The smart display
With the price of LED screens going down, it was only a matter of time until replacing the old time tables with their orange on black livery. The new displays are more versatile and can present a ton of information:
- waiting time until the arrival of the vehicle
- the status of the transit network
- local weather
- and advertising (yes).
Estimated waiting time
This is a smart way to indicate how much one has to wait. Most of the time, the number has only one figure, but it can go as far as 60 minutes if not more. Such a system can only function if there is real-time information.
GPS onboard the bus
A computer at the headquarters of the agency that generates the number based on accurate information coming from many places: traffic status, bus line evolution during the last hour and so on.
Approximate bus position
This approach works when the traffic is very bad or some incident happend or the bus has no GPS, and signals its arrival at stops via proximity sensors (bluetooth, acoustic, WiFi, etc). People waiting for the bus can cross the information on the screen with the stops on the line. It is not a bad approach at all. Every passenger can guesstimate the waiting time with a relatively good accuracy.
Scheduled arrival hour
When there is a GPS onboard the bus, this approach is as good as the first one (waiting minutes). The advantage of the system is that it can work even if there are only static schedules of arrival. It is better than to use the phone, especially if the online information is no better at all.
What about the red line ?
Electronic displays are great for advertising. In fact, before even the electronic display appears at the stop, it is a good chance that a screen with non-stop advertising precede it by several months if not years. I have seen this many times. And don’t worry, Fry Bar is a fictional company that to my knowledge, does not exist.
The Spline 