The Press-Enterprise
April 16, 2008

Satellite tracking to keep bus riders in western Riverside County updated on arrivals

By DAN LEE
The Press-Enterprise

Bus riders in western Riverside County won't have to wonder when the next bus will arrive at their stops.

The Riverside Transit Agency is setting up "SmartStop" electronic reader board panels that will display the arrival time for the next bus. It's part of a $4.3 million project to improve service, RTA spokesman Bradley Weaver said.

A global positioning system on RTA buses sends a signal to agency headquarters and then to the SmartStop panels, showing how far they are from the bus stops, he said. The SmartStop reader boards then convey real-time information to the commuters at the bus stops, Weaver said.

Silvia Flores / The Press-Enterprise

Sodan Chong, of Moreno Valley, and UC Riverside students Ndeye Sesay and Frances Kim wait at a SmartStop bus shelter at Lemon Street and University Avenue in Riverside recently. The SmartStop electronic reader board panels display the arrival time for the next bus.

"It's really going to take a lot of the question marks out of riding the bus," he said. "It's going to make public transit a more enjoyable experience."

RTA already has installed the SmartStop panels at the downtown Riverside bus terminal, at three locations near RTA headquarters and at University Avenue and Lemon Street, Weaver said. The agency plans to install about a dozen this summer in Moreno Valley in the next phase, he said.

All told, about 70 bus stops throughout RTA's service area will have the panels, Weaver said. RTA's service area extends to Temecula in the south, Corona in the west and the Pass area to the east.
"We're really keying in on the most populated stops," he said. "Our goal is to serve the most people possible."

Bus riders waiting at the University Avenue and Lemon Street stop in Riverside were pleased with the additional information.

Riverside resident Dathan Smith, who was waiting for a bus to take him to his drug-store job in the Mission Grove area, said he has ridden RTA buses for about five years. The buses don't always arrive by the time posted on the schedule at the shelter or in RTA handbooks, he said.

"It will be easier for people," Smith said. "You just read it. ... This thing tells you the exact (arrival) time."

Frances Kim, a third-year art history student at UC Riverside, said the SmartStop panels would help her make more efficient use of her time.

"If it's not going to be here for another hour, I can go to a coffee shop or something and study a little bit more and come back," Kim said.

Another part of the project is the BusWatch program, which allows riders to get real-time information about bus arrivals on selected routes via the Internet, Weaver said.

"You'll be able to identify certain stops by looking at a map of our system," he said. "You can click on that stop and you can (find) when the next bus is coming."

Currently, information is available only for those buses on the SmartStop routes, he said. But if the program proves to be successful and popular, RTA could consider expanding the BusWatch program, Weaver said.

The information is accessible to mobile phones with Internet capability, he said.

BusWatch information is available now at www.rtabus.com.

Reach Dan Lee at 951-368-9284 or dlee@PE.com