That’s what the just-published “forecast discussion” boils down to. (Our continuous updates from the morning-commute hours are here.) P.S. Here’s what Cliff Mass wrote a few hours ago – including a complaint about the same Metro online problem that WSB readers called attention to during our morning coverage.
Bravo Cliff! Maybe someone at Metro will stand up and take notice now that someone other than us poor fare paying riders has ripped them apart! Thank you!
The Metro Tracker program that Cliff Mass referred to is a very slick computer representation of a very old radio tracking system that Metro Transit has. The system when first conceived was years ahead of anyone else in the country. So far ahead that the construction on the system was delayed for some time, to let the technology catch up. Designed long before we had computers in every home, and the GPS system for the military was still in the design phase, the system is based on radio antennas on utility poles along the bus routes throughout the city. Only problem is, when a bus strays from the route, it strays from the antennas as well.
The problem with being the the first on the block with a new toy. Everybody else gets a new improved model that cost a fraction of the original. My pocket PC phone I bought used off ebay. I have GPS software on a mini sd card inside the storage slot. and I have the worlds smallest GPS receiver on my motorcycle keychain. When I’m on a road trip, my wife can send my phone a text message, and the phone will text back my motorcycle location to her. Metro spent millions building a tracking system, I built mine for under $300.00. Metro knows their tracking is old an outdated, but the taxpayers paid dearly for it, and they have stretched that investment out a very respectable amount. But yes it is time for a replacement, and the new rapid ride buses will usher in a new tracking design, in the coming year or two.
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