VA Eyes Bay Area Bus Tracking System
By
Bob Brewin
If there’s anything worse than riding a bus, it’s wondering when one will show up – a problem the Veterans Affairs Department’s Northern California Health Care System would like to solve with a nifty new bus tracking system.
This may be the first time VA has tried to use well established bus tracking systems used by transit systems around the country.
If a bus has a GPS receiver to determine its location and a built-in cellular modem to transmit that information, then it’s relatively easy to plug bus location info into a map database or retransmit to smart phones.
VA wants to equip 18 buses on eight pre-planned routes servicing the Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Livermore VA Medical Centers to include six-to-eight outpatient clinics.
The VA wants to feed bus location data to smart phones and kiosks at bus stops. The system will transmit real time information and updates to passengers regarding the arrival and departure times and delays caused by traffic, weather etc.
The VA is looking for a small, disabled vet owned business to do this work and hey, maybe a vet will get the job.