Real time bus info in Mt Eden, AucklandI’m a big fan of real-time bus inform­a­tion – elec­tron­ic signs that use GPS tech­no­logy to tell you pre­cisely when the next bus is com­ing, rather than hav­ing to rely on the the­or­et­ic­al arrival time of the prin­ted timetable.

These have been up and run­ning in Auck­land for a few years now, and when I was liv­ing there it made catch­ing a bus just that much easi­er.

For example, I could avoid sardin­ing myself into a packed bus if I knew there was anoth­er one com­ing along soon. And instead of just wait­ing at the bus stop, I’d know if I had enough time to grab a cof­fee or browse in a shop before the bus came, or even walk for a bit to the next stop. And if a bus was run­ning late, I’d know that too.

So it’s excit­ing to see that the Great­er Wel­ling­ton region­al coun­cil are in the pro­cess of plan­ning a real time bus info sys­tem. They have a sur­vey up (run­ning until July 20), want­ing to know what sort of inform­a­tion you’d like, how you’d like it delivered, etc. And there’s also the pos­sib­il­ity to register interest in being part of a focus group.

Take the sur­vey now plz.