVLC) system.

"This will allow us to know at any point in time where every single bus is on any particular route," a company spokeswoman said yesterday.

She added: "This will then enable us to move buses around to areas where they are needed."

Dublin Bus hopes that the new hi-tech system will be rolled out on its entire fleet within 18 months to two years.

Buses will be fitted with onboard computers while the AVLC system will use satellite tracking to locate buses on a particular route and relay the information back to a supervisor based in a control centre.

Bus stop display units - similar to DART and Luas displays - will provide passengers with information about the times of buses.

The AVLC system will be installed on all buses and must be capable of supporting a significant expansion in the fleet size, the tender to provide the new systems says.

bazzer06

thank god

no more waiting for the 14a for an hour in the rain!

markf909

Excellent news, well done DB

Red Alert

do they not already have AVM? i heard they had some sort of transponder-based AVLS but i never could quite figure out if that was true or not.

daymobrew

Red Alert wrote:

do they not already have AVM? i heard they had some sort of transponder-based AVLS but i never could quite figure out if that was true or not.

This sounds like the Real Time Information stuff they had on the Lucan routes.
It was reasonably good but there were a good few "ghost" buses i.e. listed as "Arriving Now" but there would be no bus.

markpb

They started rolling out this system on the Lucan routes as a test. Of course, DoT/government pulled the funing so the project was postponed. This is a massive improvement - only a few months ago they were saying this wouldn't be ready till 2010. Cool

Andrew Duffy

I used to live on Parkgate St. and prior to the Luas the AVLS was very useful. It was pretty reliable, but there are problems - a bus without a transponder is displayed according to its timetable, and sometimes things happened which I could only assume was due to an out-of-service bus being picked up by the system as an actual service. When every bus has a transponder and all drivers know how to use it (I presume it's automatic witht he new ticket machines?) it should be a lot better.

John R

Those problems were because only the original set of buses allocated to the trial routes had the equipment installed, as they were cascaded and changed more buses without transponders were used. There was no point fitting new buses with that system as it's compatibility with a more modern city wide system was questionable.


The whole bus control is run from the ticket machine, the driver inputs a code for the particular duty and the machine sets the ticket, smartcard, route display and AVLS automatically.

the full tender notice is here:

http://www.e-tenders.gov.ie/search/search_show.aspx?ID=APR057128

The one outstanding difficulty will be bus stop displays, only stops with shelters will easily accomodate them and there are far too many busy locations without shelters. O'Connell St is a prime example, DCC has point blank refused any attempts to put bus infrastructure on the street with some of the busiest stops in the city.

BendiBus

bazzer06 wrote:

thank god

no more waiting for the 14a for an hour in the rain!

No - it'll just give an indication of how wet you'll be by the time the bus arrives

But a good thing nevertheless.

Michael Collins

BendiBus wrote:

No - it'll just give an indication of how wet you'll be by the time the bus arrives

But a good thing nevertheless.

Well if they implement the text messaging part of the service properly it should allow you to get a text message saying the bus is x minutes away from stop y. Upon which it takes you x-1 minutes to walk to the stop

coward

i was on a 25a bus yesterday that had a display inside the bus to show what the next stop was. it displayed a name for every single stop on the route and for some of them, a recorded voice was also played. very loud voice.. could get very annoying if you want to snooze for a bit on the bus!
wondered how it worked.. does the driver have to press something each time they pass a bus stop?

parsi

Pity Aircoach don'thave it.. it would be useful when you're waiting on Dawson St.

Michael Collins

coward wrote:

i was on a 25a bus yesterday that had a display inside the bus to show what the next stop was. it displayed a name for every single stop on the route and for some of them, a recorded voice was also played. very loud voice.. could get very annoying if you want to snooze for a bit on the bus!
wondered how it worked.. does the driver have to press something each time they pass a bus stop?

Well the driver is supposed to change each stage that gets printed on your ticket by pressing a button (bit of a stupid system that, really), but I think expecting the driver to press a button at every stop would be a overly optimisitc! It's connected to a GPS under the current RTI system on some of the Lucan routes

Red Alert

I guess the voice is part of the PA system... meaning that the driver does have to leave the intercom amplifier on.

Hagar

NavanJunction1 wrote:

a company spokeswoman said yesterday..."This will then enable us to move buses around to areas where they are needed."

How exactly will they achieve this?
What happens to passengers already on the bus being re-deployed?
Will they be told to get off and wait for the next bus?
Imagine it, get off a perfectly working bus to possibly stand in the rain to wait on another bus that may or may not also be redeployed before it gets to you!
Will they get the flexibility from the drivers/unions to change to a new route at the drop of a hat?
Will the driver know every possible new route?
Will city traffic make route changes impractical anyway?

A lot of thought has obviously gone into this one.:rolleyes:

mikemac

NavanJunction1 wrote:

Irish Independent, Fri, Apr 21 06

And harried passengers will soon be able to consult electronic displays at bus stops in order to chart the progress of their next bus.

Bus stop display units - similar to DART and Luas displays - will provide passengers with information about the times of buses.

Its a great idea and well done to Dublin Bus for showing some inititive.

However, I'm ashamed to admit, my first reaction on reading the article was to think about vandalism. Surly these displays at bus stops will cost hundreds if not thousands each. Will there be any anti-vandalism protection?

Reason I say this is my nearest bus stop have lovely plate glass and it realy looks great. About two or three times a month, it is smashed to bits and repaced within one or two days. Am I wrong to be looking at this aspect?

Victor

Red Alert wrote:

do they not already have AVM? i heard they had some sort of transponder-based AVLS but i never could quite figure out if that was true or not.

There is / was a radio based system since the 1970s that was able to find buses, although based on "Anto, where are you now?" conversations I've heard, it would appear to have very limited functionality.