Technology
The CTA has, within the past few years, installed GPS Bus Tracker systems on all buses. The original claim justifying the addition of this technology was that it would reduce the issue of bunching buses. The system also allows riders to be able to determine the location of buses online.
A report prepared by the CTA claims that there was a decrease in bus bunching from 3.9% to 2.3% from 2007 to 2009, but the report neither demonstrated a direct connection between Bus Tracker and this reduction in bunching, nor did it show whether this was a temporary or permanent phenomenon.
CTA has also made its Bus Tracker and other developer tools available, and is making Bus Tracker arrival data available through text messaging. One of the first applications of the Bus Tracker Developer Tools involved the installation of monitors showing the information in several businesses in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood. Using the developer API published by CTA, some augmented CTA bus tracking applications have been developed for mobile phones, and CTA has its own Transit App Center, featuring applications developed by others. CTA also has a train tracker (Beta starting January 2011) but can only be accessed through a computer or a smart phone.
Read more about this topic: Chicago Transit Authority
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