The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is considering using drones to track its fleet of 6,000 buses, but the plan has sparked a backlash from transport union leaders who say it is a “shady” waste of money. There is.
The agency has until December 18 to outline how drones can be used to create “real-time maps” of bus locations and vehicle traffic patterns along routes, and provide information to businesses. The requested document was issued.
“DOB wishes to address the challenge of maintaining accurate and up-to-date vehicle location tracking for both buses parked within depot buildings and outdoors in uncovered parking lots,” the document states. is listed.
Union leaders say drones are ineffective compared to dispatchers who currently monitor bus routes, track vehicles on campus and ensure all vehicles are “safe for public service.” claims.
“How do you accomplish something like that with a drone? What do they know?” wrote Michael Caroube, president of the Subway Supervision Association, which represents more than 3,000 transit workers, in a post. told the paper.
“A drone spots a bus on the route, but what does the drone do? It doesn’t do anything. “It's not a drone that takes you from point A to point B,” Karoube said.
Philippe Valenti, president of Transportation Workers Union Local 106, which represents about 700 bus-hailing companies, called the MTA's drone plan “suspicious.”
“To me, they're suspicious because they have multi-year, multi-million dollar contracts with these vendors and it doesn't work out,” Valenti told the Post.
The MTA already uses a program called Yard Tracker to monitor its bus fleet, but Valenti said it is unable to accurately monitor vehicles parked in its 28 bus garages.
“Every time they launch into a new technology, it never works. It's a disaster,” Valenti charged.
He said the MTA should be investigated for wasteful spending.
“I think there should be an internal investigation to find out why they're spending so much money on these kinds of programs and getting no results. There seems to be something fishy going on and there seems to be some ulterior motive,” Valenti suggested.
Caroube agreed, saying the MTA's transition to drones could lead to another costly failure and further deepen the agency's reputation for mismanagement of funds.
“This is something that continues to happen and they just keep wasting money,” Calbe said.
“Yet the MTA is crying out they're broke. They need more money, they need more money,” he said.
“And you know what happens with congestion pricing? Having all that money doesn't change anything. The subway will always be the subway,” he said of the MTA's capital improvement projects. he added, referring to a controversial plan to charge motorists a $9 fee to enter Midtown to fund .
Documents released by the MTA do not specify the cost of the potential drone program.
An MTA spokesperson said the drone program could actually lead to cost savings for the city.
“New York City Transit is studying savings opportunities related to fleet management, and there are no new costs associated with the review,” the statement said.
