City Commissioner Mike Dever knows he’s on the hook.

Dever was a swing vote this summer when city commissioners were struggling to decide whether to provide more funding for the public transit system or cut back on its service.

Dever was one of two commissioners who threw last-minute support behind a plan to increase the city’s property tax rate in order to avoid a cut in services to the T. But Dever said he would support an increase in funding for the T only if changes were made to make the system more efficient.

“I feel like I have some responsibility to help come up with a solution,” Dever said.

So, what’s the answer? Part of it, Dever says, is Google.

Yes, the Internet powerhouse.

Dever has been having regular meetings with Cliff Galante, the city’s public transit administrator, about how to use technology to boost T ridership.

The idea is to use low-cost technology available through Google and other providers to allow bus users to plan their trips and determine which bus they need to catch and when they need to catch it.

“You’ve heard of MapQuest, this could be something like BusQuest,” Dever said.

The idea would allow users to tell a computer program where they are and where they want to go. The program then would spit out information about what bus route or routes to take, and when those routes are available.

“A reason I hear from a lot of people for why they don’t ride the bus is because they don’t know where it goes or when it goes there,” Dever said. “And I have to admit, the schedule is a little bit cryptic.”

But there is a catch. Dever doesn’t want to spend any additional city money to add the technology component to the transit system. Instead, he suggested opening up the city’s buses to advertising to pay for the improvements.

Galante said he’s open to that idea.

“I’m not opposed to advertising,” Galante said. “I’m from Boston. Advertising on big city buses is not a new thing.”

Galante said his understanding is that city leaders in 2001 – the year the system was started – chose not to allow advertising because they wanted to use the sides of the buses to establish an image and a brand for the new T system. But Galante said the system probably is past that image-building stage.

Galante said advertising won’t be a cure-all for the system’s financial challenges. He said his research indicates Lawrence could expect to make about $20,000 per year from advertising on buses.

That could be enough to make technological upgrades to the T’s route system, but it is not enough to meet all the transit system’s financial challenges.

Dever said using the ad money to buy technology could produce more riders, which would help the T’s finances.

In addition to the scheduling software, Dever said he also wants to see whether there’s a low-cost way to outfit the city’s buses with GPS devices. That would allow for a computer system to be developed that would allow users to track the buses in real time. For example, users could log onto a Web site and see that the bus they hope to catch is 5 blocks away from their home.

“I think it would be a good thing to shoot for,” Dever said. “People might be more willing to use the bus if they knew exactly where it was and when it would be there.

“That is the thing with riding the bus. You have to give up some of your freedoms, and you have to trust the system to do what it is supposed to do. This could help with that.”

Dever said he plans to bring the ideas to the City Commission for consideration in the future.

It will be one of several public transit items that city commissioners are expected to discuss before adopting the 2009 city budget.

Galante and Kansas University officials are drafting a request for proposals to seek a transit system company that would serve as the operator for both the KU and city systems.

The city and KU expect to be accepting proposals in early 2008. Danny Kaiser, assistant director of parking and transit for KU, said he thought having one transit operator would be a major step in making both systems more efficient.

“If you have one provider, that provider will come to understand both systems and will be able to help us identify where there are commonalties and redundancies,” Kaiser said.

Dever said he wants to look at changing routes around to eliminate some of those redundancies. For example, he said there may not be a strong need to have both a T bus and a KU bus going to the same apartment complex within a few minutes of each other. He said it may be that the city could take over a route like that, and then be reimbursed from KU for providing the service.

Kaiser said he was open to exploring such route changes.