Transit systems easier to predict with smart phone apps

[phantom power]

Allen Stern says he had a 40-minute wait between buses when he lived in Manhattan. Using a free mobile app that became available about a year ago, he could at least tap into the Metropolitan Transit Authority with his cellphone and find out exactly how far away the next bus was from his stop

"If you could stay in your house another 10 minutes because you know the bus isn't here yet, and don't have to stand in freezing rain till it gets there, wouldn't you?" said Stern, who moved in July to Austin.

Cities across the USA use the Internet and smart phone technology to help riders make connections with their transit systems, whether the system is bus or rail or tram.

Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Boston are among the cities that have begun test-driving systems within the past eight months. Orlando announced in July that it had given the green light to a project to provide bus schedule information on select routes to riders with smart phones by October

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/wireless/phones/2010-08-30-transit-apps_N.htm

[FBaggins]

1. Used it in Rome last Fall

Worth its weight in gold. Knew which bus was arriving next, how long the wait would be for the next bus (and what stop it was at now), and how long it was going to take to get to my destination.

[Tesha]

2. You might enjoy this...

http://www.its.dot.gov/JPODOCS/REPTS_TE/13845.html

FTA Real-Time Transit Information Assessment
Contract Number # DTFT60-99-D-41022/Order No. 00007

WHITE PAPER ON LITERATURE REVIEW OF REAL-TIME TRANSIT INFORMATION SYSTEMS

...

[Tesha]

3. Here's Helsinki live and in action; how's your Suomi?

http://live.mattersoft.fi/hsl/

[Tesha]

4. Here are some North American systems including San Francisco and Beantown...

http://www.nextbus.com/predictor/agencySelector.jsp

but the Helsinki demo is far more impressive and
understandable, even when viewed in Suomi!

Tesha

[BadgerKid]

5. Information like this was just waiting for smartphones. n/t