A conversation with Seattle
New transit-site-on-the-block WhichBus, which emerged from beta at the beginning of 2013, promises to be “simple” and beautiful” but it doesn’t yet have the years of user-testing that’s now built into OneBusAway. So Metro riders greet any news about their favorite app’s future with distinct wariness. Continue reading Sound Transit Adopts OneBusAway, While WhichBus Goes “Public”
Seattle’s internecine transit system, with its dearth of system and route maps and schedules, makes this kind of service a necessity. But I can’t advise use of WhichBus for newbies yet. For one thing, there’s no app version available — they’re waiting for Apple approval. Continue reading WhichBus Real-time Trip Planning Takes the Long Way Around
WhichBus approaches the Seattle bus dilemma from a different direction than OBA, which assumes that you know where you are and where you’re going. (You can search out these particulars using OBA, but it’s not as easy as it could be.) WhichBus uses King County Metro’s real-time data to help you solve how to get from A to B. Continue reading New Trip-Planning App WhichBus Reaches Private Beta
King County’s Linda Thielke says, “Installation on all the individual buses (1,200+) is well underway now, but we estimate it will be late in 2012 when we have all the fleet outfitted with the new OnBoard Systems gear, including GPS.” By end of this summer, OneBusAway creator Brian Ferris will have set up Metro with the software necessary to provide that real-time information. Continue reading When Will OneBusAway Upgrade to On-Board GPS Data?
Some 50,000 Seattle transit riders use the popular OneBusAway bus-tracking program per week says creator Brian Ferris, a graduate student who’ll finish up his work at the University of Washington shortly, and head off to work at Google Transit.
That last news has created consternation in about 50,000 hearts, as it’s not clear what will become of OneBusAway once Ferris departs. On his blog, Ferris tries to allay concerns. Continue reading OneBusAway Faces “Number of Options”