GREY ISLAND'S NEXTBUS PREDICTS ARRIVAL TIME ON CELLPHONE
Grey Island Systems International, Inc. will deliver her NextBus software system to the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) . The TTC operates the third most heavily used transit system in the USA and Canada serving over 450 million customers annually in the Greater Toronto Area. The TTC provides this service to the City of Toronto with an extensive network of subways, streetcar lines, bus routes, and a specialized service, Wheel-Trans, for people with disabilities.
The purpose of the NextBus project is to develop and implement a system to provide TTC riders with vehicle location, vehicle arrival time, and other transit related information. The system will consist of a collection of computer hardware, software, and GPS technology, used for capturing, managing, analysing and displaying projected vehicle arrival times. The system will be installed to work with existing Automated Vehicle Location (AVL) tracking systems and communications infrastructure.The system will use GPS Satellite technology with GPS receivers mounted on vehicles in order to determine the precise location of the vehicle and the intended stop. This data is communicated to a central information centre. The centre uses a dedicated server with software that allows the calculation of an estimated time of arrival for the vehicle. Vehicle arrival times will be displayed on electronic signs at bus stops, streetcar stops and station loading areas, to the internet and to wireless devices such as cell phones and PDA's. With this system passengers can plan to arrive at the bus stop within moments of the vehicle’s actual arrival time, so the time spent waiting at stops on day-to-day basis is minimized. This is especially more valuable to riders in unfavourable conditions such as inclement weather or waiting alone at night.s