Department: Metro Transit
Contact: Kelly Vander Kley
Phone: (269) 337-8479
Email: vanderkleyk@kalamazoocity.org

Kalamazoo Metro Transit is excited to announce the receipt of $3.1 million in federal transportation stimulus dollars to be used to purchase an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS).

The ITS will greatly benefit public transportation in Kalamazoo County for both passengers and administrators by combining technologies such as automatic vehicle location, schedule adherence, vehicle safety sensors, automatic stop announcements, real-time bus arrival and departure information at major stops and online, back up cameras and sensors, and system monitoring that alerts of potential vehicle failures before they happen.

Supervisory staff at Metro Transit will be able to tell where buses are at all times creating the potential for more streamlined and accurate schedules. Passengers will easily be able to tell when a bus is nearing a stop. Bus drivers will be able to rely on many new safety features. Bus mechanics will also have the ability to keep buses safer and on the road more.

For those passengers using the demand-response services, this is equally exciting. The new system will easily help find the location of a waiting passenger and vehicles can be quickly diverted to pick someone up who calls for a ride that day. Efficiency will be greatly improved.

Transit systems all around Michigan are using these technologies and have shown that they are beneficial in creating a more cost effective and efficient public transportation system. Ann Arbor, Flint, Lansing, Saginaw, and Grand Rapids are just a few of the public transportation providers currently using ITS to streamline their operations, improve customer service and increase safety.

Passengers will be able to use these new features as early as 2010.

The mission of Kalamazoo Metro Transit is to provide the community with public transportation services that are dependable, convenient, safe, cost effective, and accessible for all.