The city will install electronic signs at several key bus and Handi-van stops that can update riders with real-time information — such as whether a bus is running late — or let them know when the next bus is coming and which one it is.

"These will be message signs," said Roger Burke, chief of the city Public Transit Division. "It could be a real-time update. For the Handi-van, it could be, 'Mrs. Smith, your van will arrive (shortly).' "

A pilot project that went out to bid this month will mean the debut of five or more signs at spots across the Island as early as this year. Outlying transit centers, busy stops in the urban core and well-used Handi-van locations are among the sites being considered to showcase the new signs.

Officials said the signs are designed to complement myriad improvements the city is instituting for the bus system, whose ridership has spiked in recent months as gas prices rose.

In addition to streamlining routes, improving bus stops and buying more buses, the city also is looking at how technology can make riding the bus more user-friendly. So far, though, those discussions have been inhibited by a lack of funding and the difficulty in rolling out new technologies along the line.

But Roger Morton, president of O'ahu Transit Services, which manages bus operations, said the city is in preliminary talks to look at how to provide up-to-the-minute updates not only to signs at bus stops, but to riders via their cell phones and on the Internet.

The electronic signs will, in part, test how feasible it is to take the satellite-tracking information that is sent from buses to a control center, and relay that information elsewhere.

The city says the signs can automatically convert GPS information that updates the location of a bus every minute into immediate updates for riders, but the signs also can let riders know about delays, detours or bus route changes. At the Handi-van sites, the signs could personalize information to let specific people know their ride is minutes away.

The signs, which can be set up to update automatically or by personnel in the bus traffic management center, have been met with good reviews in several cities, including Long Beach, Calif., which has one of the nation's highest-rated transit systems.

At first, city officials said, it's unclear how many of the signs will get real-time updates.

"We're going to have to do an evaluation of how these things are working," Burke said.

FIRST REACTIONS

The city has about 40 of the signs, which have electronic boards for alerts to sweep across. Burke said the city will install as many of the signs as it can under the $134,000 installation contract now seeking bids.

The signs actually were purchased during Mayor Jeremy Harris' administration, but one of the barriers to installing them was powering them up. The bid seeks contractors who can power the signs with solar panels. The original price of the signs was not immediately available.

Riders at a busy bus stop at Ala Moana Center applauded the pilot project yesterday.

Many said they would love updates on where a bus is and whether it will be late or early.

"That'd be a big help," said Donna Souza-Davis, 22, who frequently takes the city bus from Wai'anae to Ala Moana Center. She said she is never quite sure whether she's missed the bus, which comes every hour, until it gets there. "It is kind of hard" figuring out the schedule, she said.

A tourist couple trying to find their way to Hickam Air Force Base agreed. They said they couldn't figure out which bus to take, when it came and whether they would have to transfer just by looking at the existing signs at the bus stop. They had to ask a bus driver for help instead.

Mike Fu, who is visiting from California but used to live in the Islands, added he hopes the electronic signs would be the first step in providing more real-time information to riders, possibly through their cell phones or on the Internet.

"It'd be nice if I knew where the bus was before I left the house," he said. Of the new signs, Fu added, "I think they'd be awesome."

But not everyone was so enthusiastic.

Luchia Novarina, of Waikiki, said the existing phone number to call for bus information and pamphlets available at sites across the Island (including libraries) with bus routes and schedules are good enough, without costing the city more money.

"I've got the schedule down," she said.

MODEL SYSTEMS

Right now, real-time data is not available to riders.

Morton said the satellite-tracking information now being collected on every bus in the city's fleet has the potential to give riders the latest data on the bus they need to catch. But getting that information to riders requires an initial investment, whether through a Web-based program or infrastructure upgrades.

"Nothing comes free," Morton said.

Still, other bus systems across the country are providing models for O'ahu, including Long Beach Transit, which installed electronic signs — similar to the ones that the city has for its pilot project — in 2004, and two years later was the third bus system in the nation to provide real-time information on bus locations through its Web site so people could actually track the progress of a bus online.

Photos of the Long Beach electronic signs at bus stops are included as an example in the city's request for bids to install its signs. Marcelle Epley, marketing manager for Long Beach Transit, said Long Beach has placed electronic signs at 25 busy stops. The signs alert riders on what bus is coming in the next few minutes. It also counts down the minutes until the bus arrives or alerts riders to delays.

"Our customers love it," Epley said. "We wish we could put these at every stop."

Epley said the real-time information, especially the data available online, has gotten widespread support from riders, who with wireless Internet access can check the progress of their bus from just about anywhere. Long Beach Transit officials have presented at conferences and other industry events to showcase how the system is incorporating technology into its routes.

The Long Beach bus system sees more than 27 million riders a year, compared to the more than 71 million who use O'ahu's bus service.