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Ed Yeates Reporting From space, eyes are tracking more than seven thousand bus stops across the Wasatch Front.
It's so the Utah Transit Authority can improve bus efficiency. But in the process, they've found something interesting -- bus stops where only ghosts are waiting to get on board.
Every day, UTA buses make 4,000 trips, stopping - off and on - at 7,322 stops. Some buses are on time; some are not!
Justin Jones/ Utah Transit Authority: "We want people to come to a bus stop like this and know the bus is going to show up when we say it's going to show up."
Easier said than done! That's why UTA is using global positioning satellites to track every single bus stop.
Could buses become more efficient, eliminating some stops or moving them to a different location?
Bruce Hone/ Utah Transit Authority: "Maybe just moving it down half a block will change and it will become a very active stop."
How many variables slow down or speed things up between stops? For example, the bus on route 70 between Ogden and Salt Lake was late 70 percent of the time. Now, with changes, it's more than 80 percent on time.
Combine data from these GPS maps with what are called smart buses - now you've got even more information. For example, security!
Justin Jones: "We know exactly where people are locatd. If they call our hotline or 911, we know by the bus stop, within a foot, of where they're located."
What about the unknown number of so-called ghost bus stops nobody ever uses? GPS mapping is tracking those as well, and there may be lots of them.
Ed Yeates, Eyewitness News: "This is one of those spots where I'm standing right now in which nobody, nobody has ever boarded the bus before. So, before this story ends, we're going to celebrate, location number 134-136. I'm going to step on the bus."
The Utah Transit Authority is two years into the GPS mapping and tracking project. Back then, it juggled 10-thousand stops. Now, as UTA claims, it's a more efficient seven thousand.
