Public transportation can fascinat...

Public transportation can fascinate up images of smoky olden buses that run late, lines of passengers waiting to have their transfer tickets punched and drivers who pretend incapable of taking shortcuts to avoid traffic tie-ups.

if it were not that not in Ann Arbor, Mich., where the local transportation authority, a 24-hour-a-day operation serving more than 4 million passengers annually, lately unveiled its Advanced Operating a whole (AOS), which it hopes signals the beginning of a novel era for mass transit. AOS integrates communication, maintenance and operations by means of use of software, GPS, GIS and state-of-the-art equipment.

"We believe our 'smart buses' exhibit the first system anywhere to integrate classification communication from operations to maintenance between the sides of real-time connections," says Gregory prepare for the table executive director of the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority.

Each AOS vehicle has an 800-MHz radio and onboard computer The method minimizes voice transmissions by providing data messages