Finally! MARTA App and Website Detail Bus Locations in Real-Time
Decatur Metro | October 31, 2011 | 11:35 am
Ever since we discovered the CLIFF shuttles real-time bus locations website that shows you little icons scurrying along a map of the Decatur/Emory/Atlanta region, we wished that MARTA had something similar. If we had a better idea of the location of buses, perhaps some of us might be more inclined to hop “the 2” into Atlanta every once in a while.
Well, sit your walking/cycling-toned butt down, because apparently it now exists!
With no fanfare or publicity, CL’s Thomas Wheatley just happened to stumble across info that led him to report that MARTA’s iPhone app and this website now gives you real-time MARTA bus-location info. Maps, schedules, arrival times, departure times. It’s all there. MARTA calls it “Precision Real-Time Bus Monitoring”.
Great move by MARTA making this happen. Not so great that there isn’t more publicity surrounding it. Either way, get on the bus!
Very good move. If they keep the schedules up to date and if the buses stick to the schedules (vs. showing up early and taking off before the on-time riders get there), bus ridership may increase. When I relied on MARTA for regular commuting downtown, the deterrent to my using buses to get to after-work destinations and then home again, was the time it would take me to figure out the routes,schedules, interconnections, not to mention the high probability that the info was outdated. So I would take the train back to Decatur and walk home to my car, which made no sense geographically but was the only way I could be sure that I’d get where I was going on time.
Awesome. About time MARTA!
This is great news! I depend daily on the Emory CLIFF shuttle location app on my iPhone & often wished that MARTA had a similar service. And, as you suggested, I will most likely ride MARTA more often now that they have a real-time bus locations app.
Bah. Just more Droid discrimination!
There actually is a droid app for this, but I haven’t tried it in real world yet.
Finally? Where’s the love for MARTA’s MyCommute? *loud-Halloween-embellished-laughter*
I highly anticipate iPhone v. Android flamewars over this shortly.
Can’t believe it didn’t come out on WebOS first. Palm Treo 4 ever!
Actually, after a bit of experimenting and comparison with the wife’s iphone, I’d say the Android version is better. Both are third party.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.ridecell.martabus&feature=search_result
I actually saw this in the feature list when they upgraded the app a couple weeks ago and didn’t think to notify anyone. But it is certainly a cool and useful feature.