The MT Position

Posted by Fred Jandt
Mass Transit editor

In many ways the public transportation industry leads the way (or breaks new ground) when it comes to technology. From hybrid vehicles and alternative fuels to vehicle location systems and everything in-between transit is leading the charge to make use of technological advances. Of course, sometimes even transit can get passed.

I’m a self-professed gadget junky (I’ve professed it here before). So I am waiting with bated breath with seemingly the rest of the gadget community for next week’s Apple event where it is purported that the company will unveil its new tablet version of the iTouch/iPhone. While this may seem to only have minor repercussions in the transit industry, its length may be much farther reaching.

On the surface the relationship between transit and technology is usually viewed from a what is new for the system perspective, not taking that step back and seeing what is new for riders and how it affects the system perspective. A perfect example of this is Wi-Fi. Amtrak just announced it was implementing free Wi-Fi on some of its routes last week. That is great for its riders, but it may be too little, too late.

I know of two bus systems that had installed free Wi-Fi on some routes and pulled it not because of the costs (well in part because of the costs), but mainly because people weren’t using it. Sure, it can be argued that local service doesn’t allow people to be on buses long enough to boot up their computer and hook into the Wi-Fi, and this might be the reason Wi-Fi will work for Amtrak — longer travel times. But I think the real reason people weren’t using Wi-Fi on these routes isn’t that they didn’t want it — it’s that they didn’t need it.

 What were people on the bus or train using Wi-Fi for? Likely checking their email and Web surfing. No my cell phone does that, and it’s not a so-called “smart phone” like the iPhone or one of the variety of Blackberries. Before transit could even take advantage of the portability of computers via wireless Internet the technology has passed it by.

Now what affect will the iTablet/iPad/iSlate have on transit? Reportedly Apple is targeting to do with print media with the new tablet what it did to music with the iPod. If it is even close to that level of success that means a paradigm shift in how people view the world. Transit needs to be aware of these technology shifts among its customers so it can take best advantage of them.

There are currently more than a dozen applications (apps) for the iTouch and iPhone related to public transportation. Of course, when you compare that to the more than 100,000 apps in iTunes it becomes an infinitesimal amount. Technology shifts are happening. Except now they are happening to the public at large and not just at transit agencies.

Public transportation needs to not focus on what it’s doing so much that it lets the world pass it on by. Then those old mantras about transit being slow an inefficient will unfortunately prove they are true.

Thanks for reading the MT Position updated every Friday,

Fred
fred.jandt@cygnusb2b.com
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This entry was posted on Friday, January 22nd, 2010 at 8:53 am and is filed under MT Position. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.