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player ready...To hear CTA commuters talk, there’s an almost endless array of bus driver no-no’s, from rapid accelerations that send standing passengers rolling to sharp curb-climbing turns and demolition derby-style swerves.
Hoping to cut complaints as well as accidents, the Chicago Transit Authority will ask its board Wednesday to approve a $250,000 pilot project to install a driver-monitoring technology, called DriveCam, on 300 buses serving 16 routes. Surveillance, using motion-detecting recorders and video cameras, would begin before the end of the summer.
“The goal is to take a proactive approach to safety by identifying risky and dangerous driving behaviors and retraining drivers before accidents happen,” CTA President Ron Huberman said Tuesday during a technology demonstration at the agency’s bus garage on North Pulaski Road.
It’s about time, CTA riders said Tuesday.
“I constantly feel like my life is in jeopardy,” said Allison McCollum, who rides the No. 136 Sheridan/LaSalle Express buses to and from work. She said more cameras would help keep drivers in check because “they drive like maniacs most of the time.”
CTA buses were involved in more than 4,000 accidents in 2006, and the transit agency paid out $19 million in accident settlements, claims and court judgments last year. About 1,700 bus accidents — more than 300 a month — have occurred through May, officials said.
“With some of the new guys, you really have to hang on,” said bus rider Gus Reid, who simply shrugged as he described every ride as a little adventure.
Although the CTA bus drivers union raised concerns about adding more surveillance technology, some bus drivers said changes are necessary to keep careless operators in check.
“A driver would only have a problem with it if they can’t drive up to par,” said Charles Jackson, a No. 3 King Drive operator who has been driving for 16 years. “It wouldn’t bother me.”
Other drivers took a dimmer view of the plan.
“They’re already monitoring everything. We’ve got tracking devices, supervisors everywhere, not to mention the passengers complaining,” said Lakisha Nevels, who has been driving for nine years. She said many of the practices that DriveCam would flag, such as speeding or swerving from lane to lane, are necessary to keep the buses on schedule.
More oversight, Nevels added, would make driving more difficult. “Having them watching you messes up your concentration,” she said.
The goal is to identify those operators who need remedial instruction and those who probably should not have been hired in the first place, said William Mooney, the CTA vice president for bus operations.
DriveCam could be expanded to all 2,000 CTA buses if, at the end of the one-year experiment, it helps curb accidents and related expenses, officials said.
Equipping the entire CTA bus fleet with DriveCam would cost up to $2 million, officials said.
“As to the savings, we want to see how the pilot goes before making projections on what it could mean systemwide. That’s one of the reasons to start small and test it,” said CTA spokeswoman Noelle Gaffney.
Vehicle-monitoring technology is a less-sophisticated version of the “black box” recorders that the federal government requires on all commercial aircraft. It’s already in use by taxicab and limousine companies, a handful of bus transit agencies from Milwaukee to Washington, and parents who want to know how their teenagers are faring when alone behind the wheel.
DriveCam, mounted on bus windshields, contains audio and video recorders — one pointed forward toward the street and the other directly at the bus driver. In addition, an on-board accelerometer that is triggered by unusual motion measures G-forces caused by changes in speed and direction, both vertically and laterally.
The device records throughout a driver’s entire route, but the system is prompted to only save recordings of events that are beyond normal driving parameters, such as hard braking, swerving, rapid acceleration or deceleration and collisions, according to DriveCam Inc., the San Diego maker of the units.
The recorders capture data 10 seconds before and after an unusual event. Incidents are downloaded automatically via a wireless signal when a bus approaches the garage at the end of the day. Experts at DriveCam would analyze the tapes and send reports to the CTA.
The company said the technology has saved lives and reduced damage-claims and vehicle repair costs by at least 30 percent across the country.
Still, the union representing the CTA’s 4,600 bus drivers is objecting to the test, saying aiming cameras at the driver’s compartment would be an invasion of privacy.
“Cameras haven’t done anything to improve security. They’ve just been used for discipline and to punish drivers,” said Darrell Jefferson, president of the CTA bus drivers union, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 241.
Jefferson said CTA officials had not provided the information he requested about DriveCam. “We haven’t given any approval,” he said.
Officials said the transit agency has the authority to implement the monitors under the existing labor contract.
Such technology is on the upswing at U.S. transit agencies, according to the American Public Transportation Association.
“More agencies are using it, for training new drivers and as a positive way to get objective feedback,” said Virginia Miller, an association spokeswoman.
Miller said the equipment can also serve as “a powerful defense tool to protect bus drivers from false claims,” such as a passenger contending erroneously that a fall was due to the operator accelerating too fast.
Safety officials at Naperville-based Laidlaw International said using DriveCam has had an almost immediate effect on reducing risky driving.
“Accidents declined by 30 to 40 percent almost instantly and within a few months you watch aggressive driving actions go down by at least half,” said Jeff Cassell, vice president of risk management at Laidlaw, which has deployed DriveCam on about half of its 5,000 public transit buses across the U.S. The company also operates about 38,000 school buses and owns Greyhound Lines, both of which are not using the devices.
“We go out of our way not to use it punitively, but instead to help bus drivers see where they can improve,” Cassell said. “It is the silver bullet in changing human behavior.”
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Tracking drivers
Beginning this summer, the CTA is planning to evaluate a new vehicle monitoring technology that would blow the whistle on unsafe bus operators, helping curb accidents. Buses traveling the following routes will be equipped with the new devices:
#19 United Center Express
#20 Madison
#X20 Washington/Madison Express
#33 Mag Mile
Express
#53 Pulaski
#54 Cicero
#X54 Cicero Express
#57 Laramie
#65 Grand
#66 Chicago
#70 Division
#72 North
#73 Armitage
#74 Fullerton
#76 Diversey
#132 Goose Island Express
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