Where did the wi-fi go?
There was a lot of hype about it, but then, nothing. There are two reasons:

1. It wasn’t cheap. Costs weren’t made public, but I can’t imagine it would have been cheap to equip every bus with it. As Fredericton Transit doesn’t seem to care that much about passenger amenities/comfort, they just decided not to spend the money.

2. It didn’t really work that well. During the test period, they had a live webcam attached to one of the buses. As that was using the same connection as the wifi, the connection could be tested without having to go on that specific bus. If you watched it for any period of time, you’d see that the camera image wouldn’t update if the bus was travelling more than 60km/h. It also had reception issues on some areas on the north side, including Marysville. They may have been able to fix them, but that could have been expensive.

Sadly, that also means that there won’t be any real-time GPS-based updates. That system came with the wi-fi. For the time being, you’ll have to call the transit info line for real-time updates. (Of course, that line is closed for most of the morning and evening rush).

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As seen here, on the CBC, Fredericton is purchasing a traffic light sensor that can detect bicycles. $15,000 sounds a little steep for something that only bikes will use, doesn’t it? Fear not, as this device, according to the manufacturer, has advantages for drivers of non-bikes as well:

• It does a better job of detecting motorcycles
• It can see cars coming from 100ft away and trigger the light change earlier
• If the light’s about to change, it can hold the green for you if you’re less than 100ft away
• It tracks the direction of traffic so someone turning left too tightly won’t trigger the lights for the cross-traffic
• It works in all kinds of weather
• It sits on the pole so the road won’t have to be dug up when it breaks

$15,000 sounds like a lot, but compared to digging up the road to install an underground metal-detector loop, it’s a bargain.

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