The Central Florida Regional Transportation Authority, otherwise known as LYNX, has equipped their 290 fixed-route buses and 10 supervisor cars with Mentor Streets® Transit Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) technology from Mentor Engineering in order to maintain their high standards for on-time fleet performance and meet the growing need for public transportation.

"Now we can advertise that we can track any bus, any time, 365 days a year. That helps us tremendously and makes us more responsive to our riders," says David Burnett, Deputy Chief of Operations at LYNX, which accommodates in excess of 26 million riders each year.

The Mentor Streets ITS solution allows LYNX to track buses in real-time on color-coded, highly customizable maps. This capability means that when customer service receives 'Where's my bus?' questions from riders they can look at their onscreen map to see the exact location of the bus in question instead of sorting through reams of paperwork and radioing the driver to determine their status. Answers to customer questions are now instant and accurate.

LYNX's number one goal in implementing an AVL system was for improved on-time performance. With Streets, dispatchers, supervisors and maintenance personnel can be more proactive in addressing operational issues. For example, if a driver is falling behind schedule, dispatch is alerted immediately and can then contact the driver to determine the cause.

According to Brent Ritchie, Mentor's Regional Sales Manager: "The LYNX project represents the largest Mentor Streets AVL installation of its kind. LYNX has been exceptional to work with. Their expectations and understanding of Streets, and Mentor's integration expertise, has combined to make this a very successful project."

Prior to this installation, Mentor worked with LYNX's paratransit operation when they, together with Polk County Transit Services (PCTS), equipped their fleet with a joint ITS solution. The success of this project meant that the decision to use Mentor's technology in the LYNX fixed-route fleet was a "natural progression," according to David.

Building on their AVL acquisition, LYNX will soon be equipping their fleet with the Streets CAD module as well as Mentor Ranger® rugged in-vehicle computers, to expand and enhance Streets functionality in the field and the office.

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