Where's your bus? The satellites know
Over the past few years, more than 20 public transit agencies around the country have employed global positioning satellites to pinpoint the location of buses as they drive their routes. GPS technology allows the agencies to keep better tabs on their fleets, and gives consumers a key piece of information - when the bus will get to their stop.
In the Twin Cities, Metro Transit spent more than $12 million to outfit its buses with automatic vehicle location equipment. The NexTrip system uses global positioning satellites to monitor the location of a bus as it travels the street. The location is compared to the bus schedule to predict departure time for different stops.
Riders can get those departure times over the phone, on the Web, on electronic displays at select stops, and on their mobile Internet devices.
