GPS World, July 2010

Road TRANSPORTATION busway Routing Because bus only shoulders follow existing routes no changes to bus routes bus stops or transit stations are needed to support bus only shoulder operations Customer satisfaction Transit customers who travel on buses that use a bus only shoulder perceive a travel time saving two to three times greater than actually realized Keeping the bus moving at all times offers a significant psychological advantage Increased Ridership A 1997 study of bus only shoulders in the Twin Cities analyzed more than nine bus only shoulder routes for two years and found a 92 percent increase in ridership along these routes At the same time total ridership had decreased by 65 percent However the use of bus only shoulders imposes additional stress and strain on a driver The narrow bus only shoulder leaves a driver very little margin of error Operating within this small margin is difficult even during the best traffic and weather conditions and degrades to nearly impossible during heavy traffic and poor weather conditions which are frequent during Minnesotas notoriously hard winters During difficult weather and traffic conditions the use of the bus only shoulder offers its greatest transit advantage If a driver is unable to utilize the bus only shoulder this advantage is lost A properly designed and executed driver assist system DAS enables a driver to use the shoulder under all conditions thereby increasing schedule adherence and as a result rider satisfaction Under the U S Department of Transportations Urban Partnership Agreement the University of Minnesotas Intelligent Vehicles Lab IV Lab and HumanFIRST program the Minnesota Valley Transit Authority MVTA and Schmitty and Sons Transportation will soon deploy DAS on 10 Gillig low floor transit buses These buses will provide express service between Apple Valley and downtown Minneapolis a 22 mile one way trip Driver Assist History The IV Lab has developed and deployed DGPS based DAS since 1995 The fi rst deployment on public roads occurred in 2001 as part of the DOTs Intelligent Vehicle Initiative Generation Zero Field Operational Test The DGPS based lane keeping assistance was integrated with forward looking radar for collision avoidance enabling safe vehicle operation in zero visibility conditions Two separate deployments took place in Alaska The first occurred in 2003 with a snowplow and a snowblower which clear the Thompson Pass on the Richardson Highway These vehicles are still in use Because of this success the State of Alaska installed the DAS in two more vehicles at Deadhorse Airport During the summer of 2010 the two original Thompson Pass systems will be upgraded with new computational hardware and three new systems will be installed on three new highway maintenance vehicles The value of the driver assist system has Å DAS EQUIPPED SNOWPLOW clearing Thompson Pass Alaska www gpsworld com July 2010 GPS World 31