Bus Roadeos of all vehicle classes are a major undertaking for the organizations which run them on an annual basis. Dozens of judges, sometimes 3 or 4 are needed at each event station. On-board judges need to be highly observant for the small actions which are to be included in the scoring protocol. Then if there are two classes of vehicle being run at the same time, double the number of people needed.
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| Serpentine Obstacle Event |
While working for Community Transportation Association of America, I was part of 12 community transportation roadeos at the National level. Prior to those events I was a spectator at several APTA Roadeos in the mid-1990s. Every event was scored on paper and runners stopped by to collect the forms to turn in to the Score Master for processing by two or three more personnel.
Errors always needed to be reduced by checking and rechecking the tabulations on each score sheet. Just one CTAA Roadeo might have 110 drivers performing 14 scored events for a total of over 1500 individual score sheets.
The initial tabulation was done by the judge on the course. Then a scoring person needed to run the numbers again on a calculator. The third tally occurred when the sheets were manually typed into a spreadsheet. I always thought that was a very cumbersome process. It wasn't until the telecommunication industry started making smart phones and tablet computers was it feasible to economically do the scoring with automation.
Now that protocol is possible with the ModalChoice system for Digital Roadeo Scoring. This system uses the smartphones and tablet computers on the course to collect and tabulate the scores. A local system of WiFi makes it possible to report those results immediately to the Score Master who verifies everything keeps humming along.
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| All the hardware in a box, well two boxes |
You can read more about this system by visiting ModalChoice.com and clicking on the placard on the right. Most important of all is to tell other people who do roadeo judging about this system and interest them in looking further into it.
