With more than half of the freshman class living on North Campus, waiting for the bus at the Central Transit Center — more prominently known as C.C. Little — is a daily routine for many University students.
Though the bus stop was renovated in 2010, the overhead screens and touch screen kiosks implemented as part of update are not being used to their full potential, according to the officials at the University’s Parking and Transportation Services.
Keith Johnson, associate director of transportation operations, said PTS is currently working to incorporate real-time information onto the display boards. Johnson said a contract was recently signed with a company that will make the MagicBus tracking system more compatible with the interface of the overhead boards, a change he anticipates will be made by the start of fall semester.
While the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority currently shares use of the stop, the overhead boards will only display the schedule of University buses. Johnson said AATA is independently working on its own real-time bus tracking system and it’s not clear if AATA arrival schedules will also be incorporated into the screens in the future.
While waiting for a bus back to North Campus on a recent cold night, Engineering freshman Mitch Lawyer said he would appreciate an accurate display of arrival times on the boards.
“I think it would definitely be helpful, especially when the weather’s colder,” Lawyer said. “I don’t like having to stand out here and wait for 10, 15, 20 minutes.”
Other students expressed frustration with faulty computer terminals that display the MagicBus map. Though the kiosks are intended to allow students to navigate bus routes with a touch screen, the devices are rarely turned on and screens often appear frozen.
While Johnson said one of the kiosks has now been turned on, the touch-screen capabilities have been locked due to security issues that arose after the screens were initially activated.
“There were things displayed on there other than the MagicBus,” Johnson said. “We locked them down a couple of times and it was not successful, so that’s why we had taken them actually offline for a while.”
Engineering freshman Francis Petelin, who rides the bus to the Bursley Residence Hall regularly, said he no longer feels he can rely on the kiosks.
“I don’t even bother with them, to be honest,” Petelin said.
Since mid-December, one kiosk has been running with the touch-screen capability disabled, but security provisions are currently being implemented that will allow all functions to work properly, Johnson said. He anticipates that the entire kiosk system will be fully functional within a month.