Letter: Buses need dependability, not GPS

Spending $1.4 million for a GPS system on the CATS buses? You have got to be kidding me. I am in complete agreement with the consultant that recently concluded that the management of CATS needs to go.

The bus system should run on a set schedule that can be relied on by its riders. If the schedule is kept, then the riders know where the buses are going to be based on the schedule. If the schedule is not kept, then the whole system becomes worthless because the rider cannot count on the bus to get where he is going. Spend the money on keeping the buses on schedule!

I doubt most bus riders have a smartphone to track the buses, so putting in this system does nothing for them. Even those who have a smartphone would get the worthless information that the bus is late again and they are going to be late for work again and possibly lose their job. That’s nice to know. Thanks, CATS!

The CATS system does not need this gold-plated addition. What is needed is a bus system the riders can trust to get them from where they are to where they want to be in a reliable and timely manner.

Donald Drone

retired electrical engineer

Denham Springs

Comments

1) Comment by rdj! - 14/02/2013

Look people: GPS does not help on time performance!... A schedule management system does... its a little known secret that CATS has no computerization of schedule/run/route of its buses. Just look up Trapeze, Hastus etc... CATS never heard of it, thus failure.

2) Comment by mh1949 - 28/01/2013

DMJ please advise us when,where,and what time of day we may see a full CATS bus. That is something very few other than your authoritive self have ever seen. I doubt CATS will ever be much more than it is now. A hole to throw taxpayer money into.

3) Comment by nimby? - 28/01/2013

a question I'd like to see surveyed locally ; if the buses were predictable and ran on time would you use them rather than a personal vehicle . will young professionals give up convenience , leather seats , climate control and do the right thing ?

4) Comment by Elderly Man - 28/01/2013

Worse excuse for a public transist system I have experienced.

5) Comment by DMJ - 28/01/2013

The number of riders on a particular bus depends on a lot of things: which route, time of day, whether or not the bus is on the incoming or outgoing leg of the route, etc.. Some buses are full. Some are not. And let's clear up what seems to be a common misconception about the CATS tax- it had many different objectives. It wasn't passed simply to allot more space to existing riders; it was passed to increase ridership as well. The general idea is to make travel by bus more convenient and popular. Cherrypicking an empty bus you happen to see proves nothing and is not constructive to the discussion at all. We get it. You're against funding transit. You lost. Moving on.... The goal of GPS locators is to make bus travel more predictable, thus more attractive. You see... one obstacle to increasing ridership is lack of predictability. GPS locators lessen, if not outright remove, that particular obstacle for those who have a mobile device. Starting to make sense?

6) Comment by Bighug - 28/01/2013

Really, mh? Wow! It must be looking up for CATS ridership. I've never seen more than two, but I didn't count the driver. Here's an idea for the CATS directors: armed guards! Think of how much more that would cost. You may even get another property tax vote so those who don't own property can again raise taxes on those who do.

7) Comment by mh1949 - 28/01/2013

These buses are extremely overcrowded. I saw one recently that had 3 people on board. Need to add more buses. It would be so interesting to see one of the tv stations follow several of the buses around town without their knowledge. Do this on random days, several different routes, and different parts of town. I think some people would be shocked ( not that it would matter ) how few people actually ride these buses in most parts of town.

8) Comment by 8point6 - 28/01/2013

Put CATS bus stop signs at the casinos!

9) Comment by nimby? - 28/01/2013

for those who cannot afford them GPS units will be provided , no I.D. necessary .

10) Comment by DMJ - 28/01/2013

For an idea of what this will look like, check out http://www.lsu.transloc.com/ .

11) Comment by DMJ - 28/01/2013

"What is needed is a bus system the riders can trust to get them from where they are to where they want to be in a reliable and timely manner." That's where the GPS comes in, genius. The GPS gives real-time location of the buses so you know when they're coming and how long it'll take (a.k.a. dependability). And another thing...you can't keep an accurate schedule in Baton Rouge traffic. One wreck, one train, one construction project, one waste removal service....and the whole schedule is out of wack. And why does this guy even care? He lives in Denham, where they don't even pay the tax.

12) Comment by SuzanneMS - 28/01/2013

All successful bus systems in this country use this technology. EBR is behind the times in installing it. EBR is going to crawl into the 21st century, like it or not. The system doesn't just tell you that the bus is late; it tells you exactly where it is and when it will arrive at your stop. This allows you to call your employer and explain (which you can do on your smartphone). It also sends that info to CATS, allowing them to dispatch another bus on that route, if necessary. Drone, have you ridden a bus to know who rides it and whether they have smartphones? yardeggs, let's compare apples with apples. A school bus 1) runs twice a day, neither of which times is during rush hour; 2) picks up a fixed, known number of students at a fixed, known number of stops, in neighborhoods; 3) drives a relatively short, fixed route to a school. City buses run all day long, including during rush hour, and their routes are many times longer than school bus route. If a city bus gets held up due to traffic, that can throw the whole schedule off. The bus system does not have advanced knowledge of the number of stops a bus will have to make on a given day; they know the number of bus stops on a route, but not whether people will be waiting at them. CATS also needs express buses and buses that control the traffic lights.

13) Comment by phil - 28/01/2013

Big-boy toys will give these folks something to play with while they are waiting for the bus. Government-funded projects can always find new and creative ways to spend tax funds while not ever solving any real problems. Is the real objective here to get taxes passed and then get rich off of tax funds and funnel money to companies that sell these types of products, ETC, or is the real objective to transport people around town in an efficient manner?

14) Comment by tradewinns - 28/01/2013

like everyone else i do understand why cats is wasting money. they have to spend it or it shows all that money and the service cats provides isn't truly necessary. which, except for the few, isn't.

15) Comment by [e-mail] - 28/01/2013

Giving those guys all of that taxpayer money (from people who don't ride buses) to play with was nothing but inviting such nonsense as this. Somebody had better check the money trail pretty closely.

16) Comment by Triple - 28/01/2013

IMO, Some of the revenue should go towards building true "bus stops" so these vehicles could pull out of traffic lanes for passenger access/ egress. With current traffic snarls, this would be an improvement that would benefit all and added safety for CATS passengers.

17) Comment by prbeav - 28/01/2013

Thank you Drone, Bighug, and yardeggs.

18) Comment by yardeggs - 28/01/2013

CATS offers many excuses as to why the buses are never on-time. They should look to the school system for tips. If there is one thing the EBR schools get right, it's busing. My children have been taking the bus to school every day for 4 years now. I can count on one hand the number of times, in four YEARS, that their school bus has been late.

19) Comment by dday198 - 28/01/2013

mr. drone, you would be wrong on the smart phone. lsu students have one in each pocket while talking about buying the NEW one.

20) Comment by Bighug - 28/01/2013

The point is to spend all that property tax money CATS is getting. How can politicians, including the CATS board of directors, take a little extra for themselves if the money isn't spent?