Buses Get Smart

It's a good start. Now let's get to work on revamping the bus routes, and implementing an Oyster Card system.

Waste of money.

This is great news!

Great news- especially when it's raining or freezing outside and the buses are running late.

When will the system be ready to use?

This is really great news. It'll be a huge improvement in quality of life for so many people in CT.

3/5ths, when was the last time you waited for a bus, not knowing whether it was running anything near to schedule? I am one of the few people who still does not have a smartphone, but most of the folks I see waiting at the bus stops downtown appear to have them. Not wasting the customers' time strikes me as a good thing for any service provider.

Bradley some people are just never happy. Even you don't have a smart phone there will be other ways to see updated schedule information.

Smart use of money. All of us who have endured this bus system are thankful for those who supported bringing it into the 21st C. with GPS technology. BIG improvement!

This system is another expense that this city could do without.Another expense that consumes resources that could be better spent.While this is a nice system for those people with enough spare time to sit and watch there smartphone, It doesn't actually make the system any more efficient or effective.Put the money into a 24 hour public transit system which the people need.

3/5ths, first the city plays no role in funding or operating Connecticut Transit, the state does. Second, as RhyminTyman notes, you can use the system without a smartphone, for example by using a computer at work or at the public library. Third, the cost of the system is a small fraction of operating a 24-hour system - it is on the scale of a single new bus. Fourth, while the focus of the article and the comments have been on the riders, a wide variety of fleet operators, public and private, have installed GPS in their vehicles as an efficiency tool. You're fond of providing links to developments in New York. Why do you think the MTA installed a similar system for city buses years ago?

You may not put a value on your own time. But I suspect that most people waiting for the bus in the rain or snow do.

REGARDING THE ROLL-OUT (i.e. schedule of delivery)

A report I heard on the radio this morning stated that GPS would roll-out to HARTFORD buses in NOVEMBER, but not make it to NEW HAVEN until FEBRUARY. I'd like it sooner, but in the big picture I guess it's only one more winter we have to endure without GPS!

Thank you, Bradley, pointing out the facts here. The problem as I see it with 3/5 is that he must be. . . a motorist, who has no experience of being a regular rider, like a number of other commenters here on bus issues.

Like your last sentence--it reminded me of a bitterly cold winter morning a few years ago when the bus I was waiting for just never showed up. So, in addition to the 5 or 10 minutes waiting for my bus, I had to wait another 20 minutes for the next bus—-by the time it did, my fingers were so cold (despite wearing thick winter gloves) they felt like they might fall off. I would loved to have known my bus was hung up somewhere and to be able to stay indoors till it was time for the 2nd bus to show up.

What motorists apparently do not understand is that riding the buses involves waiting OUTDOORS in all weathers (just imagine what waiting for buses has been like this hot and humid week!!), not protected inside a warm or cool or dry bubble. We bus riders are going to work, going grocery shopping, keeping doctors' and dentists' appointments, going to church—all the things motorists use their cars for. Since even under optimal circumstances doing these by bus takes at least twice as long as with a car, having access to the exact whereabouts of our bus is very important.