On the heels of the fare hikes, MTA technology, BusTrek Rolls Out

[CPBO]

Bus bunching often results from traffic, construction or some event that slows down a bus and causes others behind it to catch up. The new system will allow monitors to inform bus drivers they are traveling too close together.

 

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    BusTrek is already in place in Staten Island and the Bronx. The other boroughs can expect it this year. Predictably, bus bunching is worst in Manhattan.

 

    Just for the hell of it, let’s put a positive spin on the fare and toll hikes hitting commuters Monday. You might get better bus service for the additional shekels you’re spending.

    The MTA finally has a promising new weapon against “bus bunching,” the top source of frustration for millions of above-ground straphangers.

    With the click of a mouse, dispatchers using BusTrek technology in satellite command centers can quickly identify buses traveling too close to one another.

    Dispatchers can then radio individual drivers and direct them to take corrective action.

RELATED: MTA FARE HIKES SET TO TAKE EFFECT SUNDAY

    Sure, it’s geeky. It’s a behind-the-scenes transit management tool, a computer software program that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority developed in conjunction with City College.

    It builds off the MTA’s successful BusTime, a digital, GPS-based system that enables riders to get real-time bus information on the Internet, with a smartphone or via text message. BusTrek could go a long way toward improving bus service and curbside quality of life .

“I would say bus bunching is New Yorkers’ No. 1 complaint,” said Gene Russianoff, transit guru with the Straphangers Campaign. “Is there anything worse than waiting for a half-hour for a bus only to have three arrive in a pack?” Computer tracking should greatly reduce it, he says.

    BusTrek is up and running in Staten Island and the Bronx. It will go online in the other boroughs by the end of the year, MTA Bus Co. President Darryl Irick, a former driver and dispatcher, said.

RELATED: LHOTA DEFENDS MTA HIKES

    Bus bunching often results from traffic, construction or some event that slows down a bus and causes others behind it to catch up. It’s more prevalent in Manhattan but happens everywhere and always has.

“When I was a dispatcher, up until now, you couldn’t be too strategic,” Irick said. “You stood on a corner with a tally book and the information you have is very limited. You basically are trying to manage service based on what you see — the bus that is in front of you and the bus that just passed. BusTrek allows supervisors to see the entire universe in terms of our buses and their location.”

Individual routes stretch and bend for miles. Some only have one on-the-street dispatcher between the endpoints. Some don’t have any.

    At the West Farms bus depot in the Bronx, BusTrek dispatchers monitor more than 900 buses. The icons on digital maps are color-coded: blue denotes a bus that’s on schedule, red means a bus is far from the bus up ahead and black means it’s bunched .

    At a dispatcher’s fingertips is a trove of useful information: the bus number, how many minutes it is off schedule, how many minutes' cushion time is built into the schedule, how much of that extra time has been used up by delays, the driver's identification number and when the driver is scheduled to take a break or go home.

    So, you’re paying more to ride today, but as the MTA expands and gets more experienced with BusTrek, there may well be fewer instances of buses moving about the city like lumbering herds of elephants.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/donohue-fare-hikes-better-service-article-1.1278530#ixzz2MZR7kSC8

Like this is going to work on the Q66...besides you can't change some driving styles....that is why some guy's are always late.....they drive slow....

[Quill Depot]

Cool!

[User]

I heard about this system. Its probably going to take a while to really be effective, but if it ends up going in the right direction, then we will see an improvement in buses being on time and less bunching.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Well this is nice but if it works like the current train system then I don't know how effective it will be.  I took the train from 96th street this morning after running an errand on the West Side and it went from the train being 8 minutes away to it being delayed, to the coming in 4 minutes to neither coming due to a sick passenger.  That was an almost 15 minute wait with the empty promises of two express trains being on their way and the trains were basically packed like sardine cans, so much so that people were flagged and this was almost 10:00 in the morning after rush hour.  They were telling people to take trains into the Bronx to get express service back Downtown, but those trains were delayed as well, so you were forced to either wait and wait some more or force your way onto a packed local train.  

