overheard in providence

I’ve gone on before about the public transit utopia that would immediately ensue if we were using GPS-trackers to put bus (and ideally also subway) locations online (like Portland). By way of Matt Yglesias, here’s a second selling point.

For me personally, the great thing about being able to get bus/subway wait times on my a computer/phone would be trip planning. It’d be super easy to figure out when I should leave my house, or my friends house, or a bar, to catch the bus/subway and avoid waiting more than a minute. Internet-enabled trip planning isn’t for everyone, but as Tom Vanderbilt highlights, even non-planners feel better when wait times are available. When people know how long they will have to wait, they feel like service is both more available and more reliable, even if service isn’t actually any better.

My personal experience more than reinforces this insight. Jessica constantly remarks on her preference for the L line, because on the subway platform wait times are electronically displayed. Even when the wait is +10 minutes (a long wait by subway standards), she is much more relaxed than during shorter waits of unspecified duration. Although I tend exhibit calmer on-platform behavior, I also have a tendency to needlessly watch for the train hoping for its arrival.

The situation is that much worse on a bus, since at bus stops your often waiting in less-than-perfect weather conditions. What’s more, you don’t pay for a bus until you get on, so you never actually “commit” to waiting. Instead, you frequently find yourself wondering “maybe I should just walk”, because the last thing you want to do is waste five minutes waiting standing in the cold.

So there you have it, GPS-buses are poised to be even more spectacular than previously imagined. On a related note, the impending economic stimulus bill currently has $10 billion allotted for mass transit. For about $200, you can put a GPS tracker on a bus and pay for years worth of service. I don’t know how many new buses we’re going to purchase with that $10 billion, but I’d strongly consider sacrificing a few units and using that money to track, say, 10,000 buses. I’m certain that once you put GPS locations of buses online, some intrepid young programmer (like yours truly) will, within a month, make a website with with both maps and and estimated wait times.