Wireless Internet Access to Real-Time Transit Information

A transit vehicle information system that delivers estimated departure times for buses at user-selectable geographic locations to Internet-enabled mobile devices is reported. The system is not merely schedule based; it makes use of real-time vehicle position reports to predict travel times to future locations. How the physical restrictions of mobile devices (e.g., screen size and input options) affect user interaction and data presentation is discussed. The system is hosted on the World Wide Web and is freely available. An overview of the system architecture is provided and some preliminary usage results are presented.