Smart School Bus GPS: Crime, Weather & Traffic Reports

[Hunter Brandon]

I have an idea and a small concept of a school bus GPS system that is unique to school buses because it will include recent crime reports in passing areas of concern, weather reports to date, traffic reports to date, and of course the ability to hold multiple destinations at once. With this I mean as soon as the bus would reach a destination to would automatically set to where the next bus stop would be

 

[phinds]

And your question is ... ?

 

[Hunter Brandon]

Is this a good idea to pursue? How would I go about the constructions?

 

[berkeman]

I have an idea and a small concept of a school bus GPS system that is unique to school buses because it will include recent crime reports in passing areas of concern, weather reports to date, traffic reports to date, and of course the ability to hold multiple destinations at once. With this I mean as soon as the bus would reach a destination to would automatically set to where the next bus stop would be

Would you tie it into www.CrimeReports.com ?

 

[Hunter Brandon]

Kind of like the same way you can search up local restaurants in the area except it would be more of an automatic occurrence

 

[phinds]

Is this a good idea to pursue? How would I go about the constructions?

Sounds to me like you are asking us to design it for you. Am I missing something?

 

[berkeman]

Is there a reason that you are specifying school buses for this service? Are they supposed to re-route if they see that a crime has been reported in the last few days on their normal route? What is the "use case" for this proposed device/service?

 

[Hunter Brandon]

Sounds to me like you are asking us to design it for you. Am I missing something?

No I'm just lookin to find out to start. Like blueprint wise

 

[Hunter Brandon]

Is there a reason that you are specifying school buses for this service? Are they supposed to re-route if they see that a crime has been reported in the last few days on their normal route? What is the "use case" for this proposed device/service?

Yes it would appear on the map like a street name would and would offer an alternate route

 

[256bits]

I have an idea and a small concept of a school bus GPS system that is unique to school buses because it will include recent crime reports in passing areas of concern, weather reports to date, traffic reports to date, and of course the ability to hold multiple destinations at once. With this I mean as soon as the bus would reach a destination to would automatically set to where the next bus stop would be

And all that information is usefull to the school bus driver in what way?

I notice that taxi drives who have a GPS unit in their car have a tendency to always glance to the unit and reference their location, even when traveling on a straight highway. It ends up being a distraction and a crutch that the driver seems to not be able to work without. Most bus routes do not change during the school year or even from year to year, the weather can be seen by looking out the window ( one might want to know the weather forcast before getting into the bus, and with that, related school closures, rather than once in the bus ), traffic reports are at most times a rehash from one day to the next, regardless of the traffic being light or heavy, accidents and lane closures might be beneficial only if the driver can take alternative route but there is a time delay of getting the information out, construction problems are usually pre-warned the day or weeks ahead, and displaying a record of crimes on a GPS unit display commited at the upcoming corner might be just too much information for the driver to process without losing concentration of keeping the vehicle stable on the road and able to deliver its contents to their destination without incident.

You did ask if it was a good idea to pursue? To present your idea to potential buyers and convince them it is beneficial in their line of work, you should have some sort of convincing information to counteract the arguments such as presented above, and maybe more. I would presume that you think it is a good idea, otherwise you wouldn't have come up with it, but it could be you really do not know for sure since the benefits are somewhat elusive and not applicable to each and every day.

So bucker down and give it some more hard thought of how the features of the unit would serve a need for the bus driver and company, if not today nor the next but perhaps next Tuesday and the day after that, and they will be happy they did have it, and the money spent was well served. Some features may be added, some withdrawn and others tweaked as you progress down the design phase.

I have no real opinion on its viability in the marketplace. Maybe they need it and just do not know that yet!

 

[Hunter Brandon]

And all that information is usefull to the school bus driver in what way?

I notice that taxi drives who have a GPS unit in their car have a tendency to always glance to the unit and reference their location, even when traveling on a straight highway. It ends up being a distraction and a crutch that the driver seems to not be able to work without. Most bus routes do not change during the school year or even from year to year, the weather can be seen by looking out the window ( one might want to know the weather forcast before getting into the bus, and with that, related school closures, rather than once in the bus ), traffic reports are at most times a rehash from one day to the next, regardless of the traffic being light or heavy, accidents and lane closures might be beneficial only if the driver can take alternative route but there is a time delay of getting the information out, construction problems are usually pre-warned the day or weeks ahead, and displaying a record of crimes on a GPS unit display commited at the upcoming corner might be just too much information for the driver to process without losing concentration of keeping the vehicle stable on the road and able to deliver its contents to their destination without incident.

You did ask if it was a good idea to pursue? To present your idea to potential buyers and convince them it is beneficial in their line of work, you should have some sort of convincing information to counteract the arguments such as presented above, and maybe more. I would presume that you think it is a good idea, otherwise you wouldn't have come up with it, but it could be you really do not know for sure since the benefits are somewhat elusive and not applicable to each and every day.

So bucker down and give it some more hard thought of how the features of the unit would serve a need for the bus driver and company, if not today nor the next but perhaps next Tuesday and the day after that, and they will be happy they did have it, and the money spent was well served. Some features may be added, some withdrawn and others tweaked as you progress down the design phase.

I have no real opinion on its viability in the marketplace. Maybe they need it and just do not know that yet!

I honestly do think in some cases this could benefit the bus driver. Sure, the bus driver would have to know to not constantly look at the GPS while driving 15-20 kids at a time, but I see this as more of a safety enforcer rather than a weather report. The weather tab is just an extra helper. It would be more of a hurricane, tornado, and earthquake warning watcher.

 

[256bits]

I honestly do think in some cases this could benefit the bus driver. Sure, the bus driver would have to know to not constantly look at the GPS while driving 15-20 kids at a time, but I see this as more of a safety enforcer rather than a weather report. The weather tab is just an extra helper. It would be more of a hurricane, tornado, and earthquake warning watcher.

There you go - good one - a warning for catastophic occurances that is most likely not installed in present vehicles.
Keep it going.

 

[phinds]

Another selling point would be that a routing GPS system would allow schools to be much more comfortable with inexperienced (in the route) drivers and new drivers. I would think a driver that is inexperienced in a route would find it a bit nerve-wracking to have to deal with a busload of kids AND try to figure out where to turn next.

Cost is going to be your big killer. School districts are notoriously poor so you would need some really strong selling points to make this a viable proposition.