Bus Tracker - Innovation Award

[railfan4072]

I was googling Center for Neighborhood Technology and I ran across a page for the Chicago Innovation Award-- "recognizing and honoring the city's most innovative new products and services."

Bus Tracker is a finalist in their 2010 Innovation Award competition. It seems the competition is judged by a panel, but the organization also offers a "people's chioce" contest that web visitors can vote on -- http://www.chicagoin...ations/view/335

There are some very interesting nominees - from parking apps designed for end-users to complicated processes designed for manufacturing and technology settings.

[csl3407]

I was googling Center for Neighborhood Technology and I ran across a page for the Chicago Innovation Award-- "recognizing and honoring the city's most innovative new products and services."

Bus Tracker is a finalist in their 2010 Innovation Award competition. It seems the competition is judged by a panel, but the organization also offers a "people's choice" contest that web visitors can vote on -- http://www.chicagoin...ations/view/335

There are some very interesting nominees - from parking apps designed for end-users to complicated processes designed for manufacturing and technology settings.

I watched the video and voted for Bus Tracker, then I checked out some of the other candidates. There were 75 so I didn't read all of them in great detail yet. Some were very technical and I didn't understand the application, but some were very interesting.

The only other transit-related innovation seemed to be the Center for Neighborhood Technology's Housing and Transportation affordability index we have read about before. Several of the innovations were social media apps that center around pushing advertising to users based on their locations. Some medical projects are developing better robotics for surgery, and detecting HIV sooner. Then there were the projects that only an engineer would understand. (Maybe some other board member here understands them?)

Maybe if Bus Tracker wins this it will spur the CTA to roll out their train tracker program sooner?

[Busjack]

Maybe if Bus Tracker wins this it will spur the CTA to roll out their train tracker program sooner?

I'm sure that has nothing to do with it. As Krambles stated, when there weren't any signals, CTA couldn't have a train indicator map. Since cab signals have been in place since the late 70s, they now should be able to.

I don't know what kind of predictive software they would need, but they do have announcements such as the train to downtown is about to arrive. Unlike a bus, which can be stuck in traffic and needs gps coordinates to give its location, it shouldn't be too hard to say that a train that just has cleared Harlem and Higgins will be at Jefferson Park in 4 minutes, absent someone on the tracks (in which case, all predictions are out the window).

Of course, these days, getting a grant has all to do with it.

As far as the statement in the linked article "Commuters looking to go to a specific destination can plan their CTA trip using real-time information at www.ctabustracker.com and eliminate their wait-time by knowing exactly when the bus will be arriving at their stop." the CTA Tattler reports some doubt about that.