Come this fall, students will likely be able to watch Penn Transit - live from the Web.
Schools around the country have implemented GPS tracking devices for their transit systems, allowing students to track the buses and shuttles in real time from any online source, including Web-enabled cell phones. Penn is slated to become one of the next colleges to do so.
Penn plans to have a "fully operational" GPS system in place by the fall semester, Business Services spokeswoman Barbara Lea-Kruger said.
One company, TransLoc - which Penn is considering for its own system - monitors student transit systems at Harvard and Yale Universities, as well as at four other colleges around the country. Their goal, according to TransLoc spokesman Joshua Cohen, is to "make waiting for the bus safer, warmer and more convenient."
Using innovative GPS technology, signals are sent from the buses themselves, allowing students and employees to view a visual representation of the bus route in real time on the company-monitored Web site.
Harvard and Yale both adopted the TransLoc system last year. Since its inception, Yale's link is getting 30,000 hits per month, Ed Bebyn, spokesman for Yale University's Parking and Transit, wrote in an e-mail.
Penn Transit is currently looking into a number of different systems to provide "the best service to our ridership," Lea-Kruger said.
She added that with the high turnover rate in technology, Penn Transit wants to make sure it purchases the best system for its needs. Penn Transit also wants to wait until four new buses joined the fleet before implementing any new technology.
Shuttles and buses on all routes would be included in the new GPS system.
"From a security standpoint it allows people to stay in their safe location and only come out as needed," Bebyn wrote.
For Penn, a tracking system would be "primarily for convenience," said Lea-Kruger. There is "already a big effort to ensure that the Penn Transit stops are safe."
In addition to a number of new stops, extra lighting and cameras and extra patrol, Penn Transit has also made sure that most stops have a place nearby where riders can wait indoors.
At Yale, TransLoc technology doesn't seem to have grabbed student attention quite yet.
"I have heard a lot of talk about it," Yale freshman Faye Maison said. However, neither she, nor anyone she knew, had ever used the system.
But at Penn, students say they would find it useful.
"My time would be used more efficiently," College junior Adam Teitcher said. "One of the most frustrating things is to have five or 10 minutes of dead time. . I could pick up something to eat or drop off my dry cleaning" instead of waiting for a bus.
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