Consider these 2 pictures below.

The first one is namma Bengaluru (pic courtesy: Deccan Herald) and the second one is somewhere close to Maranello in Italy (pic courtesy: Prabhu)

What’s the difference? First one shows the current time, and the expected time of arrival for the corresponding route number buses. The second one just shows the route number and the destination. Well, you do not expect public transport to be running late in the developed western world. However, waiting at a bus terminus for a bus for your destination can be excruciatingly painful experience. Especially in Bangalore, where the traffic jams can create snags that God alone can be amused at.

What’s the way out – or so thought BMTC… implement GPS and GIS was the answer.

BMTC is adopting GPS and GIS in a big way to track their huge network of buses. GPS is Global Positioning System and is being used for tracking the movement of their buses. GIS is Geographical Information System which is used to create a map of the road network of the city. Together, these two technologies are going to make one thing easier – waiting! :-)

Hindu carried a news piece of the above. Excerpts from the same…

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As a first step towards deploying GPS and GIS for real-time passenger information system (RPIS), the corporation has set up electronic display boards on two platforms at Kempe Gowda Bus Station on platform 3 (Chandra Layout, Nagarbhavi and so on) and platform 11 (Banashankari, J.P. Nagar and so on) and one each at Shivajinagar Bus Station (platform 3) and Shanthinagar Bus Station (platform 11) on a trial basis.

At present, the information regarding arrival and departure of buses is stored in the display board itself with necessary memory space. The information is shown every 10 seconds with the help of a processor, necessary software and a real-time clock.

BMTC Director (Security and Vigilance) P.S. Sandhu told The Hindu that although a normal electronic board, it was GPS-enabled. Once the BMTC deployed real-time GPS, the display boards would be able to show the departure and arrival of buses accurately.

As of now, BMTC has fitted GPS equipment on 700 of its own buses and 350 hired buses. Now, it is being used to track the movement of hired vehicles and the data is retrieved once in four hours. Shortly, 1,500 more BMTC buses would get GPS equipment, he said.
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Way to go, Bangalore! I bet it is another first to BMTC’s credit.