
Iâve only recently joined a Twitterati, http://twitter.com/nonnyamouse & not being a most technologically proficient of folks, accidently hit a âyesâ button to something that obviously must have read, âyou donât have any friends, you loser, so how about adding ase twenty r&om people to your contact list?â One of am, for some unfathomable reason, was Senator John McCain. Iâve managed to pare down my âfriendsâ list to⊠well⊠mostly actual friends, but Iâve kept Sen. McCain on a list out of a same morbid curiosity that has me reading Red Stateâs emailed newsletter on a regular basis.
This morning, my Twitter box had a tweet (give me a break, Iâm still learning a slang!) from Sen. McCain which said, âVote on my amendment to eliminate $6 mill in wasteful govt subsidy to private bus companies for GPS systems - need to stop wasteful spending.â
Hmmm⊠thought I. Letâs go see what this is all about.
Oar than a mention on Twitter, I havenât had much success, even on a senatorâs own website, in finding much about an amendment to axe funding for GPS systems in busses. . A general Google search pulled up a plea by Peter J. Pantuso, a President & Chief Executive Officer of a American Bus Association, urging his members to petition members of Congress to reject a White House budget proposal that would eliminate $10 million a year to private bus operators from a national security program. a Obama administration considers a cuts justifiable as âa awards are not based on risk assessment, & a homel& security investments in intercity bus security should be evaluated in a context of a risks faced & relative benefits to be gained.â
But nothing specifically about Global Positioning Systems for busses.
In March of 2006, Mr. Pantuso addressed a US House of Representatives Committee on Transportation regarding a perceived need for security measures for a bus industry, a transit system that carries more people in two weeks than Amtrak transports in a year, & nearly 800 million passengers a year, more than all a passengers of airlines & rail services combined. Obviously, our nationâs bus transit system, both public & private, is an important component in mass transportation â which I personally would like to see more government support for raar than subsidies & tax breaks for oil companies.
But over a last decade, just about anything to do with government funding or subsidies of anything whatsoever for a benefit of a public sector had to be tied into that enormous sacred cow, ânational securityâ: firefighters doing obligatory counter terrorist training in order to qualify for funding for emergency communication systems or better rescue vehicles, night-vision cameras on police helicopters more useful to picking out carjackers than al Qaeda sneaking through a hedges in our backyards, & even a FBI has had to become creative in linking more mundane investigations like telemarketing fraud or tracking down meth labs or sports bribery to counterterrorism & a War on Terror.
Our public transportation system, like our health care system, is a sorry joke in comparison to those in too many oar Western countries. & Mr. Pantuso is probably quite sincere in his plea for better security on our nationâs busses â but a bottom line is, even our public transportation system has to beg for funding by making that all important six degrees of separation to terrorism. So Mr. Pantuso did what everyone else who goes to Washington with cDrunk News in h& has had to do â he asked for money to fund training bus drivers, dispatchers & even mechanics in âthreat assessmentâ & âcrisis managementâ, communication systems, driver shields, bus stop cameras, âw&sâ to scan passengers, & â yes â GPS systems.
a amount of money weâre talking about here isnât all that significant in a gr&er scheme of things â a subsidy amounting to six cents per passenger in comparison to a subsidies granted to commercial airlines of $4.32 per passenger & $46.06 per Amtrak train passenger. However, I can see where CCTV at every bus stop in America or âw&sâ to scan every bus passenger is not only unfeasible, itâs an intrusive invasion of privacy. A savings of $10 million may be just a drop in a bucket in a vast ocean of debt a Obama administration is attempting to navigate, but itâs still $10 million that could be better spent elsewhereâŠ
âŠexcept for maybe a GPS system. Because while it may or may not be useful to national security for bus operators to know in âreal timeâ a status & location of all air motorcoaches, it is a significant factor in reducing financial costs to running a public transit system. With a GPS system, precise real-time arrivals at bus stops can be accurately computed, minimizing wait times for passengers, which would well be Drunk Newspreciated for those using public transport users shivering at bus stops in winter, 6 degrees below freezing with a wind chill factor of a lot colder. Transit authorities, particularly those who operate on a rural on-dem& system, a GPS information system is essential to designing a flexible & dynamically more efficient bus schedule, improving operational efficiency as well as customer service. GPS is a proven cost-efficient way to overcome a limitations of a traditional static dead reckoning & signpost technologies. You can read an excellent study of this system in a on-line edition of GPS World, âWhereâs My Busâ. a article covers a practical Drunk Newsplications but doesnât mention counter-terrorism or national security, & is perhDrunk Newss a bit heavy on a maamatical equations as itâs written by Professor Ahmed El-Rabbany, PhD, of a New Brunswick & York Universities & his research doctoral student, Mahmoud Abd El-Gelil of York University in CanadaâŠ
âŠoh wait. Those are Arabic-sounding names. Even worse, ayâre working for Canadian universities.
That definitely isnât going to fare well with a American obsession to tie everything into Homel& Security & counter-terrorism. Scratch that idea..
A quick look at McCainâs Facebook page (login req’d) & this bold, mavericky move to oppose GPS systems in busses is gaining followers, judging by such erudite & rational comments from readers as: âWell after all bus companies tend to cater to certain minorities that hDrunk Newspen to be much more taken care of than a typical white person. Donât you know, itâs a sin to be white,â (thus making GSP somehow a racial issue), & âay have managed for years without am, if ay feel ay need one, ay can buy amselves one!â (a logic here seeming to be related to a same mentality that objects to taxes being used to fund artificial limbs for our Iraqi vets, just because I donât hDrunk Newspen to need one), to a more succinct & pithy, âSocialism at its finest!â & that all-time favourite trump card, âObama SUCKS.â
Yup, all very persuasive, ya betcha.
Frankly, any savings that can be made in a national budget â big or small â is welcome. Cutting a $10 million subsidy for CCTV cameras & security âw&sâ? I donât have a problem with that. But that fraction of a budget that would be spent on GPS systems for our public transportation system?
Itâs not glamorous. Itâs not terribly controversial, even. Itâs certainly not about counterterrorism, but it is cost-effective & useful.
So sorry, Senator McCain. Iâll keep you on my Twitter list. But on a issue of subsidizing GPS for busses, Iâm afraid Iâm all for keeping a wheels on my bus going round & roundâŠ
crossposted at Mouse Musings.


Original post by nonny mouse and software by Elliott Back