I 8 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, May 2, 2006 Website tracks 'U' buses in real time Engineering students use GPS technology to allow bus riders to pinpoint University buses as they follow their routes through campus By Molly Bowen Daily Staff Reporter This fall, University bus riders won't have to guess when their ride home will roll up to the curb. A new computer-tracking system in its final testing stages will allow web users to view the exact position of all operat- ing University buses at any given time. Although the system is already online through the School of Engineering, a more finalized version of the system will premier next fall. University undergraduate students designed the system, called Magic Bus, with the help of Engineering Prof. Chris Ruf. Magic Bus uses Global Positioning System and wire- less technology to bring moving icons of University buses to computer screens. Students and staff first began working on the project in the fall of 2004 with funding from Parking and Transportation Ser- vices. To make the system operational, the project team installed hardware in buses and developed supporting software. While the system is already accessible to students on the Internet, Ruf said there are other ways to track buses. "We have a text messaging computer so that you can text it and it will tell you in how many minutes the next bus will come," Ruf said. Riders can also access bus locations by sending a mes- sage to the Magic Bus buddy on America Online's Instant Messenger. Ruf said that the team plans to put up public monitors in Pierpont Commons and the Michigan Union. The ongoing assessment of "Magic Bus" has produced positive results. "We've been having Engineering 100 students evaluate our project," said Prashanth Pandian, University alum and project manager. "Gauging the reaction from (the Engineer- ing 100 students), a lot of people are excited for this." Engineering sophomore Mark Poll said he thinks people are looking forward to the new system. "I think everyone was really excited about it," Poll said. "Most students saw that it was pretty good but not quite there yet, so it made them pretty excited to be a part of it." According to David Miller, executive director for Parking and Transportation Services, the University decided to cre- ate its own- program due to the high cost of a commercially available option. "It's something that we've thought about doing for years, but the cost to buy something like this commercially off the shelf is much higher," Miller said. "Using a student group like this has made it affordable." Miller said that the system will not only tell students and staff when to step out to the curb, but it will also make it easier for transportation supervisors to receive feedback if buses are having mechanical or traffic problems. 4 4 Courtesy of the University of Michigan Bus locations are available at http://ace.engin.umich.edu. Community responds to Greenway proposal Controversy over use of Ann Arbor's historic Allen Creek property lingers otn By Walter Nowinski For the Daily Local residents with competing visions for the Allen Creek Greenway - a proposed network of parks and trails - faced off at a series of public workshops last weekend. The City's Greenway Task Force orga- nized two workshops to get public feedback on proposals for three city-owned sites with- in the Greenway. The Greenway proposal has been hotly debated since the Ann Arbor City Coun- cil voted against a resolution to support its development in March 2005. Critics of the project argue that the city needs more high-density development downtown, not open space, while supporters emphasize the proposal's potential aesthetic and environmental benefits. The proposal, which is not related to the Ann Arbor Greenbelt, aims to develop a network of parks and pedes- trian trails that would follow the historic route of Allen Creek. Although the name of the project implies the greenway would border a creek, the actual waterway was buried by the city in the early 20th century. Much of the proposed greenway would run alongside an active freight railroad, which now sits atop the his- toric creek bed west of Main Street. At a second workshop last Saturday, the Greenway Task Force presented several dif- ferent plans for three city-owned parcels - two storage yards and aparking lot - within the proposed greenway. The properties, which total nearly eight acres, are located in or near downtown Ann Arbor. Most who attended the second work- shop, which attracted roughly 60 people, supported the controversial Greenway proposal but disagreed over how the sites should be developed. One large group, donning campaign buttons, argued that the city should use the space to build performance venues and art studios. "We desperately need a place in Ann Arbor for non-University performing arts;' said David Karen, who is involved in com- munity theater. Others disagreed. Ann Arbor resident Vince Caruso spoke passionately in favor of converting the sites into green space. Caruso argued that a sig- nificant danger of flash flooding exists along the historical route of Allen Creek. The three parcels, all of which are partially within the floodplain, should be turned into open space to help mitigate flooding, he said. "Floodplains should be for flooding, not for buildings;' Caruso said. Caruso warned that building structures inside the floodplain would pose a danger to people in those buildings. "I