Advanced notification system and method utilizing a distinctive telephone ring

Abstract

An advance notification system (10) and method notifies passengers of the impending arrival of a transportation vehicle, for example, a school bus (19), at a particular vehicle stop. The system (10) generally includes an on-board vehicle control unit (VCU) (12) for each vehicle (19) and a base station control unit (BSCU) (14) for making telephone calls to passengers in order to inform the passengers when the vehicle (19) is a certain predefined time period and/or distance away from the vehicle stop. Significantly, the telephone call to advise of the impending arrival preferably exhibits a distinctive ring so that the call recipient need not answer the telephone in order to receive the message. The VCU (12) compares elapsed time and/or travelled distance to the programmed scheduled time and/or travelled distance to determine if the vehicle (19) is on schedule. If the vehicle (19) is behind or ahead of schedule, the VCU (12) calls the BSCU (14), which then adjusts its calling schedule accordingly.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.