Many British Columbian transit users will soon have a new way to find out if their bus is on time.

B.C. Transit is rolling out a real-time bus tracking system in seven B.C. communities outside the Lower Mainland, starting with Nanaimo in May.

NextRide automatic vehicle locator software will allow transit users to track their preferred bus online as it moves along its route.

"This is actually going to provide our customers with some fantastic planning tools," said Christy Ridout, B.C. Transit's director of corporate and strategic planning.

"Everybody's time is precious and this takes away that guess factor of 'was I too late?'"

After Nanaimo, the Comox Valley fleet will be upgraded in June, then Squamish and Whistler buses in the summer, followed by Kamloops, Kelowna and Victoria buses in the fall and winter.

'Technology has come a long way'

Ridout said the software goes beyond bus schedules by letting people know what's actually happening on the road.

Customers will be able to use the NextRide website to view both a map — detailed with the exact location of their bus — and the estimated arrival time of a bus calculated by the its speed and location.

Ridout said B.C. Transit watched how TransLink's bus tracking website worked — a similar system which has been operating for years — and wanted NextRide to improve upon it.

"Technology has come a long way from when this type of model was first introduced into the transit system," said Ridout.

"As a result we're going to get a platform that works for our operation staff as well as being easy for our customers to use."

$11.7M program

​Information gathered from the technology will also give B.C. Transit a better idea of how their buses perform at various times of day, where they get jammed up in traffic and how quickly they complete each route.

Ridout said the gathered information will be used to create more efficient schedules and routes.

The NextRide software is part of B.C. Transit's larger Smart Bus program. The program will also see fleets equipped with automatic passenger counters and closed-circuit security cameras in coming years.

In total, Ridout said the Smart Bus program will cost $11.7 million, with the cost being shared by municipalities and the provincial and federal governments.

With files from On the Island