 

Bus Trek will help in most situations, but the needs to go further and start INVESTING MORE on other factors that make trains and buses delayed.  When are they going to start rolling out the smart devices that will allow buses to have the ability to change traffic lights for example? There needs to be more lobbying by the to get more streets to become bus friendly where possible. I see so many damn trucks double parked on Lex in the morning and no cops around giving them tickets which causes a huge backup in traffic in general, not just the buses.

 

Another thing that irks me is the lack of communication and inaccurate information given for buses during detours.  On the website it has one set of information, then you follow those instructions and go to the stop to receive different information and what's troubling is these are detours know of in ADVANCE, NOT on the fly!  Ridiculous.  They should have someone double check the information they post, otherwise it's useless, because it is often inaccurate and/or unclear.  Post where the buses will be detouring to AND give actual places where the buses will stop rather than saying that buses will make stops at "corresponding locations" which is often times not possible based on the street that the bus runs down, so you have no idea where to wait for the bus at.

 

In short, if they expect passengers to pay more, we need to start seeing better service all around.  Too many issues of signal problems on the subways and too overcrowded and all we keep hearing is well the system is old. Of course it's old and it will continue to become older and worse if monies aren't invested.  Same thing with the buses... Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan needs to see Bus Time sooner, rather than later.  And finally, let's start seeing more service improvements in terms of better frequencies.  MetroNorth is like a subway in the morning with people standing all over the place.  The local buses are like sardine cans and they keep looking for more and more money and making excuses to justify the poor service.  I say enough is enough.  They want more money, start producing!

[Threxx]

The whole traffic light thing also has to do with the DOT placing the devices on the lights, which they have been slow in doing.

[qjtransitmaster]

Bus bunching often results from traffic, construction or some event that slows down a bus and causes others behind it to catch up. The new system will allow monitors to inform bus drivers they are traveling too close together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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    BusTrek is already in place in Staten Island and the Bronx. The other boroughs can expect it this year. Predictably, bus bunching is worst in Manhattan.

 

 

    Just for the hell of it, let’s put a positive spin on the fare and toll hikes hitting commuters Monday. You might get better bus service for the additional shekels you’re spending.

    The MTA finally has a promising new weapon against “bus bunching,” the top source of frustration for millions of above-ground straphangers.

    With the click of a mouse, dispatchers using BusTrek technology in satellite command centers can quickly identify buses traveling too close to one another.

    Dispatchers can then radio individual drivers and direct them to take corrective action.

RELATED: MTA FARE HIKES SET TO TAKE EFFECT SUNDAY

    Sure, it’s geeky. It’s a behind-the-scenes transit management tool, a computer software program that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority developed in conjunction with City College.

    It builds off the MTA’s successful BusTime, a digital, GPS-based system that enables riders to get real-time bus information on the Internet, with a smartphone or via text message. BusTrek could go a long way toward improving bus service and curbside quality of life .

“I would say bus bunching is New Yorkers’ No. 1 complaint,” said Gene Russianoff, transit guru with the Straphangers Campaign. “Is there anything worse than waiting for a half-hour for a bus only to have three arrive in a pack?” Computer tracking should greatly reduce it, he says.

    BusTrek is up and running in Staten Island and the Bronx. It will go online in the other boroughs by the end of the year, MTA Bus Co. President Darryl Irick, a former driver and dispatcher, said.

RELATED: LHOTA DEFENDS MTA HIKES

    Bus bunching often results from traffic, construction or some event that slows down a bus and causes others behind it to catch up. It’s more prevalent in Manhattan but happens everywhere and always has.

“When I was a dispatcher, up until now, you couldn’t be too strategic,” Irick said. “You stood on a corner with a tally book and the information you have is very limited. You basically are trying to manage service based on what you see — the bus that is in front of you and the bus that just passed. BusTrek allows supervisors to see the entire universe in terms of our buses and their location.”

Individual routes stretch and bend for miles. Some only have one on-the-street dispatcher between the endpoints. Some don’t have any.

