The Department of Public Safety is completing beta testing for a website that will provide the routes and locations of the Daytime Campus, Daytime Waltham and Boston/Cambridge Crystal Shuttles in real time and will be available for public use within 2 weeks, according to Head Coordinator of Operations for the Department of Public Safety's Escort Safety Service and Executive Senator for the Student Union Abraham Berin '11.The website utilizes data from GPS tracking units that have been installed in the shuttles over the past few months. This process follows individual quality assurance testing to ensure that each of the tracking units functions properly, and it is the final step before the system will be available for public use.

Once the testing is complete, students will have access to a website that displays the location of the Crystal Shuttles in real time. The website will provide the estimated time of arrival at the shuttles' next stops and students can choose to have this information sent to them via text mes-sage.

The installation process began in fall 2010 after the Student Union discussed it the year before. "This was an idea brought up in the [Student] Union last year continually, and funds were an issue. . As a result, [the project] never got off the ground," said Berin in an interview with the Justice.

The project was picked up after the Campus Sustainability Initiative became involved as a part of the Climate Change Action Plan in an effort headed by Sustainability Coordinator Janna Cohen-Rosenthal '03, who said in an interview with the Justice that she drew upon a similar model from the University of Vermont. An arrangement was then made with Blirp It, an online bus tracking system, and was coordinated by Cohen-Rosenthal, Director of Public Safety Edward Callahan and Director of Univeristy Services Dianne Qualter.

Two key goals of the project, Berin said, are student safety and convenience. "The whole foundation of the program, the whole execution of the program was fulfilled with the benefit of the students in mind," he said. Because of the various channels through which one can receive information about the shuttles' progress, students will be able to utilize it whether they are waiting in Boston, in Waltham or on campus. The program hopes to allow students to "feel safer and . feel like they have a little more control over their time, since they'll see exactly where the bus is [at any given moment]," Berin continued.

Another principal aim is environmental sustainability. As part of the Climate Change Action Plan that the University adopted in fall 2009, the Campus Sustainability Initiative has worked to promote public transportation and to reduce the number of students parking on campus, Cohen-Rosenthal said; the installation of the GPS tracking units and the launch of the website will make using the shuttle "easier, more convenient [and] more reliable," she continued. "Sustainability is not just about giving things up. It's also about making things better and easier," she said.

The beta-testing process "ranges from the most basic things such as ensuring that the GPS functions properly to the more complex things such as dealing with the programming aspect [of the website]," Callahan wrote in an e-mail to the Justice.

"The aim of this is to "[figure] out all the problems before the community does," said Berin. "As with any new project, you have kinks that need to be worked out, especially on computer-based projects."

Following beta testing, the program will enter its advertising and promotion phase, which "will be run in a joint collaboration between the Department of Public Safety, Department of University Services and the Undergraduate Student Union," wrote Callahan, and will include giveaways of promotional items with the website name.

The website is currently available only to the individuals working on it, and once any glitches have been fixed, a campuswide e-mail will link students to the web address.

"No matter how effective a program is, it's only as successful as the amount of people that get use out of it," Berin said. "So in order to make the most out this program, we'd like as many students-both grads and undergrads-to use the GPS service.