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MTA BusTime Discussion


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Here in San Antonio, Texas, each bus stop has its own identification number and so what you do is you text that bus stop number to the bus company and then they will tell you the bus route(s) & what time it will arrive at that station.

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Here in San Antonio, Texas, each bus stop has its own identification number and so what you do is you text that bus stop number to the bus company and then they will tell you the bus route(s) & what time it will arrive at that station.

 

NJT and DC WMATA do this as well as GBTA in bridgeport ct which lets you track buses on all routes just like MTA bustime
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One feature I'd like to see added to Bustime is the ability to search for a certain amount of routes and those routes only. Right now you can enter one route or a bus stop, which gives you all the routes nearby. If I'm at Fordham Plaza and seeking to go down 3 Av on the Bx15 and Bx55, I can input 'Fordham Plaza' but and see those routes but at the same time I'd also see the Bx9, Bx12, Bx17. Bx19, Bx22, Bx28, Bx34, and Bx38. I can still see the 15 and 55 fine, and showing the other routes might be useful to see alternatives for my route but if I'm just looking for a couple of lines the current feature of stop searching just causes a lot of clutter.

 

 

What you can do is pick a stop along 3rd Avenue that only has the Bx15 & Bx55, like say, 3rd Avenue & 169th Street. It doesn't matter that it's not the stop you're waiting at, because all you need are the routes.

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So far Bus Time in the Bronx has been a bust. I've been sitting around tracking some routes and buses are disappearing and re-appearing all over the place. Ridiculous. I'm going to cut them some slack because of Hurricane Sandy, but really... If this is what Bus Time is going to be for the Bronx then there is no point in using this damn thing.

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So far Bus Time in the Bronx has been a bust. I've been sitting around tracking some routes and buses are disappearing and re-appearing all over the place. Ridiculous. I'm going to cut them some slack because of Hurricane Sandy, but really... If this is what Bus Time is going to be for the Bronx then there is no point in using this damn thing.

 

 

You should cut them so much slack, because as soon as they got the system up, the hurricane hit, so they haven't had time to fix any bugs.

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You should cut them so much slack, because as soon as they got the system up, the hurricane hit, so they haven't had time to fix any bugs.

 

I'm going to assume that the buses disappearing are due to the Storm... Otherwise don't have the system running if it is this inaccurate. I tracked one route Friday night and every bus that I tracked did not appear at the beginning of the route, then appeared at some random point, disappeared again and then randomly reappeared again. At some points there were NO bses showing on the route at all when at least 3 or more buses should've been showing.

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So far Bus Time in the Bronx has been a bust. I've been sitting around tracking some routes and buses are disappearing and re-appearing all over the place. Ridiculous. I'm going to cut them some slack because of Hurricane Sandy, but really... If this is what Bus Time is going to be for the Bronx then there is no point in using this damn thing.

 

 

Patience!!!. Bustime will work eventually in The Bronx, and that the rest of Brooklyn is next (sometime in 2013) bus time will be a great benefit. Especially for those who live in neighborhoods where bus service sucks hell.

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Patience!!!. Bustime will work eventually in The Bronx, and that the rest of Brooklyn is next (sometime in 2013) bus time will be a great benefit. Especially for those who live in neighborhoods where bus service sucks hell.

 

Well I'm not so concerned with the Bronx... It's good to have when say one is traveling to or from Riverdale though... For Brooklyn it can't come soon enough... Damn BM3s... <_<
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Well I'm not so concerned with the Bronx... It's good to have when say one is traveling to or from Riverdale though... For Brooklyn it can't come soon enough... Damn BM3s... <_<

 

err BM3 runs like crap according to it's schedule and due to recent changes it runs like complete crap. And feels utterly useless. PM me more about BM3's travel time is it reliable in brooklyn if not what causes delays?

 

How long does it take to get from 1st brooklyn stop to last pickup before going to manhattan?

 

for BM3 and X27?

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err BM3 runs like crap according to it's schedule and due to recent changes it runs like complete crap. And feels utterly useless. PM me more about BM3's travel time is it reliable in brooklyn if not what causes delays?

 

How long does it take to get from 1st brooklyn stop to last pickup before going to manhattan?

 

for BM3 and X27?

 

 

This has nothing to do with Bronx BusTime.......

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It will probably be Brooklyn, Manhattan and then Queens. On the website where it talks about bus time expansion it says Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens in that order and over the next 18 months which means they have delayed the completion till 2014. Queens will be getting it probably April of 2014.

