PSA: I found a better way to track the bus on my phone

For months, I would just open the transit app and stare at the map, guessing when my bus would come. Last Tuesday, I missed the 7:15 because the map was wrong. Now I use the text alert system the city set up. You text your stop number and it texts back the real times. It's been right every morning this week. Anyone else use something like that instead of the apps?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_olivia2mo ago

The apps are always a mess. My city's text system is the only thing that works. The map showed a bus that didn't exist, made me late for work. Switched to texts and it's been perfect. Never going back to those glitchy apps.

hannahcoleman2mo ago

Yeah the "ghost bus" thing is real. Read an article last year about how the GPS data gets stuck and just shows buses that already left. Texts are way more reliable.

jordan3301mo ago

Remembered one time I was waiting for the 72 bus. The app said it was three minutes away. Sat there for twenty minutes freezing my butt off before I gave up and walked. Turned out the bus had just broken down an hour earlier and the app never updated. Its crazy how bad these tracking systems get sometimes. The city finally put in digital signs at the main stops but even those show random times sometimes.