High-tech plan for city bus shelters

Arguing that Chicago's 2,200 lighted bus shelters are "under-utilized," newly appointed Transportation Commissioner Gabe Klein wants to put them to work — by installing video screens that provide an array of commuter information.

The TV-like screens that Klein hopes to install would include everything from Bus Tracker information now available on the Internet and cell phones to the current inventory for car- and bike-sharing and how long it would take to walk to popular destinations.

"Transportation is as much about information and technology as it is about infrastructure," Klein said.

In 2001, a French company won the right to install and sell advertising on 2,200 bus shelters across the city. That's despite a rival bidder's offer to guarantee Chicago taxpayers $39 million more over the 20-year life of the contract.

Two years later, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that CTA bus riders across the city were still waiting for buses in the dark because scores of the new bus shelters had not yet been lighted.

At the time, bus shelter contractor JC Decaux blamed the problems on Commonwealth Edison.

ComEd countered that lights were installed roughly 30 days after shelters were "electricity-ready" with secondary lines hooked to city street lights.

The problem has long since been resolved.

Now, Klein wants to make the most of those lighted shelters — just as he did while serving as transportation commissioner in Washington, D.C.

"In D.C., we piloted multi-modal screens in our bus shelters. They told riders when the next bus was coming. We designed an application that can run on any TV screen with real-time information about various businesses like car-sharing and bike-sharing," said Klein, who launched the nation's largest bike-sharing program in the nation's capital.

"I want to do something [in Chicago that's even] more robust that tells you in real time how many vehicles are available [for car-sharing], where the next-closest bus is and when it's coming and how long it'll take if I choose to walk there."