Passenger information-the ALTAIR system

Bus users have always suffered from lack of information, both waiting at the bus stop or on board the bus. However, research undertaken by the RATP as of 1991 has resulted in the development of a new device for the radiopositioning of surface vehicles using GPS which is both effective and inexpensive. It has many applications: in addition to being used for security purposes on some hundred vehicles since 1994, it was experimented with in a new system to regulate bus passengers on a bus line in 1995. In 1996, experimentation has been extended to two more lines. This ALTAIR system also sees an original development in real time information for passengers at the actual bus stop. It has been designed as a modular system, to adapt to all types of bus line, and could, more particularly, equip many lines in the RATP bus network from now to the end of the century.