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Tech

The Buses of the Future Will Be Electric, Wiretapped, and Crowded

As the US becomes more urban, buses are becoming more popular with riders and the Department of Homeland Security.

Pity the bus. Despite being relatively convenient, greener than driving or carpooling, cheaper to build than subways, and ideal for navigating cities not necessarily built around mass transit, buses get a bad rap. They're snootily assumed to be dirty and cramped; the province of the mobile poor. A means of last resort.

But they're not. I've ridden buses from New York City to Philadelphia to L.A. to Washington D.C., and found each to be pretty uniformly clean and comfortable. Apparently, so do a growing number of other folks. Public transportation ridership was up 2.6 percent from last year, according to the American Public Transit Association. And buses alone saw nearly a two percent spike–for the seventh quarter in a row, more people than ever were getting on the bus.

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Which makes sense. As more people move into urban areas–many doing so precisely because convenient transit options and shorter distances eliminate the need for cars and long commutes–cities are looking for ways to keep moving them around. Buses are an ideal option, because they require less infrastructure than underground or light rail, and routes can be more flexible.

Buses are a key midfuture transit solution, especially if adequately invested in. Fleets are going to need to be bigger and better-maintained, and technology will have to improve to reduce emissions as they swerve around inner cities. But buses also face a number of other hurdles, not the least of which is public stigmatization–and new plans from the federal government to spy on bus riders aren't going to help anything.

So here's a quick look at the near-term future of the bus. They're slowly getting more efficient, greener, and more accessible with smartphone tech. But they're also going to be crowded and filled with listening devices.

Cleaner, Greener Bus Tech

This one's been cooking a while, and progress is being made. Many cities are investing in bus technology. Oakland has a handful of buses that run on hydrogen power cells, New York has low-emissions hybrid buses, and cities are experimenting with Bus Rapid Transit systems like those popularized in Brazil.

High speed bus corridors are being explored in places like Chicago and the East Bay, where riders can expect train-like efficiency for bus-like costs. No major technological advances are necessary to propel BRT, and it's a smart way to move people within existing transit infrastructures.

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But inside cities, cleaner tech will be required to get the diesel out of folk's faces and to draw in more riders. Hydrogen is still way too expensive, and electric buses run on too limited a range. Nonetheless, companies like GE are sensing a future in ultra-low emissions buses. GE has invested heavily in novel battery technology that combines conventional electric car lithium ion batteries with hydrogen cells and its own Durathon technology.

Meanwhile, smart phones have already made finding bus stops and timing arrivals easier than ever. I've been using plain old Google Maps to navigate cities' bus departures, and found it works extremely well. With the smartphone wielding demographic rising, more folks will be able to easily find and understand bus routes, which is a genuine barrier to entry to anyone hoping to use buses on the fly or to navigate a new city.

More Cramped, More Spying

Lest we get too optimistic about the future of buses, let's consider the mighty downsides: overcrowding, underfunding, and surveillance from the Department of Homeland Security, to name a few.

Public transit is perennially underfunded, and buses are no exception. Bus budgets face frequent shortfalls; just Google the term and see the slate for yourself.

And, as we've seen, ridership is rising. Without attendant investment in more buses and drivers, buses in denser cities are prone to get cramped and less reliable.

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If only transit authorities could use the money seeded from the DHS on transportation-related improvements instead of advanced surveillance gear, but alas, 'tis the world we live in. After all, news recently broke that, according to Wired,

Transit authorities in cities across the country are quietly installing microphone-enabled surveillance systems on public buses that would give them the ability to record and store private conversations, according to documents obtained by a news outlet.

The systems are being installed in San Francisco, Baltimore, and other cities with funding from the Department of Homeland Security.

Bus surveillance is nothing new, but bugs are only getting smarter.

The systems are compatible with facial recognition software, and, at least in Oregon, they're advanced enough to isolate single conversations from the noise. Proponents of the plan say it will make buses safer. Everyone else is creeped the hell out. There is, after all, no better way to deter public transit ridership than ensuring that your every conversation will be recorded while you're aboard it.

So the future of buses is muddy, to say the least. They could prove to be a popular, green, super-fast, and important cornerstone of mass transit systems. Or they could be Big Brothery cesspools that no one ever wants to ride. They're likely to be both.