    At the West Farms bus depot in the Bronx, BusTrek dispatchers monitor more than 900 buses. The icons on digital maps are color-coded: blue denotes a bus that’s on schedule, red means a bus is far from the bus up ahead and black means it’s bunched .

    At a dispatcher’s fingertips is a trove of useful information: the bus number, how many minutes it is off schedule, how many minutes' cushion time is built into the schedule, how much of that extra time has been used up by delays, the driver's identification number and when the driver is scheduled to take a break or go home.

    So, you’re paying more to ride today, but as the MTA expands and gets more experienced with BusTrek, there may well be fewer instances of buses moving about the city like lumbering herds of elephants.

 

 

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/donohue-fare-hikes-better-service-article-1.1278530#ixzz2MZR7kSC8Like this is going to work on the Q66...besides you can't change some driving styles....that is why some guy's are always late.....they drive slow....

Want to solve Q66 simple find out which drivers are slow and fire them give em pink slips and get better ones for that route. Or send those drivers to manhattan on crosstowns.

[MHV9218]

Want to solve Q66 simple find out which drivers are slow and fire them give em pink slips and get better ones for that route. Or send those drivers to manhattan on crosstowns.

Yeah no.

[qjtransitmaster]

Yeah no.

if drivers are slowing down the route intentionally they need to simply be let go that's all.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

if drivers are slowing down the route intentionally they need to simply be let go that's all.

Oh please.... Even with them being able to track them they can't tell if they're driving slowly intentionally or not. You can only tell if you're used to seeing B/Os killing lights, etc. The more experienced B/Os usually don't have this problem though.  I don't ever recall my uncle having this problem when I would ride with him.  I personally would rather a B/O just kill time at a light rather than drag the whole friggin' line if it has to be done, or better yet, just leave a bit later which is what some B/Os do.

[N6 Limited]

I'm not exactly sure how this is going to help with bunching. If you wait 30 mins and 3 buses come in a row, then the last bus is most likely on time....

[Via Garibaldi 8]

I'm not exactly sure how this is going to help with bunching. If you wait 30 mins and 3 buses come in a row, then the last bus is most likely on time....

I can see how it can help... It helps to stop some B/Os that like to hide and not pick up passengers from riding empty, which is also how buses start to bunch. I hate that sh*t with a passion and there is a guy out of Yonkers that does this crap. He is always 20 - 30 minutes late on the BxM18 and I always thought it was because of traffic Downtown.   I found out speaking with another B/O that it's because he likes to play games so he'll pull out late and leave the other guy slammed with passengers.  Not surprising that he was very vocal and against Bus Time when it came into play...   It's guys like him that give the good B/Os a bad rep.  And if he isn't on the BxM18, he's usually hot.  Must be because he wants to get home fast, but I never run for an early bus.  I just report them as early because the way I see it there's a schedule for a reason. I have a phone with the time and folks have a watch and if they're doing the same runs every day it isn't that hard to figure out what time you need to be where.  I don't think I should have to be at a bus stop any earlier than 5 minutes because otherwise you're missing people and creating a situation where the next bus will be slammed and that should not be happening.  Furthermore now that I have Bus Time, the idea is to meet the bus, so you know the schedule and you arrive just a few minutes before (5 minutes should be fine) it's due since in theory it should be adhering to the schedule; in other words, maybe it's late but certainly not excessively early.  I'm esp. strict with this idea when it comes to express buses because if the frequencies are every 30 minutes to an hour coming early really should not be tolerated.  I've seen some folks just fuming when their Riverdale bus came early, and I don't blame them because if I'm early at the stop and I still miss that bus, then the guy is doing something wrong.

