by DR. KARI WATKINS Hello Seattle Transit Community – For more than a decade you have loved and supported OneBusAway. As many of you know, Brian Ferris and I created OBA as two PhD students thinking that we could make transit information better in the Seattle area. Since then, the app and backend have expanded …
There’s nothing that quite matches this community’s interests like open software in the service of transit. In a recent blog post, OneBusAway for Apple iOS maintainer Aaron Brethorst says that a complete rewrite of the software is ready for beta testing. For most of you, know that beta testing will expose you to some bugs …
OneBusAway is an integrated, open-source suite of software components that provides real-time and schedule information for public transit, supported by a nonprofit organization that is responsive to the needs of transit agencies and the riders. It is also an important alternative to the surveillance capitalism business model for providing such information. In this post, I will argue …
Continue reading “Surveillance Capitalism, Transit Information, and OneBusAway”
In welcome news for riders, Sound Transit (ST) announced this morning that real-time arrival information for Link is now available on OneBusAway, Transit, Google, and other 3rd-party apps. As we reported last month, the update is limited to riders’ personal devices, as no new real-time signage will be available on station platforms for the foreseeable future. …
OneBusAway, one of the essential transit rider tools available to us, has unveiled its updated Android app with a major redesign to its interface. The app now adheres to Google’s “Material Design” guidelines, emphasizing the use of “cards” and responsive animation, bringing a modern look that is a far cry from the bland look of yesteryear. …
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[UPDATE: Bruce Gray now says “We’re still receiving and testing new data sets. If all goes well, we’ll deploy the new set into OBA on Monday, the 5th.”] You may have noticed recent persistent problems with OneBusAway reporting only scheduled arrivals on certain routes. I’ve certainly noticed them on the 24, 33, and certain other Lower …
Earlier this year, my research team at the University of Washington launched StopInfo, a prototype system linked from the OneBusAway iOS application that provides detailed information about bus stops, primarily to help visually-impaired riders to locate them. This information comes from a combination of King County Metro’s internal information about bus stops and information entered …
by CAITLIN BONNAR Photo by Irish Typepad / Flickr. Locating and reaching an unfamiliar bus stop may not be a great source of anxiety for most transit riders, especially when making use of a visual navigation tool with GPS. However, for people with visual impairments, orientation and mobility can be a challenge, particularly when navigating …
Per the OneBusAway twitter account, realtime arrival information should now work for all trips on RapidRide C & D. A big thank you to the staff and volunteers at Metro and OneBusAway for making this happen. Note, however, that (due to a separate problem) OneBusAway realtime and schedule data is usually broken on holidays where Metro …
Continue reading “RapidRide C & D Realtime Data Now in OneBusAway”
RapidRide, notoriously, lacks a published schedule at all times at which the service operates at a frequency of every 15 minutes or better, which is from the start of service until 11 PM, every day. Moreover, OneBusAway has never worked reliably (if at all) for the C & D Lines (except for the late night …
Continue reading “RapidRide C & D: No Schedule, No OneBusAway”
Following up on the warm reception of the Pike St. OneBusAway sign, Seattle DOT has installed another two, both at Benaroya Hall. This is part of Seattle’s plan to improve Third Avenue. The sign joins those already at Macy’s, Columbia Sportswear, the Fourth and Madison Building, and the King County Courthouse. As the press release …
OneBusAway is doing another round of user research to update their work done in 2009 and they would like your input. Info below: Three years and many changes later, the UW team that runs OneBusAway is again looking for feedback about the service. Please respond if you are a current OneBusAway user or if you …
Anecdotally, I’ve been having a lot more success with OneBusAway the last few weeks. I asked OBA point man S. Morris Rose if it has been restored to the accuracy level of, say, a year ago: At some level, OBA per se hasn’t changed at all, but there have been fixes inside the KCM network …
OneBusAway has become a useful tool to many transit riders but recently the arrival predictions have become more erratic and unreliable since Metro’s program to equip its bus fleet with GPS began. Eastside buses like the 255 have been giving wild estimates like 100+ minute delays or fluctuating between schedule data only and real-time data. …
Here’s to agency cooperation: Puget Sound area transit agencies have reached an agreement with the University of Washington to keep the popular transit scheduling software application One Bus Away up and running now that the original developer – a UW graduate student – has moved on to the private sector. Sound Transit, King County Metro, …
One drawback of DART service that I forgot to mention yesterday was that the vans aren’t equipped for onebusaway. A DART line is the only one that brings me to my employer’s front door but I’ve fallen out of the habit of using it. A short-haul, infrequent line that is also unreliable and also has no …
Today the Times featured a front page, above the fold story about OneBusAway. Most of the story is essentially about how awesome it is, which most OBA users already know, but at the end of the story is some new and uncertain news. … The timing couldn’t be worse, but now the future of OneBusAway …
A couple of grad students are trying to help OneBusAway systematically collect ideas for further extensions and prioritize those changes. To that end, they’ve created a short survey not about OBA features themselves, but about how people would like to give feedback to OBA.
In the 2010 “Seattle 2.0” awards, OneBusAway is nominated in the “best non-profit startup” category. The winner will be decided by an internet vote. You guys know what to do.
OneBusAway, or OBA for those that like acronyms, is looking for feedback about their service. They have created a web survey that can be accessed here. It took me less than 10 minutes to complete and I wrote a lot so it will take less time for most people. Those who take the survey will …