Chattanooga: Bus system zooms into 21st century

Waiting on a bus and want to know where it is?

New technology being used by the Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority now can show bus riders the exact location of every bus traveling in the city and their arrival times at their destinations, officials said this week.

Kirk Shore, CARTA’s director of information technology, said a new route tracker went online at midnight Wednesday, allowing Internet users to see where any bus running in Chattanooga is at any given moment.

“We’re able to see buses in real time,” he said.

Anyone using a Blackberry or sitting at a work computer can easily access the real time tracker, Mr. Shore said. The tracker uses Google maps and shows every CARTA bus stop, he said, while every bus is equipped with a GPS unit that broadcasts its location using cellular technology.

Chattanooga is only the second city to use the technology, with Chicago coming online just nine months ago, he said.

Besides the bus tracker, the transportation authority also has started installing signs at nine bus stops across the city that show arrival times for buses, said Tom Dugan, CARTA’s executive director.

The signs look like the kind of signage seen at airports that show plane arrival and departure times, and CARTA plans to add more in the future, Mr. Dugan said.

“We want to put them up, obviously, at every stop,” he said.

CARTA officials also are looking at putting kiosks up at Hamilton Place mall and recreation centers across the city that would have touch-screen technology and would allow users to see buses’ travel in real time, he said.

The technology and equipment cost around $2.4 million and are being handled by New York-based Clever Devices.

Kyle Lomax, director of sales of Midwest and Midwestern regions for Clever Devices, said the company began working with CARTA on the technology four years ago. Besides Chicago, Ohio State University also uses the technology, he said.

“This is something not every transit authority has,” he said.

Mr. Lomax said he is working with Sacramento, Richmond and other cities to bring the tracking system into their metropolitan areas.

“It’s a tremendous tool for passengers,” Mr. Lomax said. “The technology is growing leaps and bounds.”