96 Bus Route (inbound)

[foxgloved.livejournal.com]

Does anyone know why the inbound 96 bus has been traveling a shortened route lately? I used to be able to take it all the way to Harvard in the morning, but now it seems to stop at Davis. I can't see anything on the MBTA website explaining the change. Is this a shortened route due to weather? Has it been changed permanently? Or is there something else going on - like all the buses are delayed, so I'm catching a different bus than I normally would at that time?

(Sorry if this is obvious - I only take the bus when the weather is awful, so I'm not super familiar with it.)

Comments

[ron_newman]

The schedule that you linked to says that four of the morning trips end at Davis. Were you on one of those?

[foxgloved.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I guess it must have been. It wasn't at exactly that time, but I suppose I can't rely on buses sticking to schedule right now.

I used to get on at Main & George at around 8:20, but it looks like they shifted things around so I'd either have to catch it at 8:10 or 8:38, neither of which is great for me. I swear there used to be more options. Oh, well. :(

[idealforcolors.livejournal.com]

I think they somewhat recently changed the schedule so not all trips go all the way (boooo!), and with the weather lately the schedule has been so disrupted that the bus that comes isn't necessarily the one you think it is. My partner's had to wait at Davis for the next one a few times recently (not worth getting on the T either now!).

[foxgloved.livejournal.com]

Ugh, yeah. It's extra inconvenient, since the T is worse than the buses lately. Last time the bus let me off in Davis, I just gave up and walked to Harvard. I would have got there faster if I had just walked from Medford! Which I might do, if I'm called in to work tomorrow....

[ron_newman]

If your destination is actually Harvard Square rather than some place before it, isn't it usually faster to transfer to the Red Line at Davis instead of staying on the bus to Harvard?

[foxgloved.livejournal.com]

Generally, yes, but not in the last two weeks.

[idealforcolors.livejournal.com]

The red line has been worse than the bus lines with the snow recently. (And even then, staying seated on the bus with windows can be more pleasant.)

[idealforcolors.livejournal.com]

Man, that's grim. And we rented our apartment specifically because of the convenience of the 96....

[leafshimmer.livejournal.com]

somebody at the MBTA seems to hate the 96 route but it is essential for those of us living in Hillside Medford to get to our jobs or other occupations. The one that is supposed to leave Medford Square around 8:20 has actually been an improvement. It does terminate at Davis, but I have a T Pass so that is OK so long as the Red Line is not having one of its stall-a-thons.

The schedule changed, I think, in September to the current one. I do not know whether they will ever restore the full service.

This route has been badly affected by the weather megillah of the past two to three weeks. Plan for it to run around 15 to 30 minutes late. On Saturday it was about 20 minutes late. A woman arrived at the stop who had the phone "app" and it did accurately tell her when the delayed bus was approaching. For what that is worth. I am not set up to do those "apps." (Luddite in recovery....)

[dmaze]

If you point your phone's Web browser at nextbus.com, and let your phone tell the site where it physically is, it will find the nearest bus stops to your location and match it up with real-time GPS bus data. I've found it incredibly helpful in the past to get to Arlington; I imagine if you have an actual bus commute it's near indispensable.

(The last time I looked there were a half-dozen iOS "NextBus" apps, which were all third-party apps that wrapped the Web site in an ad-serving container. Just use the Web site directly.)

[rmd.livejournal.com]

Has the MBTA fixed their data feed so that clients like nextbus can better parse routes like this and the 89 where the route can vary but the route number is the same? I haven't taken the 89 in a while, but in the past the various bus tracking clients couldn't necessarily parse the Clarendon Hill vs Davis Square trips. (Speaking of which, it's a shame the Davis Square versions of the 89 don't just go up Holland to hit Clarendon Hill that way.)

[leafshimmer.livejournal.com]

Thanks. My phone does have some kind of web thing but since I have no data plan, I have never used. Recently a helpful friend told me that I can use the web browser when I'm in a wi fi area even without the data plan. However, I do not think this would help with using it when waiting at my bus stop on George street.

Archaic, isn't it? cheers.

[aliothsan.livejournal.com]

Actually, you can also query NextBus via phone or text. If you enter a query of interest in a desktop browser (example (http://www.nextbus.com/#!/mbta/89/89_1_var0/2696/2714)), then on the right side bar there are instructions for submitting basically the same query. SMS query seems to work fine; I haven't tried regular-phone query.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_meej_/]

My in-laws have their regular routes and stops programmed into their non-smart phones as phone-query calls to NextBus, complete with the little pauses to pick a route and a stop number. They just speed-dial the appropriate one and get the update.

So, super-convenient, if you take the time to set it up. (Their results are sometimes as fast as me pulling out the smartphone, unlocking, opening the nextbus app, having it find my location...)

[leafshimmer.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the "example" link! I hadn't realized that "NextBus" is its own website; I kept thinking it was a protocol on the MBTA's own site.

This is one of those crucial steps that somehow got omitted when folks spoke to me about this in the past.

[jesseh.livejournal.com]

You can also look at the website from home/work/other place with a computer to figure out when to leave for the bus stop. It's not perfect, but better than relying on the schedule....

[foxgloved.livejournal.com]

Thanks, this post was really helpful. I suspected something like this happened, but I normally commute by bike or by walking to the T, so I hadn't paid attention until the red line started having problems. When I do take the bus, it's usually in the evening.

I use the NextBus website, but I've found that a lot of the time, it's not accurate if you are getting on at the beginning of the route. It doesn't seem to account for buses changing route or going out of service after they reach their final destination. At a major station like Havard, that happens all the time. But it's generally good when I need to catch a bus in the middle of the route.

[siderea]

Hmm! I haven't had that problem at all at Maverick (beginning of the 114, 116, 117, 120, and 121 routes). It's actually been really good about that. Maybe just Harvard? I don't get buses enough to Harvard to know.