Indore City Transport to introduce GPS for buses

Indore City Transport Service (ICTSL) will soon introduce global positioning system (GPS) based on an online bus tracking system (OBTS) and LED system to offer better facilities to commuters in the city.    

It would be for the first time in India when such system is used for bus services. The ICTSL held a pre-bid conference for the project last Thursday. The technical bid for the project would open today and the financial bid on March 29.

ICTSL will have a control room for OBTS where every bus will be fitted with a GPS-based tracking device with online data transfer facility. With this estimated time of arrival could be flashed on display screens at 50 bus stops and the passengers waiting for the buses would know the arrival timings and other information related to the buses.

Ever notice how so many Americans bad-mouth India? All the comments from those who lost jobs that they considered their right for life, companing about Indian technicians or programmers who don’t measure up to standards?

Well maybe they should be looking at the politicians and city manager types to see why India seems to get ahead.

India, like the US has massive polution progrmas and traffic problems. While the “gubenator” solution is just to build more lanes on freeways that will fill up as fast as they’re built, the real solution is public transportation.

Public transpo? Oh that’s for losers .. and besides, riding the buss is so inconvenient. Well, if you want to make public transpo more appelaing you have to manage it.

Now there certainly are some US cities that are thaking steps, in most cases we in the US are woefully behind. Does you city have asystem like Indore is building?

 

 

 

 

 

If not, why not?

 

Again and again I hear the cry .. we can’t afford the monthly cost.

Look at this site

and consider that the monthly communication costs are zero.
And then tell me why your city and your school district aren’t doing the same thing?

The time has come to separate fact from fiction.

I’ve been asked many times what a White Fleet is. It’s kind of an “insider” term in the school bus industry, not well understood by many. Ordinarily, Google will answer questions like this but mostly all Google and othere search engines can come up with is the hisroic Great White Fleet … including some nice historic photos, such as here

When we talk about White Fleets here at gpsbus.com we are normally talking about the fleet of service vehicles most school districs seem to have aquired over the years that do service and maintenance work for the district. These fleets are essentially tradesmen’s vehicles, carrying electricians, plumbers, heating and ventilating technicians and all matter of facilities and building maintenance and security folks to district locations.

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Yes you have seen this post before. It’s one of the last I’m bringing over from my other blog, GPS Bus, which I am shutting down due to lack of news items/readership. Anybody wanna buy a great domain, gpsbus.com I’ll seel it really cheap.

I’m going to keep on this American anti-public transpo attitude for as long as it takes … or until gas goes back down to 99 cents agallon … which is three times what it ought to cost by the way. We can not solve the prblems of global warming, energy dependence and over crowding unless we wise up an stop watching every executive and every soccer mom driving by themselves … or with one pampered kid … in a damn SUV. We may not wake up in my lifetime, but others will put out the message as well. Read and heed.

MICHAEL BARBER

Herald Staff Writer

Ralph Kramden couldn’t have seen this coming.

Buses in Manatee and Sarasota counties will one day soon be fitted with satellite technology that will allow riders to monitor the movements of buses.

The systems, known as Automotive Vehicle Locators, utilize global positioning technology to track the movements of mass transit vehicles.

This summer, AVL devices will be installed on Manatee County Area Transit buses, according to Ralf Heseler, transit manager for Manatee County. MCAT has 21 full-sized buses, 22 smaller transit vehicles and five trolleys.

“The systems will initially be used for our own internal purposes,” Heseler said. “Sometime during the next calendar year we hope to have the technology available for our customers.” … Rest of Article Here:

Here’s some good news for Manatee and Sarasota counties in Florida. Good news for the world of public transpo in general, as well.

So many of our public transport agencies run themselves as poor stepchildren with no means of supporting themselves except by public handout. It’s one hell of a way to run a railroad, especially in today’s world of $3.00 gas and in a state with a high proportion of retirees. It’s all very well and good to hop in the Beemer and denigrate public transport as too slow and smelly when you’re 30, but as Billy Joel once pointed out,, in Somewhere Along The Line: …..

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If you operate a vehicle in your business there are tax consequences.  One consequence is that the IRS requires you to track the use of your vehicle(s), promptly, accurately and in some detail.

The ‘bible’ for this record keeping is here:  http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p463.pdf

Most of us find it hard to keep track of every mile we drive.  The sun visors of America are cluttered with little Domeâ„¢ mileage record books, typically a month out of date.  if you have a GeoTab GO in each vehicle and GeoTab’s Checkmate software in your office, logging every mile to better than OEM speedometer standards is virtually automatic.    Last year I operated as an independent consultant.  I tried to keep careful records, but at year’s end there were more than 5000 miles unaccounted for.  If all of those ‘lost’ miles were business miles they would have been worth far more than the cost of a GeoTab GO in my personal car.  This year, there will be no lost miles.  Perhaps you keep better records than I did lat year, but you certainly don’t do it easier and more accurately than I do now.

GeoTab isn’t just for big truck fleets, if you’re a real estate professional, manufacturer’s rep or other sales or service worker who spends a few hours a day looking out the windshield, you can probably cost justify your own GeoTab GO in less than a year.  Contact SatViz Incorporated now for help in working the numbers.

London buses get real-time tracking onboard

Regular reports of bus locations will provide up-to-date information

Transport for London
(TfL) will begin
installing a new £120m communications and satellite tracking system next spring
following successful trials on five buses earlier this year.

More than 8,000 buses will be fitted with new radios, on-board computer with
GPRS and wireless networking capability, plus new display signs and voice
announcements.

The computer will report the bus location to a central system every 30
seconds. Accurate predictions will then be sent to countdown signs at stops.

The move comes after TfL held an eight-week trial of a real-time system,
including voice announcements and visual displays…. Full Article Continues here:

Just a nice piece of info to study on a bleak Saturday morning? Bleak he said? Yup! In less than a month it will be 5 years since September 11th … and as we can see from the “monkey f**king a football” reaction to both passengers and transportation mangers over the latest ‘liquid explosives’ scare, the free world hasn’t really done much, if anything to keep transportation safer.

Well Transport for London has … increase safety, save money (by increasing efficiency) and make more money (by increasing passenger ridership). Could it be that TfL actually wants people to ride their busses? ‘

What about your city?

Technorati Tags: gps, gps tracking, gups for busses

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Regular readers know I like to write about successes. I especially like to write about old freinds who have been successful. About 4 or 5 years ago, Paul Allred and I were both mid-level UD DoD Civil Servants. Neither of us was in a role where we were expected to lead many people to do great things, but both of us beleived in the power of GPS and GIS to do great things for the military, and we didn’t wait for orders to come down from on high and to do something about it.