GT buses circulate on fixed routes with small headways. Such systems are subject to bus “bunching” – large headways tend to grow even larger and small headways tend to shrink still more. As a result, some riders wait a long time for service, and then see one full bus followed by another that is nearly empty. Bunching is the largest single complaint in most metropolitan bus systems.

To date: The team has built a forecasting, computation, and communication system that coordinates the buses to reduce bunching and so provide better service. Tablet computers on the buses report GPS data in real time to a central server, which processes it and then communicates instructions to drivers via the tablets. Current focus: fine-tune the system and extend it to other GT routes and off-campus. For more info: http://www.NextBUZZ.gatech.ed