 

The other thing that it will stop is some B/Os from riding hot.  I can't understand for the life of me why some of them can't adhere to a schedule.  I mean seriously, now some schedules are difficult to uphold but a lot of B/Os uphold it so what's wrong with the other guys?  The ones that can't uphold it or pretend that they can't and can't help from riding hot  basically make life difficult for the other B/Os and what you have is a chain of events... A perfect scenario on the X10 or the S48 used to be one B/O would come early (a good 10 minutes early).  Now the next guy comes along and he's on time but he gets slammed with all of the other passengers that the other guy didn't pick up, so now he's late and if the frequencies are high enough, and there's big crowds it can lead to other buses becoming slammed and also being late.  We would have this issue constantly with the X10 when it was on 20 minute frequencies on Sundays and for the passengers, not only do they get to their destinations late, but it doesn't alleviate the overcrowding problem nor do they benefit from lines with increased frequencies unless they luck out and happen to get one of the empty buses.

 

In my situation, I would be at the stop early but would still be stuck waiting an additional 20 minutes or so, so it's like if the buses are running on 20 minute frequencies, how early I am supposed to get to the friggin' bus stop?  Sometimes you like to take certain buses to avoid crowds so you time yourself to a certain bus for that reason.

[QM1to6Ave]

What kinds of corrective actions can they do, other than tell 1 bus to pull over (and then the passengers kill the B/O) or have the first bus skip a bunch of stops (and again, passengers kill the B/O). If they can find certain B/O's that are playing around, like VG8 mentioned, then great, but I don;t know how useful this will be

[Via Garibaldi 8]

What kinds of corrective actions can they do, other than tell 1 bus to pull over (and then the passengers kill the B/O) or have the first bus skip a bunch of stops (and again, passengers kill the B/O). If they can find certain B/O's that are playing around, like VG8 mentioned, then great, but I don;t know how useful this will be

Well I think it allows them to study how each bus moves and if they want they can actually go to that location and see what exactly said bus is doing. Is the bus really stuck in traffic or is it just sitting there? What it really does is gives them a paper trail if you will so they can say well I saw you at such and such spot, and if you watch long enough, you can get a feel for what each guy does.  In short, before you knew someone could be watching you in an unmarked car, now you KNOW that someone is watching you.  This changes things quite a bit and there isn't this the passenger complained about me being early and I was on time.  The proof is there for everyone to see so it makes it hard to wiggle out of certain things and it doesn't allow guys as much of an opportunity to play games.  Now I don't think they should go crazy with this but at the same time it will ensure that guys are working, adhering to the schedules and not leaving people behind, which is a problem on certain lines and certain runs.  In short, more accountability which is what we need with the ever increasing fares.

 

And on the side it also forces them to provide better service.  Not as easy for them to try to pull buses from one route because now people can track the buses and see what's going on.  Hell if you want to provide proof that a line has a bunch of buses that are MIA you can simply save a screen shot of that route and violà there it is.

 

Oh I forgot one more person/persons that it helps... The passengers and the B/Os... The more folks that use it, I think it will make things easier for the B/Os... The passenger now knows where the bus is and can either elect to take it or use another option, so much less pissed off passengers because they're not innocent either.  Now you've got a tracking program that shows you where the bus is so if you miss it that's on you.  As long as the B/O is adhering to the schedule then there is really nothing to complain about.

 

Another thing the should use this for though is for BETTER SCHEDULES.  If each and every bus has too much run time or not enough run time, then the schedules should be changed to make life easier for the B/Os. Now they don't have to run buses through the routes empty trying to guess when the bus should or should not be at a certain location.

[Acela Express]

I'm not exactly sure how this is going to help with bunching. If you wait 30 mins and 3 buses come in a row, then the last bus is most likely on time....

Not really. I was got caught up with 4 buses who were late when I was approaching Church & Utica on Saturday night - 2 locals, and 2 LTDs (myself being an LTD).. I was about 4 minutes early, but I got into the stand, loaded and kept it pushing to Kings Plaza. I don't like driving with other buses - that shit fuccks up my whole game.

