Kansas agency equips fleet with GPS

Kansas’ Lawrence Transit can now send a text message to find out when their bus will arrive.

All city and university buses have recently been equipped with GPS tracking units, which transmit the location of all vehicles at any point in time. With this technology in place, passengers now have the ability to know when their bus is coming.

“This new feature will make it more convenient for people to use the bus,” said Robert Nugent, city transit administrator. “It allows you to personalize your travel by using your own mobile phone to receive the next bus arrival times.”

Each bus stop in Lawrence is assigned a bus stop number. When a text message with the bus stop number is sent, the system then predicts when it will arrive at the selected stop.

Bus riders should still get to the bus stop a few minutes early since many factors can affect the arrival time.