New Resort Bus Tracking System

BIERMUGG

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Don't know if this was reported before but at The Grand Floridian on Saturday 10/06 There is a Monitor at the bus stop that gives the estimated arrival times for the buses leaving to go to the parks. The system is constantly being updated by the buses GPS systems. The Disney research team was there asking for the guests input and likes and dislikes. The system is only at the GF for now, the system is on test to see how it works. They admitted it already has some bugs since not all buses have GPS.
 
Don't know if this was reported before but at The Grand Floridian on Saturday 10/06 There is a Monitor at the bus stop that gives the estimated arrival times for the buses leaving to go to the parks. The system is constantly being updated by the buses GPS systems. The Disney research team was there asking for the guests input and likes and dislikes. The system is only at the GF for now, the system is on test to see how it works. They admitted it already has some bugs since not all buses have GPS.

Guess this part surprises me.. I figured that those boxes they punched codes in not only set the signs on the bus, but also had gps built into it..
 
The older buses do not have GPS as per the cast member doing the survey.
Still it was a nice set up when we first arrived bus was supposed to show up in 9 minutes. it actually showed up 30 minutes later and the board constantly updating the arrival time.
 
I just got back from AKL a couple weeks ago and as we were waiting for the bus the last day, an SUV pulled up and a guy and a gal with electronic notepad lookin things came out and walked around the bus stop. I wonder if they were some sort of bus monitors as well :confused3 It was a little wierd; there were a few instances where we'd wait 20-25 minutes for a bus for the parks and it would be too full for us to get on, but another bus would be just a minute or two behind the last.
 

We saw it there in Sept after we did the 1900 Park Fare Dinner. It was not accurate AT ALL. It said we had a 10 min wait and we ended up waiting 40 min for a bus.
 
They tried this before a few years ago. We were staying at BC at the time. During "peak hours" it was fine. Not so good during mid-day and "non peak" times.
 
We saw it there in Sept after we did the 1900 Park Fare Dinner. It was not accurate AT ALL. It said we had a 10 min wait and we ended up waiting 40 min for a bus.

The older buses do not have GPS as per the cast member doing the survey.
Still it was a nice set up when we first arrived bus was supposed to show up in 9 minutes. it actually showed up 30 minutes later and the board constantly updating the arrival time.

Hopefully the GPS units will enable the bus system to be better managed in the future. We've all waited forever at a bus stop while watching the 3rd or 4th bus come and go for every other resort, or waited for an AK bus @ our resort while seeing 2 or 3 buses for DTD stop and leave. If the 'system' thinks a bus will arrive in 9 or 10 minutes and in fact it doesn't arrive until 3 or 4 times that estimate, then the system has some built in assumptions that are wrong.
W/ any luck, they'll use the GPS data they are collecting to actually update their assumptions and alter their dispatching/scheduling to reflect what really is happening on the roads @ WDW.
 
Neat, largely though the estimate calculation is going to take some time to refine down. A big part of changes occur as population levels on the bus are fairly dynamic between the stops.
 
I love this idea. I am suprised the imagineers haven't perfected this before now. They do so many amazing things I find it hard to believe they can't write a computer program that coordinates with the GPS units in the buses to divide the distance left to the resort by their average speed.

I know it's not quite that easy. :goodvibes
 
I love this idea. I am suprised the imagineers haven't perfected this before now. They do so many amazing things I find it hard to believe they can't write a computer program that coordinates with the GPS units in the buses to divide the distance left to the resort by their average speed.

I know it's not quite that easy. :goodvibes

But most major cities with mass transit systems have a computer system like this to inform the riders, complete with the smartphone app. Can't wait.
 
But most major cities with mass transit systems have a computer system like this to inform the riders, complete with the smartphone app. Can't wait.

I was just going to suggest that this needs to be part of an app. We've got wait times for rides, now add wait times for buses. What else can they add? Hopefuly they can work on the accuracy.
 
If this new system is accurate, I am all for it. A big part of our frustration with the bus system is never knowing how long it will take for your bus to come, this would be awesome!
 
There will defiantly be a steep learn curve for the Imagineers. And presents great promise if they are able to really flex their programing muscle.

The Imagineers could have the system use it will needs multiple sources of input to automatically adjust the number of buses on each route and quickly reassign buss routes.

Example, the system could data mine the Hotels occupancy records.
This would help with determining the scooters at a particulate resort.
If 2 buses were available to be dispatched but 1 had a single working tie down spot and the other had both spots available, the hotel with the highest handicap occupancy rate would get the buss with both working tie down spots.

Cameras could be installed to monitor line lengths. So, instead of having 2 buss pull up for MK when one could fit everyone at the resort, the 2nd buss could change routes to another park or to a different resort.

The system could also monitor weather reports and adjust schedules.
A 2pm T-storm pops up and shuts down the water parks. All available buses would be diverted to pick up guests leaving BB and TL.
 



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