MTA considers using drones to track buses

November 29, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

A B44 Select Bus Service bus. Photo: MTA

Share this:

CITYWIDE – THE METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY’S DEPARTMENT of Buses recently issued a request for information about a potential plan to use drones to track the city’s bus fleet both at its yards and depots and while out and about on roads. The authority thinks this could be a low-cost solution to its inventory management difficulties, with drones being sent to regularly survey bus movements within its storage facilities “to inform a real-time ‘map’ of the buses,” as well as to monitor traffic patterns along bus routes.

Transit union leaders who spoke to the New York Post, however, believe the idea could be a waste for the habitually cash-strapped MTA, saying that previous tech-based inventory management ideas have failed to deliver results despite high price tags, and championed the continued service of dispatch workers instead. “A drone sees a bus running down a line and what is the drone doing? It does nothing. That supervisor out in the field is what moves the system,” Subway-Surface Supervisors Association president Michael Carrube told the Post, adding, “This is something that goes on continuously, and they just continue to waste money.” The MTA responded that it believes the drone system has the potential to reduce costs.

The MTA’s request for information form – which is not a solicitation of proposals – can be found online on the MTA’s website, and asks interested vendors to submit responses including descriptions of potential existing designs, regulatory issues, infrastructure requirements and other details. Responses are due by Dec. 18.

✰✰✰