Webtech Wireless’ NextBus solution is now the transit technology that municipalities (from Montreal’s Société de transport de Laval to the Los Angeles Metro) rely on to provide accurate real-time public transportation information to millions of riders. Like other AVL solutions, NextBus uses global positioning system (GPS) tracking satellites to display transit vehicle locations in real-time. So what makes Nextbus’ particular solution so helpful?

Tackling the Problem

There is something of a perfect storm closing in on public transit systems these days. Rising fuel costs are driving many commuters to use public transit as their primary method of transportation, and with traffic variations, breakdowns, and other day-to-day problems leaving riders waiting at bus stops and train platforms, they’re increasingly turning to instant wireless communications (such as cellphones, PDAs, text messaging, etc.), to manage their lives. These riders rely on and expect reliable location-based services.

“The need for a predictive transit solution became apparent as a means to encourage ridership and streamline bus routing.”

Designing the Solution

To address these problems, NextBus was designed to “keep your customers on schedule even if their bus isn’t”. Using GPS tracking, NextBus estimates vehicle location information with a high degree of accuracy. Using PCs, landline phones, cell phones, or SMS (Text) messaging, riders get real-time travel information, which helps them decide whether catching the next bus is a sprint or leisurely stroll.

Viewed through a web browser, NextBus uses Google maps to show highly accurate route maps

“NextBus helps riders make the best use of public and university transit.”

From the standpoint of transit authorities, deploying a transit AVL solution helps transit companies improve customer service, reduce accidents, reduce fuel and labor costs, improve operator performance, and improve street-level visibility for transit supervisors and planners.

In the New York Times writer, Joshua Brustein praises the recent deployment of NextBus to the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority. “Los Angeles began using NextBus for its entire bus system in May, the largest transit agency to do so.” Or, according to the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority itself, the NextBus solution is “designed to help take the guesswork out of bus arrival and help you to get to your stop at the same time as your bus”.

Using NextBus on Your Smartphone

Just as the adoption of the cell phone became universal a decade and a half ago, the smartphone is now a ubiquitous part of life for most urbanites. According to New York Times writer, Damon Darlin, “historians will remember the advent of the smartphone as something as important as the elevator, air conditioner and automobile.”

The implication for transit companies is clear: adopt an AVL solution or face irritation and disinterest from your ridership. Fortunately, transit authorities are reading the writing on the wall and many of them are choosing NextBus—for its reliability and simplicity.

“NextBus, a wonderful Web site that monitors the arrival of city buses in many big cities, is a godsend.”

While there is no official phone application for Nextbus, the simplicity of the NextBus website makes it easy to use on most smartphones.

NextBus viewed on an iPhone

To access NextBus using a smartphone:

1. Using your smartphone’s web browser (such as Safari), access the NextBus website: www.nextbus.com.
2. Choose the mobile version or the full-featured website.
3. Select your location, your transit agency, your route, and then your stop.
   The most current prediction for the arrival time of the next vehicle is displayed.
4. You also can add your stop info to your home screen so it will be instantly available.
5. If a prediction is already displayed on your smartphone, simply push the ‘refresh’ link at the bottom of the page to get the most up to date information.

Recently one of our InterFleet customers, Hennepin County, Minnesota, appeared in the local television news (03/23/2010). The story illustrates how city governments like Hennepin County are using our GPS remote vehicle location systems to improve workplace performance, accountability and service to city constituents. Excerpts from this story and link to the television report below:

KSTP TV – Minneapolis and St. Paul – Who makes sure city workers are doing their jobs?

Hennepin County invested in automated vehicle location devices or AVLs. They can track where pothole patch trucks are located and when the patch mix is pouring out, down to the minute.

Public works officials said the system not only holds workers accountable, it also makes repairs more efficient.

Chris Sagsveen with the Hennepin County Public Works Transportation Department said, “It also assures us that where we’re say getting complaints, AVL will prove we’ve been there.”

This article, highlighting some of the features and benefits of our technology in the area of winter snow removal, recently appeared in the Chicago Sun Times newspaper:

City using technology to remove snow, avoid blowing budget
(Original Sun Times post here)
November 12, 2009
BY FRAN SPIELMAN, City Hall Reporter

How do you avoid a blizzard of budget-busting overtime and still remove the snow from Chicago streets?

By using technology to measure and improve productivity.

Today, Mayor Daley unveiled plans to put GPS, high-tech sensors and the city’s vast network of surveillance cameras to work to get the snow off Chicago streets.

Sensors on the trucks will tell camera-monitoring supervisors how much salt is being spread, how many tons are still in the truck and whether the blade on a plow is up or down on the street clearing snow.

And by using safety cameras, the city will be able to track the movement of snow plows without putting nearly as many supervisors on the street.

“We’re gonna knock our supervision down from 30 supervisors on the street down to 10,” said Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Tom Byrne.

“Then, we’ve got a schedule made out for every snowstorm and we’ll have our exempt members [who] don’t get paid overtime … working with me on the street assessing and helping foremen on the street do their jobs.”

Daley said it’s critical to keep close tabs on how much salt is being spread.

“Why do they put more salt on one block than the other block? How much did you put in the intersection? … If you put it all in one block, you have to go down and pick [up] more salt,” he said.

Why the efficiency expert’s approach to snow removal?

“Accountability. You need more and more technology. That’s where we’re all going: Fire, Police, Building Department, Sanitation. Technology is here to stay. You have to use it. … It’s a cost factor,” the mayor said.

“You use cameras for all operations of the city. … It’s not used for one purpose for one department. It’s used for fire, police, sanitation. Everything possible, you use that camera for. You can’t say, ‘Those are the Police Department’s cameras and no one else’s.”

Last winter, Daley raised the roof after then- Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Michael Picardi spent $490,000 on snow removal during a relatively minor, first-of-the-season snowstorm.

Picardi wore the jacket — and was ultimately replaced by Byrne — even though a City Council rebellion subsequently forced Daley to reverse a cost-cutting policy that saw City Hall plow side streets during normal working hours to reduce overtime and skip side streets altogether after minor snowstorms.

This winter, it’ll be a different story even after the city failed in its effort to privatize side street snow removal.

“There will be overtime,” Byrne said. “The sooner we can get trucks off the arterials into the side-streets, we’ll do that. We can also look at trying to pull some trucks off the mains and getting ‘em into side-streets as we’re still doing mains, depending on the severity of the snow.”

Daley added, “Everybody prays for a mild winter — not only for snow [removal costs], but for the safety of people.”

The City of Chicago has been a WebTech Wireless customer since 2003, and currently has over 2,500 Locators installed in vehicles used by its various public works departments, including vehicles operating at O’Hare International Airport, where WebTech Locators transmit critical location data to airport personnel every ten seconds to alert them to runway incursions and security breaches.

Additionally, WebTech’s recent acquisition of Grey Island, and its InterFleet suite of solutions for government, enhance our offering to cities like Chicago that require innovative technology to manage and improve government services such as snow removal. To find out more, please visit our webpage or contact us directly.