Bus Data Fusion – Getting Systems and People Working Together to Reach Their Full Potential

This paper showed a hapless bus electronics technician being strangled by a mass of proprietary control heads, interface cables, and diagnostic readers. That was at the American Public Transit Association (APTA) Expo, New Orleans, 1993. Bus operators suffered a similar fate, with the growing crowd of on-board devices. Fourteen years later, has anything really changed? What can we hope for in the near future? Transit authorities have long expressed a desire to improve the acquisition and usefulness of data from the various computer systems on- and off-board vehicles. New technology has greatly improved the available performance and functions, but on the other hand multiplied the number of devices the operator must contend with and the maintainer must support. Interfaces between bus related systems can be either unreliable or never implemented, so data between computer aided dispatch/automatic vehicle location (CAD/AVL), fare collection, automated voice annunciation, passenger counting, scheduling, maintenance and materials management (M3), security, employee records, and myriad other systems are usually not well coordinated. Challenges to improving this situation include stove pipe proprietary systems, piecemeal procurements, monumental data preparation tasks, and funding constraints. And even when there is good technological integration, the authorities’ business processes and procedures may not make optimal use of the available data and functions.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/1931594252
• Corporate Authors:

  American Public Transportation Association

  1666 K Street, NW, Suite 1100
  Washington, DC  United States  20006
• Authors:
  • Bolden, Tammi
  • Woods, Theodore
  • Vicente, Joe
• Conference:
  • Bus and Paratransit Conference and International Bus Roadeo, 2007
  • Location: Nashville Tennessee, United States
  • Date: 2007-5-5 to 2007-5-9
• Publication Date: 2007

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: CD-ROM
• Features: Photos;
• Pagination: 2p
• Monograph Title: Bus and Paratransit Conference and International Bus Roadeo, 2007

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Automatic vehicle location; Bus transit; Bus transit operations; Bus transportation; Data fusion; Fare collection; Materials management; Passenger counting; Public transit; Scheduling; Transit operating agencies
• Uncontrolled Terms: Computer aided dispatch (CAD)
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Motor Carriers; Operations and Traffic Management; Public Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01051490
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 1931594252
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jun 13 2007 12:24PM