Portsmouth’s new public transport system is leading the drive towards a literal information superhighway, reports Sean Dodson for The Guardian.

“To encourage more people to ditch their cars, the city invested in a wireless mesh network: a web of wireless antennae, situated at bus stops, which supply the city streets with a huge amount of air-bound internet bandwidth.

In practical terms, this means that passengers at any of the city’s 37 real-time passenger information bus shelters are told exactly how long they will have to wait. This is not an estimate based on timetables, but accurate up-to-the-minute information beamed directly from the bus. Because bus operators have access to the exact location of their fleet, they can set schedules accordingly.

The city’s 308 buses have been equipped with their own “ruggedised” PC, running a version of Windows. Each bus is able to monitor its precise position with a GPS (global positioning system) connection and upload information about its accurate arrival time using a mesh mobile radio data modem.

Portsmouth is one of the first places in the world to build an advanced version of what some are calling the “electronic highway”. Also known as “transport telematics” or “intelligent transports systems” (Its), it borrows from a metaphor popularised by former US vice president Al Gore. The bus network in Portsmouth is literally an “information superhighway”. But instead of the internet being like the road network, Portsmouth’s road network is becoming like the internet.