MBTA to expand real-time bus info
By adamg - 6/3/10 - 2:02 pm
At a developer's conference this evening, the MBTA will announce plans to give access to real-time bus location data on all its bus lines by the end of the summer.
In the meantime, the T is immediately releasing data on 12 bus lines, in addition to the five already covered by its "Where's the Bus" system. The new routes: 1, 4, 15, 22, 23, 28, 32, 57, 66, 71, 73, and 77. They join the 39, 111, 114, 116, and 117 routes.
Although the data is public, it's not in a human readable form. Over the past year or so, the T has worked with local application developers to build a variety of applications that people can use on everything from smart phones to electronic signboards.
Also, MBTA General Manager Richard Davey says he will soon go on Twitter.
Comments
66 and the 1
The feeds for both routes will alternate between"5 buses in approx. 90 min." and "LOL" (with the latter reserved for rush hour)
The additional lines are live
The additional lines are live ahead of the announcement:
http://webservices.nextbus.com/service/publicXMLFeed?command=routeList&a=mbta
Correct my post
The new lines go live today. By summer's end, ALL lines should be live.
NextBus already shows the new
NextBus already shows the new routes --
http://www.nextbus.com/predictor/stopSelector.jsp?a=mbta
The T's site still shows only the original five routes in the dropdown, but the direction and stop dropdowns reflect the 1 bus.
And sure enough --
Next vehicles for route 1 in:
10 minutes
10 minutes
46 minutes
Is this more or less accurate at the end of the line?
How is the timing for the ends of the lines? That is, if I want to board the 77 at Arlington Heights, and it says the next bus leaves in 10 minutes, is that just going off of the schedule? Or is that when the bus that is waiting in the station will actually leave? It seems like the timing would be a lot easier to figure for mid-route stops, because you know where the next bus is.
don't be silly
If you ride the 77 regularly, you must know that there will be none for 45 minutes, then 5 come in a caravan. :)
It's pretty accurate to the real-world schedule
The #39 estimations are usually right to within 2 min or so. You really can't ask for anything better than that.
Interesting Omission
I don't think that any of these buses are out of the Charlestown garage. What's up with that?
Not quite right - the 111
Not quite right - the 111 (which was already on the list) is out of the Charlestown garage.
This set of buses makes sense - they're the official Key Routes (except the #4, not sure what's up with that).
I was at the developer's conference tonight, and they said they plan to have all of the bus routes on this system by the end of the summer, and they'll likely appear in clumps connected with a particular endpoint or transfer point.
The 77 and the 111 are out of
The 77 and the 111 are out of Charlestown. Except for the route 4, these are all "key routes". Charlestown doesn't have any other "key" routes.
No wonder
That explains why cutbacks have been severe, 1/2 hour to an hour frequency on some routes at rush hour, many buses are too crowded to even board and never run anywhere near schedule, no show buses, etc. Ah yes. They aren't key routes.
I wonder if they will ever get out data on these routes - given the problems with the 94, 96, 95, 104, 93, 89 ... leaves a data trail.
"key routes" is an actual
"key routes" is an actual designation of a type of route, based on ridership, essentially the 15 heaviest ridership routes in the system. It is not a determination about which routes are important to operate well and which ones aren't.
You can read all about them on page 25 of the linked document:
http://www.mbta.com/uploadedfiles/About_the_T/T_Projects/T_Projects_List/2009_Service_Delivery_Policy.pdf
No kidding, anon
Don't you think that I've read that same thing - in fact, it was probably while waiting for a bus or series of buses that didn't show up, or were 20 minutes late ... But thanks for putting up the link so others can see what is supposed to be going on.
Unfortunately, that world is only on paper/electronic media. Those of us who have seen drastic service cutbacks (official and unofficial) - even at times a normal city would call rush hour - and buses too packed to get on or too late to hold all those waiting and make all their stops know what the designation really means ... No Bus for YOU!
I have never seen a Route 95
I have never seen a Route 95 bus that is too packed to get on.
GM's Twitter feed
@mbtaGM. Notes actually from Richard Davey will be signed "-RAD".
I have the CatchTheBus iPhone
I have the CatchTheBus iPhone app, and took the bus for the first time in months this morning, and was shocked to see all the lines already added. It's really an awesome tool, and worth the money I paid for it.
The 'Go to There' iPhone app
The 'Go to There' iPhone app has all the MBTA bus routes too, and it's free.
I was at the conference last
I was at the conference last night (as a bus user, I don't have developer skills) and the theme I got from MassDOT and the MBTA is that they can push the state to keep opening more and more data (commuter rail, green line, subways) as long as people keep the pressure up. Both as users of the apps/web pages (many free) and developers creating more and more innovative tools. They talked about JP licks getting an LED sign in their window with countdown clocks as an example - if more stores do this, there is more pressure to do more. So -spread the word that the info is out and use it. One of the simplest/best I saw was that igoogle has a free widget that you can use to show real time for several stops. Catch the bus is the best for iphone in my opinion.