Unruly High School Students Making out and having sex in the JUTC Half-Way-Tree Transport Center - How wi-Fi in Buses can lead to Solar Power, LPG and the SmarterCard Cashless System

“The fact is, the Transport Centre was made for everybody, and nothing is wrong if on a Friday, you want to hang out and have a chat with friends. It's just to find a way to instill some values within our students, and definitely that would be my approach”

Managing Director of the JUTC Colin Campbell commenting on the behavior of Kingston High School Students at the JUTC (Jamaica Urban Transit Company) Bus Terminal in Half-Way-Tree

High School Students and Buses seem to be making the headlines of late. This time it’s not the Holmwood Technical High Tragedy and the solution of students being given designated Bus Drivers on contract as stated in my blog article entitled “Holmwood Technical High starts Community Bus Service to Transport students - Multimodal Transport System with JUTC and JRC Still the best long-term option”. 

Rather, it’s the Jamaica Constabulary Force aka the Jamaican Police threatening to expose students loitering at the JUTC (Jamaica Urban Transit Company) Half-Way-Tree Bus Terminal as stated in the article “Watch out students!”, published Sunday, October 20, 2013 By KARYL WALKER Editor - Crime/Court Desk, The Jamaica Observer that’s making the news.

This phenomenon of students frolicking at the JUTC Bus Terminal doing everything from making out (French Kissing in Public) to having sex in the bathrooms (wow! Adventurous lot!), despite the newspaper expose in The Jamaica Observer articles “Students turn HWT Transport Centre into haven for sex, fights, robberies”, published Sunday, October 13, 2013 by KARYL WALKER Editor — Crime/Court Desk, The Jamaica Observer and “The 'real world' at HWT Transport Centre”, published Sunday, October 13, 2013 BY HG HELPS Editor-at-Large, The Jamaica Observer is now news….for some strange reason.

But it may have a Wi-Fi solution enabled by Solar Powered MiFi that may even lead to LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas) as a more efficient fuel option and then finally implementation of the SmarterCard Cashless System. Read on to see what I mean!

Nothing new on the Buses – Happens in May Pen and Portmore too

Apparently, these schoolchildren have been making it difficult for adults to take the JUTC Buses on a Monday and a Friday, the busiest days for the JUTC Transport Terminal in Half-Way-Tree as stated in “Problem Students Cutting Into JUTC's Cash”, Published Wednesday October 16, 2013, The Jamaica Gleaner. 

To quote Managing Director of the JUTC Colin Campbell: “This has been hampering our services and causing us to lose a lot of money. Fewer adults are going in there, especially on a Friday, and this has been a problem, certainly from I have been here. The two biggest travel days are Mondays and Fridays, and rather than going into the Transport Centre, they prefer to take a Coaster Bus. What we have had to do sometimes is to pick them (adults) up in front of York Plaza - or somewhere in that area - in order to facilitate them, because they are turned off”.

I’ve observed the same pattern of behavior in May Pen, Clarendon and Portmore where students gather on a Friday before going home. They often loiter in the May Pen Bargain Center and The Towers where they play games or hang out in the lunch cafeteria. I’ve seen them making out many times and in some cases even in deeply intimate embrace and French kissing, a decidedly American cultural expression of affection.

And no it’s not a new trend; it’s been going on since 2008 based on this blast from the past article “No more loitering in Transport Centre”, published Friday March 14, 2008 by Athaliah Reynolds, Staff Reporter, The Jamaica Gleaner.

So what’s new here that the Police plan to do? And will they take action elsewhere in Jamaica and not just Kingston alone?

Make JUTC Buses into Kid Traps - Wi-Fi in Buses to attract students

A fairly simple and novel solution I’d suggest is to simply place Wi-Fi inside of the Buses. Many of these Teenagers (ages 13 to 17) have Blackberries and even smartphones, such as the much coveted Digicel DL600. Teenagers (ages 13 to 17) love the Internet more than loitering in the JUTC Transport Center.....or even Cooked food.

Combined with the Jamaica Police intervention, it’ll make it easy to remove them from the Transport Center on Fridays, as Internet access is the other thing that they love more than Music on the Party Buses, which SSP (Senior Superintendent) Radcliffe Lewis is clamping down on as stated in “Police seize more than 20 Buses in clampdown”, published Tuesday, October 08, 2013, The Jamaica Observer.

This Internet service could be provided via the installation of several Digicel or LIME MiFi Devices in each JUTC Bus as described in my Geezam blog article entitled “Crouching LIME Huawei E586 Mi-Fi – Hidden Dekal Wireless Dragon”. Then charge the students and extra JA$100 to use the Internet for the week. This alone would attract them and reduce loitering. In the process, the JUTC could start experimenting with using Solar Panels mounted on the JUTC Buses to provider power for the Electrical Systems, Radio, Communications and MiFi to provide the service.

Reduce Maintenance Costs – SmarterCard Cashless System made possible to reduce Fraud

If the JUTC does this, they’ll discover that their maintenance costs will decline and they’ll have vehicle batteries and alternators that last longer as they’d no longer have to carry the electrical load inside of the Buses. Eventually, if this is successful, the JUTC could eventually introduce the use of LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas) to power the Buses instead of Gasoline, saving the JUTC some more money on maintenance as argued in my blog article entitled “JUTC SmarterCard Cashless System to be implemented in the Fourth Quarter of 2013 - Upgrade Buses to use LPG Fuel to reduce Maintenance costs”.

Very possible, especially as it now appears that the LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) fuelled 360MW Power Plant Project may be back on track, now that the No. 1 preferred EWI (Energy World International), has coughed up their bid bond of US$7.37 million dollars as stated in “EWI posts bid”, published Saturday, October 19, 2013 BY BALFORD HENRY Senior staff reporter, The Jamaica Observer and “EWI Delivers - Energy Minister Welcomes Bid Bond”, Published Saturday October 19, 2013, The Jamaica Observer.

So excess LNG, a starter material for making LPG, can be used to run the State’s Bus system and in the process makes the engines run cleaner as LPG, which pack the same energy level as Gasoline, is better for the Bus’ Engines than corrosive Liquid fuel as argued in my Geezam blog article entitled “Auto LPG as a Motor Vehicle Fuel”.

Hopefully too, in my estimation, that’ll eventually lead to other things, such as the implementation  of the much touted SmarterCard System which seems to have all but been forgotten among the news of Bus Fires or Arson in a bid to reduce JUTC Bus ticket Fraud as explained in my blog article entitled “How to defraud the JUTC and reduce your Bus Fare - Arson and Ticket Fraud means Switchover to the SmarterCard Cashless System before 2014 required”. In the process this’ll get the school girls parading about in their School clothes on Fridays to go home.

But that’s another story as the covert investigations being done by both the The Jamaica Observer and The Jamaica Gleaner using hidden Camera expands in a bid to expose what goes on on JUTC Buses. For now I’ll be following this story as it’s not new, but the novel approach I’ve suggested may solve the problem by making the JUTC Buses irresistible to students! 

In the process it’ll reduce Maintenance Costs and usher in the SmarterCard Cashless System!