Southeast Missouri State University student publication

DPS says shuttle trackers down until fall, to be replaced by third-party application

Friday, April 1, 2022
Ahmed Salehin waits outside the Starbucks on campus with two other students. He said he will often do homework there because it is the best place to see the bus. But with a tracking app, he said he would have more freedom to work out or go somewhere else.
Photo by Matt Morey

The shuttle tracking service application will be down for the rest of the semester, assistant vice president of Information Technology (IT) Floyd Davenport said. He said the Department of Public Safety (DPS) is trying to replace it this summer with a new third-party application.

Davenport said the in-house-developed shuttle tracking application is at least seven years old and typically shows the time a shuttle will take to arrive at each stop. It has not shown these times since the beginning of Spring 2022.

Davenport said IT workers were responsible for specific applications. He said the app failure occurred after a long-time programmer, who did yearly checks on the application, left his position last November or December.

He said they started having problems with the application after a yearly update of the tracking service, and then "coincidentally, [the programmer] moved on to another job."

He said the position has not yet been filled.

A couple of months ago, he decided to switch to a commercial developer for the next tracking system, which he intends to do this summer. He said the in-house system “aged out,” and using a commercial developer could come with a lot of advantages.

With a new application, Davenport said students will see when a bus will arrive and its exact route. He said the current buses notify the tracker when they reach a stop, but do not update for reroutes.

He also said this could allow the unfilled programmer position to include different responsibilities than the tracking app.

Geinia Wynn waits outside Starbucks for the shuttle bus. The tracking system has not worked for the majority of the spring semester.
Photo by Matt Morey

DPS director Beth Glaus said the shuttles now are sometimes rerouted for people who are handicapped or for unexpected events like crashes or traffic jams, so sometimes, the arrival times are inaccurate.

She noted another enhancement of the commercial tracking system may be that it will keep data for the federal government that is normally handwritten by the drivers.

Davenport said he will evaluate a couple of companies for the tracking app based on cost and functionality.

Glaus said they will research federal grants to help pay for it. She said it is part of an operating expense, so it is unlikely to be part of a student fee.

Meanwhile, students are frustrated by the lack of a shuttle tracking service, but have adapted.

Technology management graduate student Ahmed Salehin rides the shuttle from River Campus. He said sometimes, it’s unclear whether he’ll wait one minute or 30 minutes. He said he usually does his homework at Starbucks right by a bus stop.

“I can do my homework at Starbucks, but that’s not exactly the ideal place to do it all the time,” he said.

Salehin said the shuttles occasionally pick him up if he waves, but he once had to chase a bus down near the Student Recreation Center as he was walking towards the stop.

Health science junior Geinia Wynn said it can be a “guessing game” to wait for the buses.

“There will be times when it’ll be there earlier, so I’ll be at Towers, and I’ll hear it pulling off,” she said. “So, [after that], I know I’ll have to wait [another 20 minutes].”

Wynn said she expected the shuttles to be fixed by now, but Davenport said there will be more communication from DPS concerning the shuttle tracking system.

Glaus said the River Campus maps show which buses function at certain hours, and how long between each stop they should take. She said it is typically 7 to 13 minutes between stops.

Glaus encourages people to check the maps online to schedule their days around the routes.

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