nextbus (89 and 101!!!!)

[aquaflame16.livejournal.com]

Guess what I discovered?!
The 89 and 101 are now on nextbus!
Woohoo!
The system is still a little confused by the two routes for the 89, see stop listing here, but it works.
(The main problem with this confusion is that you can't currently use the end point stations for predictions, but if you try it just says "no current predictions" so you might think it's not working for that bus when it's just that stop. I have no idea whether this will be fixed or not. The 101 seems to be having a bit of the same problem in a few spots.)

If anyone doesn't know about NextBus, it is a real-time arrival predictor for buses, and it is amazingly helpful for bus travelers. (I believe it now covers all buses in this area, and possible all buses system-wide. The 89 and 101 were not on until recently, so I'm super excited that they've been added now.)

You can access it on the nextbus website, by text, phone call (# is listed on website prediction page), or various smartphone apps.
(It can be a little confusing to learn to use it by text msg, but once you figure it out and get some stops saved it's awesome. This is what I do.

ETA: I've played around with it and discovered that the stops between Davis and Powderhouse DO work for the 89 if you use the proper stop numbers, for example by looking them up on the 96 list.
So Davis busway 5104; CollegeAve@Hall 5019; College@Kidder 5020
If you're texting you can specify route initially like this "nbus mbta r89 5019" will give you the 89 at College@Hall.
Then once you've looked up any stop once you can save it as anything you like and then use that to look up that route at that stop. (I keep a list in the notepad of my phone of saved stops, which I call things like bsq89 or 96porter.)

Comments

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

yay! My android's boston bus map app updated this morning, but I didn't check, hope it's there too.

Doesn't make up for getting trapped on an outbound redline train by a conductor who acted like a two-year-old though.

[aquaflame16.livejournal.com]

ugh. That sounds extremely unfun. I've pretty much given up on the red line these days. I'm up in Ball Square, so it works fine to take a bus to Sullivan or Lechmere anyhow. It just seems like the red line has problems constantly.

[aquaflame16.livejournal.com]

which, incidentally, is part of why I'm so in love with this nextbus thing! ;)

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

it was weird...

you think the green line is more reliable? that's weird too :)

anyway, I checked, the Boston Bus Map app has been updated too! yay!

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

The Green Line isn't necessarily entailed -- we're in Ball too, and my husband sometimes prefers bus to Lechmere + walk to Kendall over walk to Davis + T to Kendall. Lechmere and Kendall: startlingly close together.

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

ah, I see. I live near Ball (in...shhh... Medford) but I travel to DTC every day not Kendall.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

"Lechmere and Kendall: startlingly close together."

That's a matter of opinion.

They are 0.9 miles apart by the shortest walking route.

[mzrowan.livejournal.com]

The main problem with this confusion is that you can't currently use the end point stations for predictions

Yeah, when I pick "Sullivan Square via Broadway" as the direction, none of the stops around the Davis busway are on the list. They're on the *map*, though, with data. Unfortunately, I can't figure out from the map what number to text to get the next bus. Anyone have any ideas how to use this from a phone to find out the next bus going from Davis towards Sullivan?

Also, I just tried sending a text message for stop 02736 (ball square); it asked me to reply with which route I wanted, 89 or 80; when I said 89, it gave me data on the next Route 1 bus coming to Mass Ave "@Btlph", wherever that is. So, um, sadly, not quite ready for prime time yet, it seems.

[aquaflame16.livejournal.com]

Yeah it has the Davis buses as "variant 2" but only TO Davis, not from. I hope they fix this! And soon!
Yet another reason why the T really should be calling it 89 and 89A or something!

Hmm. I played around with it a little and it seems the stops numbers in that area DO work for the 89, they're just not listed! So try pulling the stop numbers off the 96 and that should work. (Including the Davis busway 5104.)

"Also, I just tried sending a text message for stop 02736 (ball square); it asked me to reply with which route I wanted, 89 or 80; when I said 89, it gave me data on the next Route 1 bus coming to Mass Ave "@Btlph", wherever that is. So, um, sadly, not quite ready for prime time yet, it seems."

That's . . . weird!
I used it this morning, so I know it works, but I had saved the stop already.
Try specifying the route initially, like this: "nbus mbta r89 2736" and see if that works?

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

St. Botolph Street, I imagine. Near Symphony Hall.

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

Woo hoo! Those are the routes I use the most.

[zdenka]

Can you be more specific about where to find the number to use the service by phone call? Because I don't text or have internet on my phone, but I would love to be able to do this.

[aquaflame16.livejournal.com]

The number seems to be 617-531-0173.
I think you will need stop numbers, so you'll have to make yourself a little list or something.
(The newer 39 schedules actually have the stop #'s on them! So maybe eventually all the bus schedules will have them too.)

[zdenka]

Thanks! I'll try that.

[jwg.livejournal.com]

It's great that nextbus covers the T.

I suspect there are some severe problems, not with Nextbus but with the underlying data from the T. Yesterday I was waiting for the #47 at Parkdrive and Fenway and both it and bostonbusmap would show 47's coming and progressing and then they disappeared. This was true for several busses. At varying times bostonbusmap showed 7, 6, or 5 busses on the line. Other routes pass there but I didn't see the bus numbers for the disappearing busses on any other route that passed there.

[aquaflame16.livejournal.com]

how odd.
This is the T we're talking about here, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if the data has some issues! lol. (bostonbusmap is almost certainly using the same data, so it would make sense it would show approximately the same thing as NBUS.)
I haven't had anything like that happen to me, but then I don't tend to be traveling at rush hour, so maybe things get messier with so many buses around?

[jwg.livejournal.com]

And travelling at rush hour was unfortunate; I'd left the Fenway Park after the game and opted for the bus since NextBus said one was coming soon instead of greenline/redline and the mess at Kenmore Sq after a game. The bus was crowded and the heat was full on and the traffic was at a standstill. I got off at Beacon St and took the greenline and redline after all.

On the way over the NextBus allowed me to make the correct decision about 47, vs 1, vs CT1; I chose 47 and it met its prediction.

[ygfperson.livejournal.com]

i wrote bostonbusmap, and yeah, all route data comes from the same exact source, so there shouldn't be any difference in accuracy between apps

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

Yeah, nextbus now includes every T bus route except the 217.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Yay!

[alphacygni]

How odd. Lots of routes have multiple variations with differing end points, and have not had this issue. I wonder what's different about the 89? I'm sure it will get cleared up eventually, though.


(NERD-LEVEL DATA ALERT: I wonder if it may be confused for an obscure reason - the last bus out of Sullivan late at night (on weekdays and Saturdays) goes to Davis, and then continues up Holland to Clarendon Hill. It is the only trip of the day that does this, and just in that one direction. It does this because, once the bus starts going only to Davis late at night, the idea is that people wanting to get to Clarendon Hill can transfer to an 88 or 87 at Davis. But on that very last bus, the last 88 or 87 may already have gone by. And since it's approximately 1:30 AM and traffic is light, there's enough time for the bus to make the extra side trip to Clarendon Hill.)

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting detail. But plenty of T buses have far more complicated route variations, which nextbus manages to handle. (Even after thinking about it for several years, I don't really understand the outer end of the 70A, since it covers different overlapping subsets of a figure-8-shaped street pattern depending whether it's inbound or outbound, and before or after noon. And I've given up on figuring out the 201 and 202.)