Public transit vehicle arrival information system

Claim 2

An interactive information and control system for transit vehicles in a transit system, comprising: (1) a global positioning system device located in selected transit vehicles in the transit system for monitoring the position of said transit vehicles; (2) a system computer, (a) storing an historical transit data table containing transit vehicle schedules of the travel times necessary for said transit vehicles to move from one stop to another along their routes under different conditions, advertisements, and information for the operators and passengers of said transit vehicles, (b) selecting from said historical transit data table a schedule of travel times applicable for current conditions along a given route, and (c) using said schedule of travel times from said historical transit data table and said position of said transit vehicles at a given time to calculate predicted arrival times at which said transit vehicles will arrive at upcoming stops and incorporating, said predicted arrival times in a predicted transit data table; (3) means communicating between said global positioning system device and said system computer for transmitting said position of said transit vehicles to said system computer; (4) means broadcasting said predicted transit data table within the area served by the transit system; and (5) receivers selected from any member of the group consisting of portable receivers, receivers at selected vehicle stops, and receivers on board said transit vehicles within the transit system, said receivers adapted for receiving the broadcasted predicted transit data table and displaying at least subsets of said predicted transit data table associated with said selected receivers, including subsets containing said predicted arrival times, a hold time that said transit vehicles will pause at their current locations, said advertisements, and said information for said operators and passengers of said transit vehicles.

Claim 3

The system of claim 1 wherein at least one of said receivers on board receives and displays operator specific information acted upon appropriately by said operators of said transit vehicles based on the content of said operator specific information.

Claim 4

The system of claim 1 further comprising: at least one signal button suitably located for access by a passenger for sending a request for a type of service to said system computer, wherein said system computer receives location data contemporaneous with said request.

Claim 5

An interactive information and control system for transit vehicles in a transit system, comprising: (1) a global positioning system device located in selected transit vehicles in the transit system for monitoring the position of said transit vehicles; (2) a system computer, (a) storing at least one historical transit data table containing transit vehicle schedules of the travel times necessary for said transit vehicles to move from one stop to another along their routes under different conditions, advertisements, and information for the operators and passengers of said transit vehicles, (b) selecting from said historical transit data table a schedule of travel times applicable for current conditions along a given route, and (c) using said schedule of travel times from said historical transit data table and the position of said transit vehicles at a given time to calculate predicted arrival times at which said transit vehicles will arrive at upcoming stops and incorporating said predicted arrival times in a predicted transit data table; (3) means communicating between said global positioning system device and said system computer for transmitting said position of said transit vehicles to said system computer; (4) means broadcasting said predicted transit data table within the area served by the transit system; (5) receivers selected from any member of the group consisting of portable receivers, receivers at selected vehicle stops, and receivers on board said transit vehicles within the transit system, said receivers adapted for receiving the broadcasted predicted transit data table and displaying at least subsets of said predicted transit data table associated with said selected receivers, including subsets containing at least one of said predicted arrival times, a hold time that said transit vehicles will pause at their current locations, said advertisements, and said information for said operators and passengers of said transit vehicles; (6) means supplying contemporaneous status information regarding said transit vehicles and route conditions to said system computer; (7) means applying said contemporaneous status information to the predicted transit data table to update the predicted transit data table; and (8) means using the updated predicted transit data table to allocate said transit vehicles within the system.

Claim 6

An interactive information and control system for transit vehicles in a transit system, comprising: (1) a global positioning system device located in selected transit vehicles in the transit system for monitoring the position of said transit vehicles; (2) a system computer, (a) storing at least one historical transit data table containing transit vehicle schedules of the travel times necessary for said transit vehicles to move from one stop to another along their routes under different conditions, advertisements, and information for the operators and passengers of said transit vehicles, (b) selecting from said historical transit data table a schedule of travel times applicable for current conditions along a given route, and (c) using said schedule of travel times from said historical transit data table and the position of said transit vehicles at a given time to calculate predicted arrival times at which said transit vehicles will arrive at upcoming stops and incorporating said predicted arrival times in a predicted transit data table; (3) means communicating between said global positioning system device and said system computer for transmitting said position of said transit vehicles to said system computer; (4) means broadcasting said predicted transit data table within the area served by the transit system; (5) receivers selected from any member of the group consisting of portable receivers, receivers at selected vehicle stops, and receivers on board said transit vehicles within the transit system, said receivers adapted for receiving the broadcasted predicted transit data table and displaying at least subsets of said predicted transit data table associated with said selected receivers, including subsets containing at least one of said predicted arrival times, a hold time that said transit vehicles will pause at their current locations, said advertisements, and said information for said operators and passengers of said transit vehicles; (6) means supplying contemporaneous status information regarding said transit vehicles and route conditions to said system computer; (7) means applying said contemporaneous status information to the predicted transit data table to update the predicted transit data table; and (8) means using the updated predicted transit data table to allocate said transit vehicles within the system.

Claim 7

The system of claim 4 wherein at least one of said receivers on board receives and displays operator specific information acted upon appropriately by said operators of said transit vehicles based on the content of said operator specific information.

Claim 8

The system of claim 4 further comprising: at least one signal button suitably located for access by a passenger for sending a request for a type of service to said system computer, wherein said system computer receives location data contemporaneous with said request.

Claim 11

The method of claim 7 further comprising: repeating said broadcasting step (5), said applying step (6) and said broadcasting step (7) on a periodic basis.

Claim 12

The method of claim 7 wherein said plurality of vehicles have a global positioning system device for monitoring said positions of said plurality of vehicles.

Claim 13

The method of claim 7 wherein a system computer receives said plurality of vehicle positions, stores said at least one historical transit data table, stores said predicted transit data table, receives said contemporaneous status information, and stores said updated predicted transit data table.

Claim 14

The method of claim 7 further comprising: displaying to said operators of said plurality of vehicles operator specific information to be acted upon appropriately by said operators of said plurality of vehicles based on the content of said operator specific information.

Claim 15

The method of claim 7 further comprising: accessing, by a passenger with a portable access device, at least subsets of said predicted transit data table that has been broadcasted, including subsets containing at least one of said predicted arrival times, a hold time that said plurality of vehicles will pause at their current locations, said advertisements, and said information for said operators and passengers of said plurality of vehicles.