[UPDATE]: So, there is at least one thing about which I was wrong. As you can read below in what Anglico wrote, David Price's bill did not single out NextBus. The money was earmarked for a specific set of criteria, four companies submitted pre-proposals, then two were invited to do demonstrations, and after that NextBus was chosen (not entirely) because they service the largest number of cities.
--just to clarify this, it was Chapel Hill that settled on NextBus, NOT David Price. I was just flat out wrong about this, I went with my memory of previous conversations, which turned out to be flat out wrong.

Interestingly, if it didn't have to be NextBus, then I am not sure why they chose to focus their donations on Rep. Price, lucky I guess:

MARESCA, JAMES F. - SAN FRANCISCO,CA 94118 - NEXTBUS/EXECUTIVE
Date Amount Recipient
3/22/2002 $1,000 Price, David
6/5/2002 $500 Price, David
6/24/2002 $500 Price, David
6/24/2002 ($500) Price, David
...
[ UPDATE: ] Turns out two lobbyists from Fleischman & Walsh gave $1,000. Aaron Fleischman gave $1,000 on 06/05/2002.
Walsh, Charles S. Fleischman & Walsh LLP/Attorney 1,000 G 09/16/2002 Annapolis MD 21401
Fleischman, Aaron Fleischman and Walsh LLP/Attorney 1,000 P 06/05/2002 Washington DC 20008

NextBus only retained FLEISCHMAN & WALSH 2001-2003 in which they paid $20K in 2001, $100K in 2002 and $80K in 2003.

The only other Congressman to receive NextBus executive’s direct largesse, Tom Davis, Republican representative for Virginia’s 11th district, got $1,000 in 2002.

Interestingly, the 11th district has a NextBus system in Alexandria.

BUT, I was wrong and I admit it. There was no quid pro quo. I like David Price - a lot. So, I admit that it was purely coincidence that he received a number of donations from a corporation that had (seemingly) never donated to him before, and who only donated to one other candidate (seemingly) and then that company received the contract for the real time system. As I note in the comments, this very likely COULD have been the companies finding out that Price was interested in the technology and then giving him money. The dates are a little fuzzy, the documents I've seen say the money came in 2003, the donations came in 2002. Still, things like this take time and it could have been 2000 when David Price starting working on it. Either way, I was wrong about the limitations.

This is local political wonk, but I know there are a bunch of Chapel Hillians that read BlueNC. Some time ago, Chapel Hill was given federal money to buy and install the "NextBus" system. There were many complaints about the system before it was installed, they went something like:

1. David Price had this bill passed limiting our choices to NextBus.
2. David Price got big fat contributions from the NextBus parent company.
3. We could have installed a wireless network that would do the same thing AND allow for wireless access around every bus stop for the same price.
4. Who pays to fix the proprietary technology once it starts breaking down? CH does.
5. We only get a handful of "signs" for now, who pays for the extras we want?

Okay, those weren't the only complaints, but they were some of them. Now, I use NextBus every day so let me tell you a few things about it.

1. The signs are in the wrong places, they are in every park & ride where you have a captive audience, they should be downtown.
2. The technology uses cell phones to tell the current position. Cell phones have dead spots, like the interchange by Glen Lennox, so my V bus disappears every day as it passes through this region and it also stalls down in married student housing then pops back up later at the hospital.
3. The technology is dumb, it doesn't learn over time. It still tells me the V bus will be at my stop WAAAAAY before it actually reaches the stop.
4. And, today, I find out, it doesn't work in the rain.

I checked the NextBus site at my house (this webpage function does rock) to find NO buses coming for 40 minutes (V) and 25 minutes (NS). So, I walked out and headed for Weaver Street to grab some coffee and wait. As I walked AWAY from the V bus stop, guess what came by? Right, the V bus. I walked quickly to the park & ride but was too late, it was already pulling out heading to campus. So, I had another 20 minutes until the next NS bus, so I went in and grabbed a cup of coffee.

I walked out to see guess what pulling away from the park & ride? An NS bus, right. So, the system completely missed the fact that there were two buses IN SOUTHERN VILLAGE at that moment. Go figure.

I'm a fan of the idea of NextBus, but I think people like Will Raymond and Brian Russell were right when they called for a locally-produced system. Oh, and p.s., the sign at Southern Village has been torn down at least once - who paid for it?

Another thing, the security cameras, one of those was ripped out for weeks before it magically got fixed after I talked to someone on the CH Transportation Board, so are they real or are they memorex?