[SoSpectacular]

What kinds of corrective actions can they do, other than tell 1 bus to pull over (and then the passengers kill the B/O) or have the first bus skip a bunch of stops (and again, passengers kill the B/O). If they can find certain B/O's that are playing around, like VG8 mentioned, then great, but I don;t know how useful this will be

 

Seen it happen before- While riding a B1 bus the operator was told to push straight ahead, skipping a couple stops under the el until Ocean Parkway

[QM1to6Ave]

Seen it happen before- While riding a B1 bus the operator was told to push straight ahead, skipping a couple stops under the el until Ocean Parkway

 

What happened to passengers that wanted to get off at those stops?

[qjtransitmaster]

I can see how it can help... It helps to stop some B/Os that like to hide and not pick up passengers from riding empty, which is also how buses start to bunch. I hate that sh*t with a passion and there is a guy out of Yonkers that does this crap. He is always 20 - 30 minutes late on the BxM18 and I always thought it was because of traffic Downtown.   I found out speaking with another B/O that it's because he likes to play games so he'll pull out late and leave the other guy slammed with passengers.  Not surprising that he was very vocal and against Bus Time when it came into play...   It's guys like him that give the good B/Os a bad rep.  And if he isn't on the BxM18, he's usually hot.  Must be because he wants to get home fast, but I never run for an early bus.  I just report them as early because the way I see it there's a schedule for a reason. I have a phone with the time and folks have a watch and if they're doing the same runs every day it isn't that hard to figure out what time you need to be where.  I don't think I should have to be at a bus stop any earlier than 5 minutes because otherwise you're missing people and creating a situation where the next bus will be slammed and that should not be happening.  Furthermore now that I have Bus Time, the idea is to meet the bus, so you know the schedule and you arrive just a few minutes before (5 minutes should be fine) it's due since in theory it should be adhering to the schedule; in other words, maybe it's late but certainly not excessively early.  I'm esp. strict with this idea when it comes to express buses because if the frequencies are every 30 minutes to an hour coming early really should not be tolerated.  I've seen some folks just fuming when their Riverdale bus came early, and I don't blame them because if I'm early at the stop and I still miss that bus, then the guy is doing something wrong.

 

The other thing that it will stop is some B/Os from riding hot.  I can't understand for the life of me why some of them can't adhere to a schedule.  I mean seriously, now some schedules are difficult to uphold but a lot of B/Os uphold it so what's wrong with the other guys?  The ones that can't uphold it or pretend that they can't and can't help from riding hot  basically make life difficult for the other B/Os and what you have is a chain of events... A perfect scenario on the X10 or the S48 used to be one B/O would come early (a good 10 minutes early).  Now the next guy comes along and he's on time but he gets slammed with all of the other passengers that the other guy didn't pick up, so now he's late and if the frequencies are high enough, and there's big crowds it can lead to other buses becoming slammed and also being late.  We would have this issue constantly with the X10 when it was on 20 minute frequencies on Sundays and for the passengers, not only do they get to their destinations late, but it doesn't alleviate the overcrowding problem nor do they benefit from lines with increased frequencies unless they luck out and happen to get one of the empty buses.

 

In my situation, I would be at the stop early but would still be stuck waiting an additional 20 minutes or so, so it's like if the buses are running on 20 minute frequencies, how early I am supposed to get to the friggin' bus stop?  Sometimes you like to take certain buses to avoid crowds so you time yourself to a certain bus for that reason.

Well on point some people need to be held to higher standards and buses need to be tracked better to improve schedules or find and get rid of problem drivers. Sadly 3 people do not understand.

 

What happened to passengers that wanted to get off at those stops?

most likely they had to take the bus behind em.

[Orion VII 4 Life]

I'm waiting to see VG8's face when he finds out this is powered by the Clever Devices system and not MTA Bustime...

 

Seriously, the article got that wrong. This system (which has been around for a while), the maintenance system and all on-board automated announcements (well the ones we have anyway) are powered by the Clever Devices system and nothing else. MTA just slapped a name on it now. Guess the OpenPlans gods who brought us the oh-so-amazing, money-saving piece of crap MTA Bustime couldn't figure out how to compete with CD on this one.

