Smart Phone App for tracking MBTA Buses

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

I'm looking for a GPS based tracking system for MBTA buses so I can figure out when they're running late etc. I mostly take the 77,86,87,88,89. Having a single APP that also tracks the trains would be nice.

So many choices!!
http://mbta.com/rider_tools/apps/

Anyone have one they're using and happy with? I'm soliciting recommendations. Thank you.

Comments

[ursamajor]

What operating system does your phone run? Android? iOS? Something else? Or are you on a non-smartphone?

(I like Catch The Bus, but that's not going to help you unless you have an iPhone. Supposedly its sibling Catch the T will be out soon, as a separate app. I think they're each 99 cents, though, and other apps I've tried are in the $3 to $5 range.)

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

I dont have a smart phone but I'm considering getting one just for this type of app. I would rather get a droid because Verizon is the only provider with a decent signal where I work.

[fe.livejournal.com]

CatchTheBus works on my Droid. I only bought it today, but when I used it, the process was easy.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

It's not a smartphone app, but nextbus.com is a website easily accessed by mobile device that uses GPS tracking for a number of different bus services nationwide, including the MBTA. I wouldn't be surprised if you would prefer a smartphone app specifically for the MBTA, but I figured I'd share this just in case anyone without a smartphone would find it useful.

[mderidder.livejournal.com]

Seconded. On an iPhone (and I assume other smart phones) you can bookmark a website and having it as an app on the phone, so you go to the page in one click.

So, why buy an app when you can bookmark your bus stop and essentially make that an app? If you want to see the map, you just click on a link on the website. The web page is optimized for mobile devices, so it's generally fast and it reloads/updates frequently. I've yet to see an app that offers more than just pulling data from the website. (It'd be great if you could look at more than one route on a map at the same time or different stops)

I use it every morning and find that it's accurate ~90% of the time, but I can always look at the map to see where the bus really is.

And, the T has apparently just released the data for the red, orange, and blue lines, so that data should be included soon, if not already.

http://www.boston.com/yourtown/boston/southend/articles/2010/10/01/t_to_begin_posting_data_on_trains_today/

[dashford.livejournal.com]

If you choose Google Map (rather than Live Map), you actually can look at more than one route on the map at the same time by selecting "Select Routes".

[mderidder.livejournal.com]

Right, but that only works from a computer. It'd be great to have that functionality in an app, then I'd consider buying one.

[dashford.livejournal.com]

Nextbus.com *does* have that functionality on my Palm Pre!

[tober.livejournal.com]

Nextbus also very recently began tracking the EZ-Ride Shuttle (http://www.ezride.info/), a quasi-public (partially funded by the T and partially by various sponsoring institutions and businesses - and available for use by unaffiliated passengers for a fare of $1) bus that runs weekdays between North Station and Cambridgeport via Lechmere and Kendall (between Kendall and North Station is rush hours only) and which has recently subsumed the MIT Northwest Shuttle.

Nextbus / MBTA = inaccurate?

[djethan.livejournal.com]

I started using Nextbus from home to see when the CT2 and/or 91 would come by Union Square. Often times it is spot on. But last week it "predicted" both the CT2 and 91 by a certain time. The 91 was at least 15 minutes late and the CT2 10 minutes late. So I'm not sure about the validity of the GPS reporting by the MBTA. Does anybody know? Does Nextbus / MBTA simply provide predictions based on the schedule or _actual_ GPS reporting? Has anybody had similar experiences?

Re: Nextbus / MBTA = inaccurate?

[dashford.livejournal.com]

Nextbus also provides a real-time GPS map of bus locations, which can be more useful than their predictions. Also, it seems they stick to the published schedule when it comes to the *starting point* of each bus route, regardless of whether a bus is actually there on time.

Re: Nextbus / MBTA = inaccurate?

