Soon, Nick Mackrides, standing outside Pattee Library in the frigid temperatures, won't have to wonder "When's the bus going to be here?"
Within two weeks, the Centre Area Transportation Authority (CATA) will unveil two signs with "real-time" locations of buses, completing the Pattee Library bus stop expansion project.
"You never know if it's late or if you missed it and should get out of the cold, get a coffee and wait it out for the next bus," Mackrides (senior-premedicine) said.
The project is CATA Service Development Manager Eric Bernier's brainchild, and he has plenty to say about it. From a conference room overlooking a CATA garage packed with buses, he points to the LED sign he thinks will revolutionize how students ride the bus.
"We're not a big city, but we have a lot of ridership," Bernier said. "Plus, our ridership is of the nature that they would appreciate and take advantage of this. We're serving a pretty tech-savvy group."
The signs, which will be posted on both sides of Curtin Road, will list all the bus routes scheduled to arrive within the next 70 minutes and their estimated departure times. Only Links and regular bus routes will be featured on the sign, as the Loops use a different scheduling system.
Although the "real-time" project costs about $800,000, most of which came from federal grants, CATA authorities thought the signs would ultimately benefit students, who comprise 70 percent of bus ridership.
"We could've put a sign up 20 years ago that showed scheduled time, but the 'real-time' is what makes it different," Bernier said.
CATA began the project about four years ago, when it decided to incorporate "smart bus" technology. It teamed up with Avail Technologies Inc., a technology-integrating company based in State College, to create a plan and then buy and implement the "real-time" components about two years ago.
The partnership's project has three components: installing the technology in the buses, unveiling the two signs and installing a Web module, Bernier said.
"If somebody's sitting in their class and they don't want to risk waiting in the cold for eight minutes, they don't have to," Bernier said.
The Web site, realtime.catabus.com/InfoPoint, is currently available, but won't be linked to CATA's Web site until about spring break time because it's still being tweaked, Bernier said.
"People are going to judge it based on their first experience, so we want to fine-tune it before rolling it out," Bernier said.
In addition to installing the Automated Vehicle Locating technology (AVL) in all CATA buses, project planners uploaded scheduling and routing data so the signs and the Web site can calculate how early or late a bus will arrive to the minute, Bernier said.
"Even if we don't push the information out with the sign and the Web site, it's an incredible tool from a fleet-managing standpoint," Bernier said. "Before, we had to wait for a driver to call in and say, 'I'm running late'. Now, the dispatcher has all this information at his fingertips."
In the future, CATA hopes to use the AVL technology to install automatic passenger counters and audible announcements at stops.
Mackrides is just glad he'll be in the loop with the help of these signs and the Web site.
"I'm always at the stop and people are like, 'Did the NV go by?' and no one knows," he said. "This will be a big improvement."
