Comments | _earthshine_: Response From MTA

_earthshine_

Response From MTA

Mar 03, 2010 20:51

I apologize for the long lapse in posting this; it should have been done some time ago.

Back in January, i shared with you a correspondence sent to Ralign Wells, Administrator of the Maryland Transit Authority. Mr. Wells not only got back to me within a week of my email, but he invited me to speak with him live over the phone. He explained that ( Read more... )

correspondence, follow-ups, ballmer, .sec_public, .tpc_sociopolitical, mass transit

Comments 6

tb_doc_smith March 4 2010, 11:54:24 UTC

"Technology that will allow riders to determine the arrival of their service in real-time based on the actual location of the train or bus in question." Like this?

_earthshine_ March 4 2010, 16:53:38 UTC

Awesome! I knew we had it but hadn't seen the interface. Thanks for that link!

Yes, i think MTA is aiming for something similar -- except perhaps with phone/SMS-text interfaces.

Also, i believe the company that built that system for U of M is currently talking with the AATA as well.

dannimal March 4 2010, 18:45:14 UTC

except perhaps with phone/SMS-text interfaces

You mean like this (scroll to bottom)?

http://mbus.pts.umich.edu/resources.php

_earthshine_ March 4 2010, 20:17:22 UTC

I think so ... can you set that up to text your cellphone or whatever?

jesus_jeff March 4 2010, 20:20:26 UTC

Wow, customer service isn't dead.

Y'know, there's probably a market opportunity to sell an integrated system to transit agencies that would give drivers and dispatchers a quick and easy way to broadcast schedule interruptions or adjustments, so that you could subscribe to "NYC_MTA_M15" on twitter and get the tweets reporting "9:14 bus out of service; 9:28 bus will be running 3 minutes ahead to compensate. 9:36 bus unaffected" or something like that. But it has to be quick and easy for everyone or it won't get used.

_earthshine_ March 4 2010, 20:30:08 UTC

That's the kind of thing i believe they're aiming for. It would have to be push-based (via subscriptions) or low-bandwidth pull (text "M15 14th st" to such a number and receive next 3 arrivals) or similar, but it'd be helpful.

MTA currently has a phone system that lets you find out departure times for any given route and station, but it's back-end taps the schedule database. Theoretically, a system could continually update that database with calculated information based on GPS data and provide the same service based on where trains and buses actually are, and then provide the same service. The phone system is a little klunky, but lets you get at exactly the info you need.