You're waiting at your Sacramento bus stop for the daily commute home – and you're wondering if the heavy traffic will allow your bus to arrive on time.
These days, that uncertainty is history for anyone with a connection to RT Tracker via the Internet.
Sacramento Regional Transit has enhanced the capabilities of a GPS system for its 200-bus fleet, enabling riders to learn instantly where their buses are along the routes and when they will arrive at bus stops.
"Our customers have wanted real-time arrival information for a number of years," said RT General Manager Mike Wiley. "We've been focused on how we deliver that in the most cost-effective manner.
"We think what we've just rolled out will be extremely useful, easy to understand and reliable for our customers."
The service is free to riders.
"Most of the large systems have implemented this over the last five years," said Mike Mattos, chief of facilities and business support services for the transit district.
Mattos said the technology allows customers to see the movements of buses via an online map or to sign up for emails for text messages for automatic alerts. The website is www.sacrt.com/rttracker.
RT also is working on developing a mobile app.
Wiley said RT took advantage of existing GPS capabilities aboard buses, technology that has long aided visually impaired riders by automatically announcing the locations of stops.
At an added cost of about $7 per month per bus, plus $1.1 million in grant funds for the software system, installations and upgrades, the buses as of June 1 electronically communicate their locations to RT, which in turn makes the locations available via the Web.
Similar arrival information is expected to be available for riders of RT's lightrail system within 18 months, Wiley said.
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