[tober.livejournal.com]

Yup, they do have a reliance on the schedule in terms of when a future run will begin. Also, I think they have some logic that, under some circumstances, assumes that an outbound will turn into an inbound or vice-versa after getting to the terminal. Often that is indeed the case but it's not always the case. Also, I would guess that there is a procedure whereby the bus operator "logs into" the tracking equipment in the bus to indicate that the bus is assigned to a certain route. This may or may not be integrated with the equipment that determines what is displayed on the bus's electronic signs and makes the automated stop announcements (which obviously also needs to know the route). I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the setting up of the equipment by the operator isn't performed correctly 100% of the time and that could lead to nextbus believing that a particular vehicle is serving a different route than it actually is or serving any route when it's not serving a route at all, e.g. when it's parked somewhere or when operating out-of-service.

Re: Nextbus / MBTA = inaccurate?

[ceo]

I believe the stop announcements actually run off a wheel rotation counter, not GPS; they've had that since well before they installed GPS receivers on the buses.

Sometimes a route will show up as "No Current Prediction", when I know there's one supposed to show up in a few minutes. Wonder if that's when the driver forgot to initialize the system; I've only seen that on relatively low-frequency routes.

Re: Nextbus / MBTA = inaccurate?

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

The current TransitMaster bus announcement system (with the male voice) uses GPS. I believe the previous system (with the female voice, and a ding before each announcement) used the bus's odometer.

BostonBusMap is pretty good

[wardv.livejournal.com]

It's for android, and I use it often.

http://www.terribleinformation.org/george/bostonbusmap

Re: BostonBusMap is pretty good

[littlecitynames.livejournal.com]

Was gonna say this! I have a Droid 2 and I love BBM.

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

I've got a droidx and just started using an app called Boston BusMap. So far it's shockingly accurate, though I haven't figured out all the features yet. It's straightforward though!

[progressnerd.livejournal.com]

I second BostonBusMap for Android.

[progressnerd.livejournal.com]

Huh, i haven't figured it out yet --- it's not a feature I've felt I've needed much. How's you do it?

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

In the upper-right drop-down menu choose "Stops and predictions on one route" and then enter your preferred route in the upper-left search bar. Along the route you should see a new "T" icon at every stop along the route you're searching. Click on the stop, and then a new window will pop up and you can click the star to add it to favorites.

web and iPhone recs

[clauclauclaudia]

My fave free option is actually just a web page. It's not GPS-based on *your* end, of course, but it does have the live bus location data (and now the 3 train lines they've included). It's just a series of drop-down menu choices, for which route, which direction, which stop. Then it gives you a web page that updates automatically every 30 seconds, which shows *all* buses passing through that stop, not just the one you first asked for. Track the T

IPhone-specific apps: For free, Go To There. For 99 cents, Pocket MBTA.

Go To There shows a route's buses on a live updating map, which is nifty. It also takes forever to download or re-install the full set of MBTA route/stop data. And I mean forever. But after that, you can set up favorite stops and with a shake of your phone it sorts them by distance for you.

Pocket MBTA, though, is worth paying money for. Set up your favorite routes and stops, and then you can view all (or at least 6 or so at once) in a list which shows the next arrivals for each so you can choose among useful nearby buses. This feature is only really useful if lots of routes go near your usual destinations, but for me living near Somerville high school, there are often several choices. It has map views too, but static ones--they show you where stops are, but not graphically where the bus is.

Good luck!

[withinmywill.livejournal.com]

Alright, I was wondering the same question, except for an iPhone. I can always use NextBus.com, but are there any apps that are better?

[clauclauclaudia]

I give a couple recs a few comments before yours, and others have chimed in too.

[withinmywill.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I had left the window open for a while and submitted my comment a couple hours later, so I didn't see those earlier replies. Thanks!

[amy-s1.livejournal.com]

This app is coming soon for the T too. Shows in real-time when a train is arriving.

http://catchthet.com/

[cden4.livejournal.com]

I use the Catch the Bus app for iPhone. I've been very happy with it. You can "favorite" the routes/stops you use most and they show up right on the home screen of the app. Or you can browse through all the routes/stops for the one you're looking for. It shows you when the next few buses will be arriving at that stop.

http://catchthebusapp.com/

[nonregulator.livejournal.com]

MassTransit, which also has a clever name, is pretty good. The tracker + GPS is great, not only can you see where a bus is relative to you, it will also tell you where all the other buses are on the route.