From the Dayton Daily News ... 04/25

 

Cincinnati testing wireless on buses

Greater Dayton is watching the experiment and may offer the same as soon as 2007.

By John Nolan

Staff Writer

 

Cincinnati's public bus system is running a test program offering free wireless Internet access aboard selected routes to see whether there would be enough rider interest to expand the service and make it permanent. This week, the Metro bus system is offering the wireless fidelity service, or wi-fi, on a route that carries park-and-ride commuters from Paramount's Kings Island to downtown Cincinnati.

The goal is to attract to transit buses new and younger riders who could use the commuting time to do work by e-mail and other remote access through laptop or hand-held computers, Metro spokeswoman Sallie Hilvers said Monday.

 

http://www.daytondailynews.com/business/content/business/daily/0425buswi_fi.html

This will have a really small impact on the number of commuters. I hope these buses have numerous electical outlets and that people don't mind tripping over cords, because unless you have spare batteries or have a laptop that is conveniently fully charged, you wouldn't have much time to be on your computer. Bus rides aren't long enough for someone to accomplish much on their computer anyway. This is stacked up ontop of the fact that not many people bring computers on buses (from my experience). The bottom line is we need to find a reasonably priced fuel source that doesn't pollute the air and make us reliant on foreign countries. Wi-Fi the fuck out of public parks, buses, etc it's not going to attract a substantial amount of people to make it feasible.

 

 

^ The bus ride from Mason will provide plenty of time to check new posts on Urban Ohio!  :)  My laptop battery lasts for two hours, so I wouldn't have a problem with that issue.  However, I get motion sickness whenever I try to read on a bus or in a car, so I probably would not use the wi-fi anyways.

My battery life is about 50 minutes, it's an Acer. I used to have a Vaio with about an hour of battery life. If yours is 2 hours you must have a really efficient processor and/or a damn good battery. Maybe I've just been stuck with bad computers, I dont know.

you guys have some lame computers

:-)

I think I get about 3 hrs

I take a fairly short inner city bus and have seen maybe half a dozen people use laptops in 5 years.

Then, you gotta have a seat.

Seems like it would be a real PITA using a laptop while smoshed into a crowded bus with a bunch of obese people & rambunctious teenagers.

you guys have some lame computers

:-)

I think I get about 3 hrs

I take a fairly short inner city bus and have seen maybe half a dozen people use laptops in 5 years.

Then, you gotta have a seat.

Seems like it would be a real PITA using a laptop while smoshed into a crowded bus with a bunch of obese people & rambunctious teenagers.

What kind of processor do you have ? I'm wondering if it has to do with my oh-so-awesome intel mobile celeron .

Edit: Okay I just checked; it gets 1 hour and 5 minutes battery life.

^ Pentium 4.  My battery life is probably closer to 3 hours now that I think about it. 

 

"What kind of processor do you have ? I'm wondering if it has to do with my oh-so-awesome intel mobile celeron .

Edit: Okay I just checked; it gets 1 hour and 5 minutes battery life."

 

700mhz G3 PPC

I am looking at the new Intel Mac laptops, hadn't considered battery life.

hm.....