[Mpls] Cool transit idea

[Mike Jensvold]

Porland, Oregon has realtime displays of streetcar arrival times at 
stations and online at:
http://www.nextbus.com/predictor/publicMap.shtml?a=portsc

Although its early on the west coast; they're not running yet this Sunday 
morning.

I believe the arrival times were displayed on the Max light rail stations 
too.  I'm sure metro transit could incorporate the Next Bus, or similar 
technology, although I'm sure it ain't free.

I'd also like to second the idea of neighborhood circulator busses.  Maybe 
they could run on weekends only when there is slack bus capacity, and more 
people are shopping, eating out, etc.

For the novice bus rider, at least two problems go through their 
mind.  "When the heck is this bus going come, and where on earth will it 
take me.  If I take the wrong bus will I end up across town with no way 
back?"  NextBus-like technology could help the first problem, circulator 
busses (with clearly market neighborhood maps) at stops could alleviate the 
second, as the bus will not take you way across town.  Circulators could 
also reduce pressure for parking.

Where I live, I could imagine a bus going around "The Wedge", the area 
bounded by Hennepin, Lake, Lyndale, and Franklin.

Mike Jensvold
East Isles


At 12:30 AM 6/20/2004, mike skoglund wrote:
>I would suspect that one problem with increasing ridership on mass transit
>is the apparent unreliability of bus schedules.  I've had great experiences
>with some routes, but have also had occasional bad experience with an early,
>late, or missing bus.  It seems like there may soon be a technological way
>to reassure potential riders that their bus is on its way:
>
>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3812897.stm
>[...]
> > Mobile technology has proved a surprising success story for the public 
> sector
> > in its bid to make services available electronically.
>[...]
> > And in Leicestershire mobile phone users can send a text message 
> containing a
> > six-digit code unique to their bus stop to a local bus company.
> >
> > Within 30 seconds a text message is sent back giving the location of 
> the bus.
>[...]
>
>It would be great to be able to send a message to the MTC with my station
>and bus and receive a response estimating how long I have to wait.  This
>would be particularly cool in circumstances where I could catch another bus
>(e.g., wait for the 50 or 94, or jump on a 16?) or hoof it to a different
>stop (e.g., if you live between Franklin and Riverside and want to catch a
>2).
>
>If the technology is feasible, this would be a great way to market mass
>transit.
>
>Mike Skoglund // MPLS (near the 7) and NYNY (near the A,C,2,3,4,5, and J,M)
>
>
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