Skip to main content

Antelope Valley to install real time tracking system

California’s Antelope Valley Transit Authority (AVTA) is to implement a US$2.3 million intelligent transportation system to provide real time travel information to the Valley’s 400,000 residents. Pennsylvania based Avail Technologies will install the new system by 2015. The system will enable passengers with smartphones to predict when the next bus will arrive by accessing the QR code posted at each bus stop. Customers will also be able to gather bus location information by texting the IT system or by visit
July 5, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
California’s Antelope Valley Transit Authority (AVTA) is to implement a US$2.3 million intelligent transportation system to provide real time travel information to the Valley’s 400,000 residents.

Pennsylvania based 7414 Avail Technologies will install the new system by 2015. The system will enable passengers with smartphones to predict when the next bus will arrive by accessing the QR code posted at each bus stop. Customers will also be able to gather bus location information by texting the IT system or by visiting the AVTA website. For the visually impaired, the system will provide information via a cell phone.

The system will automatically count the number of passengers boarding and alighting each bus and will even be able to determine the number of wheelchair passengers utilising each stop. Automatic announcements will also be triggered by the IT system to alert passengers of upcoming bus stops.

Customer service representatives will also be able better monitor the transit system and provide real time information to customers seeking trip planning assistance.

“Installing the system will improve customer service by leaps and bounds,” stated AVTA board chairman Norm Hickling. “The board’s vision is to develop a world class transit system and this is one more step in the right direction.”

“Not only will the system provide convenient information to customers but it will provide important data to AVTA transit planners.” stated AVTA executive director Julie Austin. “We intend to use the information to enhance our service so that it meets ridership levels as effectively as possible.”

Related Content

  • August 8, 2017
    Considering accessibility costs little and pays dividends for all travellers
    Catering for those with disabilities can be cost-effective and improve services for all travellers, as David Crawford discovers. Clearer understanding of the economic value of accessible transport is essential if we are to speed up the current slow deployment levels, according to the Paris-based International Transport Forum (ITF), which staged a 2016 round table on the ‘Benefits and Costs of Inclusion in Transport’. It wants to see greater availability of data on levels of actual and unmet demand for acces
  • January 20, 2012
    Home based real time travel information drives reduction in car use
    David Crawford investigates a new approach to discouraging car use - the 'kitchen as travel centre'. ITS technology working together with UK planning legislation is driving an innovative 'kitchen as travel centre' approach to home design which is boosting public transport as an alternative to car use. The combination is already proving powerful enough to assuage environmentalist opposition to major urban developments. It is also being seen as a way of delivering wider social and community benefits inside an
  • April 23, 2013
    US 511 system, the future of traveller information?
    What started out at the turn of the millenium as a simple dial-up travel information service has grown out of all recognition in the digital age. Pete Goldin surveys the development to date of the US 511 traveller information system. In a little over a decade, 511 has gone from its original intent – a collection of recorded messages accessible via phone for pre-trip planning – to a network of dynamic traveller information services provided by states and cities throughout the US, offering access to a wide v
  • October 8, 2012
    Hertfordshire deploys real-time public transport information system
    UK transport consultants WYG have successfully collaborated with Hertfordshire County Council in the UK to provide technical expertise for the county’s real-time public transport system. The roll-out of real time passenger information (RTPI) systems across Hertfordshire over the coming weeks is the first milestone in the project and is a key part of a wider transport improvement programme. The project presented numerous challenges, not least the need to deliver the project in partnership with private secto