MTA Bus Time Popular With S.I. Riders
Back in October 2010 the MTA debuted Bus Time in Manhattan on the M16 & M34, the agency promised that it would be a huge hit amongst bus riders. They were so pleased with the pilot that it ended up heading to Brooklyn’s B63 in February 2011.
Last July, the agency announced it would be taking the Bus Time show on the road to Staten Island in January 2012 & would do one better versus its borough counterparts in that it would be available for all routes.
Fast forward months later and it is clear that it is a big hit in Staten Island as nearly 25% of riders have utilized the service. Here is more courtesy of an editorial in SI Live:
Waiting for a city bus is becoming a lot less frustrating and that’s thanks to the new high-tech locator system being adopted by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
The MTA’s Bus Time program lets riders send text messages from mobile phones to obtain information on when the next bus will arrive at their stop.
So far, more than 33,000 people on Staten Island – nearly a quarter of the riders here – have made use of the system developed to provide the alerts.
According to the MTA, the real-time locator program has just hit the milestone of 1 million users citywide – just seven months after it was introduced.
“We are delighted by the rapid growth of the use of Bus Time,” said MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota. “This is a service that can really make it much easier to ride the bus, so it’s not a surprise that it’s proven to be so popular.”
Bus Time is available at all local and express routes serving Staten Island. Staten Island has two of the five most popular sites in the city for the use of the Bus Time service.
No. 3 on the citywide list is Hylan Boulevard and Clove Road, for those bus riders waiting for the S53, S78, S79, X1, X2, X3 or X9.
No. 4 is Victory Boulevard and Clove Road for those checking to find the location of the next S61, S62, S66, S91, S92 or S93.
Click here for the complete editorial.
I am so glad to see so many riders taking advantage of this innovation. Bus riders have long had to sit or mainly stand in agony wondering where their bus was while staring away in a distance. Thankfully Bus Time does away with that for a lot of riders as they can now make travel decisions with accurate & timely information. It will be great when riders on every single line in the region will be able to take advantage of this.
xoxo Transit Blogger
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment