Importance

Loading Importance Indicators...

Abstract

Provides users with an accessible continuously updated arrival time estimate of the next vehicle arriving at vehicle stops such as bus stops. Three discrete data streams are collected at a central computer and radio-beamed to portable receivers, each of which places some of the data in memory and uses some for real-time display, when the unit has been activated by the user. One stream allows time estimate to be computed; a second updates route changes; a third places messages such as cross-street data into unit memory, or displays storm warnings or the like. Users can enter specific stops and routes, can program audible pre-alert arrival warnings, can choose to be alerted to specific vehicle types (such as handicap accessible), and can see two arrival time estimates simultaneously, either for two different stops of different routes (to compute transfers) or of two sequential vehicles arriving at the same stop. The user's pre-paid fare status can be displayed for drivers, and users can enter an ad-hoc stop on an unfamiliar trip and read the distance and arrival information of the return stop on the other side of the street.

Loading the Abstract Image...

First Claim