Customers can now use their mobile phones to plan a bus trip or visually track the nearest Regional Transit Service (RTS) bus to find out what time it will arrive.
The new RTS “Where’s My Bus?” mobile app will allow Apple and Android users to access comprehensive real-time information on bus arrival times, nearest stops, routes and service alerts for the Greater Rochester area—right from the palm of their hand.
RGRTA-RTS CEO Bill Carpenter said, “We are driving forward with the “Where’s My Bus” mobile app, a reliable and convenient technology that enables our customers to easily build their lives around — where we are and where they are going. It will make the bus riding experience better than ever and save valuable time for our customers — they will no longer have anxiety about when to show up for their bus because they’ll know exactly where it is at all times — in real-time.”
Features of the “Where‘s My Bus?” app include a display of the next three bus arrival times that show highlighted routes on a map and track real-time bus location placed along those routes. Using the “Nearest Bus Stop Locator,” riders can also use the GPS in their phone to find their location and the closest three bus stops around them.
Other features include the ability to plan a trip using the RTS app via Google Transit. Similar to Google Maps, users can enter their starting destination — either by typing in the starting destination or by pulling their location via GPS — and their ending destination. It will display the walking and transit directions to get to their destinations at that current time, and calculate the savings for the trip versus taking a car. Users can even save their favorite routes, stops and planned trip, and share it with their friends on Twitter, Facebook and through email.
Service alerts will be displayed in the app, with the capability to read more about each alert by clicking on the title. The app will also contain both customer service and lost and found information.
RTS launched a successful prototype of the app for the Rochester Institute of Technology earlier in 2014.
The “Where’s My Bus” app is available to download for free on the Google Play Store for Android and the Apple App Store for iOS devices.