 

Anyway, like I said this has been around for a while and I don't see a difference with bus bunching nor have I heard any beeps or anything like that when one bus got too close to another (yes in a way I'm calling a Clever Devices product a piece of crap, but it's not like I don't think the same of their countdown clocks). We'll have to see how this turrns out in the long run.

[Cait Sith]

I'm waiting to see VG8's face when he finds out this is powered by the Clever Devices system and not MTA Bustime...

 

Hence why we have the blue Clever Device boxes wired in the buses.....which we've had for a lonnnng time now.

 

Oh, FYI. They weren't just used for the diagnostics system either.

[Orion VII 4 Life]

 

The program uses the Clever Devices and NOT ONLY for the diagnostics system. The system is used in a different matter as compared to other TAs in the U.S.

I know for a fact MTA Bustime is run from a different computer built by/for Verifone, they make all the equipment for the MTA Bustime system. There is a silver box marked Verifone in the cabinet with the blue box CD computer that runs Bustime. The blue box CD computer controls everything else. Like OpenPlans and the MTA have stated, the CD computer can only run their proprietary software and they are right about that.

 

Point is, Bustime is run from one computer, auto announcements, diagnostics, "BusTrek" and whatever else are run from the Clever Devices computer using their proprietary software.

[Cait Sith]

I know for a fact MTA Bustime is run from a different computer built by/for Verifone, they make all the equipment for the MTA Bustime system. There is a silver box marked Verifone in the cabinet with the blue box CD computer that runs Bustime. The blue box CD computer controls everything else. Like OpenPlans and the MTA have stated, the CD computer can only run their proprietary software and they are right about that.

 

Point is, Bustime is run from one computer, auto announcements, diagnostics, "BusTrek" and whatever else are run from the Clever Devices computer using their proprietary software.

 

Which is used primarily by the folks in the depot and the dispatchers. I've seen the BusTrek platform myself. It's a better system than whats currently there with the computers freezing and screwing up every now and then. We as passengers will still use the regular Bustime platform for the meanwhile. So that point is somewhat null and void because it doesn't directly apply to what we currently use.....which is what this discussion is about.

[Orion VII 4 Life]

 

Which is used primarily by the folks in the depot and the dispatchers. I've seen the BusTrek platform myself. It's a better system than whats currently there with the computers freezing and screwing up every now and then. We as passengers will still use the regular Bustime platform for the meanwhile. So that point is somewhat null and void because it doesn't directly apply to what we currently use.....which is what this discussion is about.

Just to make sure I'm right, does it say "Powered by Clever Devices" on the BusTrek thing? If you're saying that's the platform we'll be using at some point, perhaps the MTA has finally given up on that BusTime crap.

[Cait Sith]

Just to make sure I'm right, does it say "Powered by Clever Devices" on the BusTrek thing? If you're saying that's the platform we'll be using at some point, perhaps the MTA has finally given up on that BusTime crap.

 

From what I saw on the big board, it doesn't.

 

And that's not what I'm saying. This particular system is only used for the dispatchers and the supervisors...not us from what I was told...I'll dig deeper into this in the coming weeks.

 

Also, they wouldn't "give up" on something if it was said to be successful. Just because there were a few issues with the BusTime system doesn't mean its crap. It's still a fairly new system.

[Orion VII 4 Life]

 

From what I saw on the big board, it doesn't.

 

And that's not what I'm saying. This particular system is only used for the dispatchers and the supervisors...not us from what I was told...I'll dig deeper into this in the coming weeks.

If it doesn't, there's a chance that it is somehow powered by the MTA ShitTime system though I'm pretty damn sure this was being run by Clever Devices. I don't see how the OpenPlans/MTA guys would be able to develop something like this on their own.

[Orion VII 4 Life]

Well, I found something...

 

http://bustrek.mta.info/

 

Looks like it was developed with City College. I assume it just uses data from Bustime or the Clever Devices GPSes to do whatever it does. MTA went the cheap route with this one yet again doing an "in-house" development, no wonder I haven't noticed a difference. That website looks pretty damn old too.