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It will probably be Brooklyn, Manhattan and then Queens. On the website where it talks about bus time expansion it says Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens in that order and over the next 18 months which means they have delayed the completion till 2014. Queens will be getting it probably April of 2014.

 

More like Queens, Brooklyn and then Manhattan. Manhattan is not in no rush for that queens needs it more.
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  • 3 months later...

Manhattan will be the next borough getting BusTime, with Brooklyn receiving it afterwards and Queens getting it last, all done by April 2014.


 

Philadelphia bus riders got real-time tracking in 2011. Chicago’s had it since at least 2009, as has Washington, D.C.

Staten Island riders and those in the Bronx have had Bus Time, as the
MTA calls its real-time bus tracking tools (and that’s trademarked, so
back off, other cities!), since 2012, as have a small handful of routes
in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.


But now, the MTA is announcing, we have dates for the rest of the
network. “Bus Time is so helpful to our customers that we have scheduled
an extremely aggressive timetable to introduce it to three other
boroughs,” wrote Fernando Ferrer, the MTA’s acting (and reluctant)
chairman in a press release issued today. Manhattan buses will be
getting the technology by the end of the year, according to the release,
followed by Brooklyn, and then finally Queens, where it will be
completed by April 2014.


As it is now, most New York City bus riders can only rely on
published schedules, which are often next to useless, due to the
vagaries of traffic, lights, passenger boarding times and bus bunching.
(From our perch on Ocean and Church Avenues, The Observer has noticed that the B35, for example, come not at all or all at once.)


While Bus Time won’t fix any of this—we aren’t aware of any plans the
MTA has to extend Select Bus Service-like features, such as off-board
payment or traffic signal priority, to the agency’s formidable fleet of
local, express and limited service buses—it will make it easier for New
Yorkers to deal with the uncertainty.


And in an email to The Observer, Second Avenue Sagas blogger
Ben Kabak pointed out another aspect of the plan: “It should both
increase bus ridership, but also remind riders just how slow and
unreliable local bus service is.”


“Without a commitment to real innovation from [the Department of
Transportation] and the MTA”—that is, faster fare payment systems,
signal prioritization and physically separated lanes—”we’ll take what we
can get.”

 

http://observer.com/2013/03/manhattan-brooklyn-and-queens-will-soon-know-how-late-their-buses-are/

 

Queens is getting it last, even though it's arguably the most bus-dependent borough in the city...

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Of course Queens gets it last. OF COURSE!

LINK: http://www.mta.info/news/stories/?story=991
 

Live Bus Tracking Coming Next to Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens



bustime430.jpg

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) today announced the timetable and sequence in which it will expand MTA Bus Time™, the agency’s online real-time bus tracking service. All bus routes in Manhattan will receive Bus Time this year, followed by Brooklyn, and then Queens, which will be completed by April 2014.

“Bus Time has proven extremely popular among bus riders on Staten Island and the Bronx – and I can tell you that because customers have come to me on buses in the Bronx and said we did a really great job on Bus Time,” said Fernando Ferrer, MTA Acting Chairman. “They find it useful and easy to access, and I think that’s a tremendous endorsement of what we have been doing. Bus Time is so helpful to our customers that we have scheduled an extremely aggressive timetable to introduce it to three other boroughs.”

Through text messaging, web, or apps, Bus Time allows customers to learn how far away the next bus is from a given stop. For customers at bus stops, Bus Time takes the wondering and uncertainty out of waiting for the bus. But is’s even more powerful if used before going to the bus stop. You can use it to time your departure to match the bus’s arrival, which means less time waiting at the stop.

To use Bus Time, customers simply send a text message from any cell phone with SMS or MMS text messaging to 511123, visit bustime.mta.info, or use a variety of apps created by third party tech developers using Bus Time data.

This short MTA video explains how Bus Time works.

Bus Time launched on Staten Island in January 11, 2012, and was expanded to the Bronx in early November 2012. In addition to all bus routes serving those boroughs, it is also available on the B61, B63, M34, M34A, M100 and Q50.

The MTA operates the largest bus fleet of any public transportation provider in North America: 5,700 buses operate out of 28 depots on 300 routes serving 2.6 million customers per day.

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I don't think manhattan needs it. Buses are close by to each other and they have almost all the subway routes. I wonder if Queens getting bus time has something to do with MTA Bus routes still not having guide a rides and still having a whole bunch of old buses.

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