Bus driver Michelle Akins takes her elderly customer's elbow and guides her across the sidewalk in front of her neat brick home on Harrison Avenue in Gary.
Once on the Community Action bus on Monday, Akins asked Mary Wiggly how she had been and helped her fasten her seat belt.
Then, Akins settled back into the driver's seat and took a quick look at the "Ranger," a small computer monitor mounted on the dashboard. A blue line tracing itself across a map of the neighborhood showed her the way back to Broadway.
Then a British-accented, female voice from the Ranger told her, "Turn right in 200 yards."
Though Akins is doing the same caring job she has done for years as an demand-response bus driver, the wireless computer installed in her vehicle in June has put her at the forefront of a revolution in transportation.
Coming under the heading of intelligent transportation systems, wireless and wire-line technology like the Ranger hold out the promise of achieving previously undreamed of efficiencies in transportation.
The computer helps bus drivers find the fastest route to riders' homes and destinations. Along with computerized dispatching, it has enabled the 24-bus Northwest Indiana Community Action Corp. fleet to increase capacity 50 percent.
Coming under the heading of intelligent transportation systems, wireless and wire-line technology like Community Action's holds out the promise of achieving previously undreamed of efficiencies in transportation.
"You want to use your existing transportation facilities more efficiently, because there is not an unlimited amount of money to invest in infrastructure in the future," said Srinizas Peeta, director of the Region V NEXTRANS center at Purdue University.
In Northwest Indiana, what might be called "the first generation" of such systems is already in place. Traffic Wise electronic billboards on the Borman are one example. The Indiana Toll Road's I-Zoom system is another.
Now advances in wireless technology and the ubiquity of personal communication and computing devices will act as "triggers" for taking such systems to the next level, Peeta said.
"In general, I believe Northwest Indiana would be a prime test bed, because of all the traffic we have up there," Peeta said. "The potential benefits would be enormous."
The most recent five-year transportation bill passed by Congress authorizes $550 million in spending to develop such systems, but ends spending for deployment. That compares to $1.3 billion authorized for the 1998 to 2003 period for both development and deployment.
Peeta said while on their face those figures would seem to say federal support has lessened, it actually may be a recognition of the fact that advances in the area will be driven by public-private partnerships.
Still, those partnerships can be difficult to bring about, because of unfamiliarity with the benefits of the technology and the newness of the concept.
"In traditional metrics, people recognize we built a new lane, we built a new roundabout, we put up a new traffic light," said Robert Wichlinski, 21st Century Systems Inc. director of commercial systems. "And we all recognize the cost of vehicles sitting in traffic. But when we try to do something about it, people resist."
Wichlinski has been seeking support from the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority and the state for an intelligent transportation pilot project.
A system 21 CSI is calling TRACS would provide drivers and emergency responders with real-time information on traffic and roadways. It would go one step further by providing motorists with solutions to their traffic quandaries via roadside displays, radio and Internet.
With about $2.5 million in seed money, Wichlinski believes 21 CSI could develop an intelligent traffic system and install it on about a mile of expressway and two side roads. The company would invest between $500,000 and $1 million in the project.
Wichlinski said such a system installed on several miles of the Borman could have recouped more than its cost during the August flooding that closed the expressway.
Via smart signs, radio and Internet drivers would have been apprised of alternate routes to take miles away from the actual closure, Wichlinski said.
Community Action has been vigorously pushing its new intelligent dispatching system. So far, it has one taker, North Township, which will piggyback on the agency's computerized dispatch center starting in January.
Phillips sees a day when buses and South Shore trains could be "tied together" by electronic message boards in bus shelters and train stations.
For those on the ground like bus drivers Akins, it's not about the grand scheme of things, but about keeping the elderly connected with their community.
"For them it's very important," Akins said after helping Wiggly into Alliance Adult Day Care in Munster.
"They can do more than just sit in the house. They can get out and see other people and see their surroundings. And honestly, many just like taking that ride on the bus."
