On the Road to Smoother Commutes

SANTA ANA —  Orange County commuters soon will be relying on satellites to tell them exactly when buses will arrive, or dialing a phone number for traffic conditions relayed from sensors in the pavement.

The two innovations are part of a package of improvements, dubbed Intelligent Transportation Systems, being developed by the Orange County Transportation Authority.

During the project’s first phase, 15 Orange County buses will be outfitted with navigational computers developed during the Persian Gulf War. The computers use radio signals from satellites to determine a bus’ location. That information is conveyed to a central computer at OCTA headquarters, which will feed passenger kiosks at key points along each route.

With the press of a button, those waiting for a bus will be able to find out its estimated time of arrival.

The first computers will be installed on buses on three routes connecting Fullerton and Brea to Santa Ana, and Anaheim to Laguna Hills.

The first phase, built with $1.7 million in state funds, is expected to be completed in May. It will be evaluated for a year and then may be expanded to include the county’s entire fleet of more than 400 buses.

Phase 2 of the Intelligent Transportation Systems project, expected to be completed by the end of the year for $4.2 million, will make it possible for commuters to get up-to-the-minute traffic conditions by telephone.

“Say you’re traveling along the [Santa Ana] Freeway and it’s congested and you’ve got a cell phone,” said Dean Delgado, the OCTA’s principal transportation analyst. “You can call in to find out how far it goes, then make a decision on whether to stay put or get off the freeway and find another route.”

The information will be provided by electronic sensors in the pavement and by those same bus computers, which also will serve to record traffic congestion.

Such information is already available to Internet users on a Caltrans Web page.

The new technology will lay the foundation, Delgado said, for a time in the not-too-distant future when cars are equipped with computers and modems to automatically retrieve traffic information and display it to a driver.

“This is the next step in transportation,” he said. “You’re just starting to see it. This is bringing transportation into the 21st century.”

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David Haldane can be reached at (714) 966-5997 or at david.haldane@latimes.com