don't know if I would want my children playing down in the floodplain," he said. He also warned any structures in the plain would increase the risk of flooding for other parts of the city. "Putting in structures would be det- rimental to the current neighborhood," Caruso said. "If a flood came, it would be an economic disaster for the old west side (of Ann Arbor)." The last major flood hit Ann Arbor in 1968. Peter Pollack, chair of the Greenway Task Force, said that flash flooding was not a seri- ous threat because any water buildup in the area is generally gradual. The Greenway Task Force plans to hold additional public workshops before issuing its final recommendation to the city in October. MHEALTHY Continued from page 1 The University is the first college to offer a modified co- pay plan such as MHealthy. "We hope it will be a model for the nation," said Public Health Prof. Allison Rosen, who will evaluate the program's progress and success. Proponents want to prove the program's effectiveness to lawmakers in order to encourage the implementation of similar programs in the future. The road to recognition University profs. Mark Fendrick and Michael Chernew published an editorial in this January's edi- tion of The American Journal of Managed Care dis- cussing the philosophy behind MHealthy: value-based insurance design. According to the article, "smarter" healthcare packages would combine disease-management programs with cost sharing. Cost sharing refersto the sharing ofmedicalcosts between employers and employees. It has become standard for health insurance providers to increase cost sharing - requiring healthcare recipients to account for a biggerslice of the pie. "Cost sharing kills people," Fendrick said. "Ultimately, adverse outcomes are not just abstract. There are real, bad clinical outcomes." But Fendrick said it is important to understand that cost sharing will always help the bottom line. For this reason, Fendrick and Chernew are not arguing against cost sharing but for a more comprehensive approach to healthcare plans. Fendrick said there was little reaction to the 2001 article from both the business and academic worlds. It was not until a May 2004 Wall Street Journal Article that the Uni- versity's research received much attention. The article out- lined the results of a simplified version of the University's program used by Pitney Bowes, an international supplier of office and postal equipment. A month after the Pitney Bowes article, the Wall Street Journal published an article on the University's research. In October 2005, the Center for Value-based Insurance Design was opened to promote, develop, improve and evaluate innovative health plans. V-BID focuses on the tradeoffs between the cost and quality of healthcare, Fendrick said. Fendrick and Chernew are co-directors of V-BID. MHealthy is only one of the evaluations underway at V-BID. Research at V-BID Research at V-BID involves gathering subsets of patients and determining the effects of changing co-pays. Chernew said that although samples are not randomized, appropriate control groups must be found to serve as a basis of comparison. Research is conductedby evaluating existing healthcare plans. Current projects include assessing Blue Care Network's program that has lowered co-pays for asthma-controlling , drugs, comparing the difference in medication adherence between twolargeemployersthathave different co-pay strat- egies and monitoring a database that lists claims data from the filling of prescriptions. The database, MedStat, contains data for millions of patients and is used to compare the pre- scription-filling patterns of patients experiencing increased co-pays to patients experiencing no change in co-pays. Not alone "This is as close to apple pie as you can get " Chernew said of value-based insurance design. He said no one can be opposed to the design's purpose - to improve health. According to Fendrick and Chernew's January article, the U.S. approach to health care has faced much criticism from the media, Congress and the business community this year. Many Americans are uninsured, patients are under- using recommended care and swelling healthcare costs are adversely affecting America's competitive edge in the global marketplace. Amid this healthcare crisis, the environment has been appropriate for innovation, Chernew said. Last week, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and CIGNA Pharmacy Management announced they would reduce co-pays. Effec- tive January 2007, Wal-Mart will reduce employee co-pay- ments for generic drugs for conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol from $10to $3. CIGNA offers two options for employers. The first option is to cover medications without having to sat- isfy a plan deductible, and the second option gives some employees with diabetes and cardiac conditions a higher level of coverage as an incentive to participate in a disease management program. In March 2003, results were released on the Asheville Project, a five-year study in which two large North Carolina self-insured employers offered free co-pays and free month- ly meetings with pharmacists to 194 diabetic employees, dependents and retirees. According to the study, published in the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, not only did patients use fewer sick days and experience lower hemoglobin Alc levels (blood-sugar content), but employers also spent less on insurance and prescription claims.