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What's New in Apps and Websites
Public transportation agencies are creating and launching apps and updating their websites to better serve customers. Here are a few examples.
There’s an App for That
YoTrain!, an app that notifies riders about train arrival times with voice alerts, and Departures NYC, an app that allows riders to access departure times by pointing their smartphone toward a bus stop, recently received the top prizes at the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) App Quest 3.0. YoTrain! received $10,000 and the grand prize for Best Accessibility App for MTA Customers with Disabilities, and Departures NYC received the $7,500 grand prize for Best Consumer/Transit Rider App.
MTA hosted the competition with AT&T, Transit Wireless (the firm that installed Wi-Fi throughout MTA) and New York University’s Center for Urban Science and Progress.
A free app now available in King County, WA, allows riders to plan trips across 11 public transportation agencies. The Puget Sound Trip Planner app, available for Apple and Android devices, includes information for numerous modes of travel.
The app provides maps and schedules for all public transit agencies in the region, along with a feature that shows real-time arrival information for King County Metro Transit and Metro-operated Sound Transit routes. Users can customize their trip preferences and create point-to-point schedules within a route.
The app is part of an ongoing effort to improve high-tech options for riders. Metro and Sound Transit are developing a pilot project to test mobile-ticketing technology that will allow riders to pay fares using their smartphones, and by mid-2016 the agencies plan to introduce cellular service in some tunnels.
Detroit DOT recently unveiled its free “DDOT Bus” app for Apple and Android devices. The app helps riders plan trips and minimize waiting time with maps and real-time location features.
The North Central Regional Transit District (NCRTD), Española, NM, launched the “myStop” app as part of a reorganization of routes, additional stops and improved connecting options. The app serves as a “Blue Bus Tracker,” giving riders GPS-enabled real-time updates on locations, routes and schedules. Bus stop signs feature a QR code and phone text information so passengers can find the location of their bus and arrival times for the next three buses. NCRTD also launched a redesigned website, www.ncrtd.org.
In Tampa, FL, the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority (HART) upgraded its OneBus Away app to include a touch-tone feature. The original version of the app provided real-time information to riders with smartphones, computers or other Wi-Fi enabled devices; now the same information can be delivered via text or through touch-tone service to a landline or a cell phone that does not have a data plan.
Building Better Websites
Chicago’s Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) introduced new customer amenities and ease of use on its newly redesigned website at the same address, www.RTAchicago.org. The site features such resources as the RTA Trip Planner, which received more than five million visits last year and information about the transit region, the RTA and its members, the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra and Pace Suburban Bus.
The new design converts easily to many formats so riders can use it from a smartphone, tablet or desktop, and it conforms to accessibility standards to ensure access for persons with disabilities.
The Minnesota Valley Transit Authority (MVTA) in Burnsville, MN, recently launched a new website, www.mvta.com. MVTA Executive Director Beverley Miller explained that the site revision, the first in more than 10 years, will “enhance the user experience, simplify content management and provide better information and customer service to our community.”
Site users can sign up for route-specific alerts and the new site links to the Google Trip Planner, MVTA’s “Where’s My Bus” web portal and the agency’s first-ever “How to Ride” video.
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), Oakland, CA, recently introduced its innovative Vital Signs website at www.vitalsigns.mtc.ca.gov, an interactive tool that can help users track the San Francisco Bay Area’s progress toward reaching key transportation, land use, environmental and economic policy goals.
The first phase of the Vital Signs initiative examines 14 indicators by which the health of the Bay Area’s transportation systems can be monitored, including several measures of public transit agency performance. Phase II of the project, slated for completion this spring, involves land use and economic development measures. Phase III, which will focus on environmental and safety questions, is due this summer.
Citilink in Fort Wayne, IN, recently launched its redesigned website, www.fwcitilink.com, and RouteWatch, which provides real-time bus information. The free RouteShout app, available for mobile devices, provides the same real-time information and updates to Citilink riders.
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