The MTA has big plans, people, big plans. The transit agency is apparently so happy with their real-time bus info services (BusTime) for the B63 that they are getting serious about rolling them out citywide. First up? Bringing them to all of Staten Island's bus riders by the end of the year. The rest of the city will get BusTime in 2012 and 2013.
Staten Island gets first dibs because it is arguably the most bus-dependent of the boroughs (it is currently unclear if the x bus lines will be included in the initial installations). "This really does have the potential to revolutionize how riders perceive and use our bus service," MTA Chairman Jay Walder said yesterday regarding the plans.
The open-source service is actually pretty simple to use. Riders can either text their bus stop's number to 41411 (the stop's number is printed on the bus stop pole) or they can scan a QR code at the stop. Either way a user will then either be taken to a webpage or sent a text message with information on where their next bus is. Try it out for yourself.
And before you start freaking out about the MTA spending more money while still bleeding Benjamins, do remember that the current BusTime system is based on open-source software. According to the agency the service is costing about 70% less to install than a similar proprietary version the MTA tested previously.
