A few years earlier MeVa fleet maintenance manager Dan Flaherty had read about technology being developed to reduce blind spots for drivers of big commercial vehicles.
“And so I called up the vendor that I was dealing with, and I’m like, ‘Hey, how’s that coming along?’” Flaherty recalled.
“And he told me, ‘Why don’t you try one of them on a bus?’”
In 2024 MeVa piloted the three-camera system on several buses.
MeVa now has the mirrorless camera technology on 60% of its fleet — 45 of 75 buses — the 2022 and newer buses.
All 75 of them still have the existing side mirrors, required by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
The federal agency also provides for exemptions, allowing states to permit transit authorities to remove its mounted side mirrors if they use an approved camera system.
Several manufacturers make the mirrorless camera systems.
MeVa has asked Massachusetts officials for a waiver.
Side mirrors are prone to contact taps and breakage — expensive repairs — as drivers navigate tight city streetscapes and plazas, Flaherty and MeVa administrator Noah Berger said.
Mirror taps are the No. 1 on-road incident for MeVa buses, they said.
The incidents happen daily.
Berger and Flaherty said it costs $400 to replace mirror glass or more than $1,000 for the entire assembly — the arms, casing and glass.
Additionally, the repairs put buses out of service.
The camera systems’ value for MeVa, riders and pedestrians along the 25 routes in the 17 towns and cities it serves is improved safety for pedestrians including those running to catch a bus by a stop.
The drivers’ views of the rear and side of the bus are especially improved by the camera system in snow and rain and at night, said Jessenia Fernandes, MeVa’s chief safety officer and instructor.
Fernandes was previously a MeVa driver and has worked as a truck driver, operating 18-wheelers.
The cameras reduce blind spots and lend peace of mind to drivers once they get use to the system, Berger and Fernandes said.
An installed $6,500 camera kit would soon pay for itself were MeVa permitted to remove the side mirrors, Berger said.
So far three states — New York, California and Ohio — have received federal exemptions for transit buses to remove side mirrors and use cameras.
Earlier this month Berger and staff hosted RMV director Colleen Oglivie, of Lawrence, and other Commonwealth officials from the Department of Public Utilities and the Rail and Transit Division of MassDOT as well as representatives from Safe Fleet, and Greenlight Robotics.
Oglivie had been directed by the state’s interim Secretary of Transportation and MBTA chief Phillip Eng to view the system and evaluate a waiver, Berger said.
MassDOT spokesperson John Goggin said MassDOT is also reviewing other camera manufacturers that have received federal exemptions.
MassDOT will consult with the DPU on a final decision, Goggin said.
Berger said drivers at MeVa — it employs 114 of them — have a mixed view of the new system.
“Because like anything new, it takes getting used to,” he said.
In an interview Wednesday at the McGovern Transportation Center in Lawrence, MeVa driver Nancy Koehler, who has 20-plus years’ experience driving public transit buses, said she is used to driving with mirrors but counts the camera views as an asset.
She said she likes the expanded field of vision the cameras offer but the display on the far side monitor needs improvement at night.
Another driver, Angel Lopez, gave the cameras high marks for improving visibility in stormy weather and at night.
Lopez said he especially values the far side monitor when making right turns at night.
“Sometimes it’s hard to see on the physical mirror, but you can see it on the camera (monitor),” he said.
“When we go into a lot of the plazas, there’s a lot of people going around.”
Tim Petronio, manager of operations and innovation, sat in a MeVa bus curbside at McGovern and demonstrated how the camera system automatically expands the view below him when he flips on the left-turn signal.
Fernandes crouched low outside the bus by the front driver’s side tire.
“Right now, you can’t see where she is,” Petronio said. “So now, when I press the blinker to turn left — which is what I would be doing — I can see her.”
Fernandes trains drivers step-by-step on the new system over several weeks, practicing the views at a standstill, traveling at low speed and driving at full speed.
The cameras give a full view of the bus’ sides at night whereas, with the mirrors, sometimes the tail end of a bus is clipped from view, she said.
The mirrorless system is also beneficial when the sun is too bright, Fernandes said.
The lenses are self-cleaning, shooting jets of air to remove moisture and debris.
Meanwhile, the latest convoy of buses pull out from their McGovern platforms and start their routes.
Most of the buses have camera view systems and all have side mirrors attached.
The day may be coming when all the buses have only camera systems.
MeVa is the first of Massachusetts’ 15 regional transit authorities to use mirrorless cameras.
At least one other RTA, Lowell transit, have cameras installed on some of their buses, Berger said.
© 2026 The Eagle-Tribune (North Andover, Mass.). Visit www.eagletribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
