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Students at Virginia Tech will soon be able to check the status and location of campus shuttles by phone, thanks to a new GPS tracking solution dreamt up by the student government and the computer science department. This summer, the school is installing GPS tracking devices on each of its buses, which will feed location data to a web-based system which can be accessed via PC, smartphone, and Web applications like Twitter.

Students have complained previously that the Blacksburg Transit system was too inconvenient for regular use. For those with their own vehicles, finding a place to park is also a problem. Campus officials hope that accurately predicting the arrival and departure times of buses will encourage students to use the more cost-effective means of transportation.

The GPS tracking system is expected to cost around $35,000, with some installation and maintenance services provided by on-campus students and employees.

Virginia Tech certainly isn’t the first school to install GPS tracking devices on their buses. Back in 2006, the New York City school district system decided to track its buses to improve safety and efficiency. Administrators appreciated the ability to monitor the location of each of its buses, giving them prior notice of a possible delay or engine malfunction. If a bus broke down or if some other problem occurred, other buses could be rerouted and appropriate authorities could be notified.

More recently, Boston College announced its plan to follow Tufts University in placing GPS tracking devices on its buses, as well. Students and officials hope the system will promote increased use of the buses, not to mention help get everyone to his or her class on time. Like the system at Virginia Tech, this one was promoted by the college’s student affairs council, as well as administrators looking to improve the quality of campus life.

But convenience isn’t the only benefit of a GPS tracking system for buses. MIT’s own system will serve as a potential data mine for students and professors hoping to aggregate all the information for computer science projects and tracking software. NextBus, the company that tracks the shuttles, has offered to provide the tracking data live to students for just that kind of use.

As schools and even cities begin to implement effective GPS vehicle tracking into their public transit systems, travelers of all kinds can expect to encounter this kind of useful tech on a day-to-day basis.