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ChineseMetro Silently Introduces NexTrip Beta
[tags]nextrip, nextbus, metro, los angeles, public transit, beta, technology[/tags]
Metro continues to modernize its system. First came the new LCD displays in the subway, then came the news that ticket machines would start accepting credit cards, and now Metro brings us real time arrival technology in the form of NexTrip. Of course, all these projects are still in beta, and NexTrip is no exception.
A link to NexTrip is discreetly tucked away in the top right corner of the Metro Advanced Trip Planner. Clicking it opens a pop-up window (ugh) containing the NexTrip interface. The only mention of NexTrip on the Metro website is a press release from March of this year that claims that NexTrip offers real-time notices of bus arrival times to web-enabled cell phone users. The technology is similar to rapidbus.net, a service already in use for Metro Rapid buses. It’s also similar to a service called NextBus, which offers real-time arrival information for a number of transit systems across the country. NextBus has a page describing how the technology works, essentially a combination of live GPS data and predictive software that sends highly accurate estimated arrival times to the world wide web and other wireless communication devices.
Anyone who has ever waited for a bus before knows that value in this kind of technology. Due to the nature of traffic, buses are rarely right on schedule, and are often way off schedule. As a bus rider, there’s nothing worse than feeling stranded at a bus stop, with no clue as to when the next bus is to arrive. With NexTrip technology, riders will be able to know exactly when they can expect the next bus to come and adjust their plans accordingly. If anything, NexTrip will bring peace of mind to bus riders as they will no longer wait in a vacuum.
This is, of course, if the technology actually works. And if you have a web-enabled cell phone.
The latter becomes less of an issue everyday, as cell phones are as common as tennis shoes, and virtually all phones in the past few years have some form of web accessibility and all future phones will undoubtedly have web capabilities standard. Rich or poor, it’s likely that you have some sort of cell phone. Just the other day I saw a person outside the 7th Street Metro Center station panhandling while texting on a cell phone.
As far as the technology, it’s clear that NexTrip is in beta, and I might go ahead and say it’s in early beta from my short experience with it. First off, there’s a menu bar across the top of the interface with the choices “Select Trip”, “My Trips”, “Maps’, and “Schedule”, which all sound intriguing (especially “My Trips”) but are all currently unclickable. To Metro’s credit, a massive number of transit providers are listed, basically every provider in the region from Alhambra Community Transit to Whittier Transit and everything in between. The interface, although unfortunately housed in a pop-up window, is rather streamlined and intuitive. First, you choose your transit provider from a (very long) drop-down list. Once the provider is chosen the interface will rapidly reload, updating the subsequent options. Next you choose your line from the next drop-down menu, for example the 2 WB (westbound) Sunset-San Vicente. The interface will reload once again and the next drop-down menu is where you choose your starting location, Broadway/8th for example. Impressively, every single bus stop is listed, so as you can imagine the drop-down list is quite long. After another reload you choose your end stop in a similar manner. The interface reloads a final time revealing the time in minutes of the next arrival as well as the full schedule of the particular line with scheduled start/end times for your chosen stops (similar to what you might get from the Trip Planner). The interface, in general, is effective. The drop down menus are a bit long, but that’s the price you pay for such detail, and hopefully the “My Trips” feature will eventually allow you to save your favorite trips so you don’t have to scroll through the lists each time. As I’ve already mentioned, the entire interface is currently housed in a pop-up window, which will need to change, especially for cellular access. I was able to circumnavigate the pop-up window on my phone by inputting the full web address (http://socaltransport.org/NexTrip.php) into the browser rather than navigating to it through the Advance Trip Planner. The interface worked surprisingly well on my Helio Ocean using the Opera Mini browser. Also, some of the bus stops along the same route are labeled slight differently - for example, Sunset Boulevard is labeled as Sunset Bl, Sunset, W Sunset Bl, and W Sunset Blvd - and are not necessarily in the order they should be.
I had the chance to put NexTrip Beta into real world use this weekend as I made my way from Downtown to the Sunset Strip. I planned to transfer from the Red Line to a Metro Local 2 at Vermont/Sunset, and as I exited the station I loaded up NexTrip on my cell phone. With relative ease I input the relevant data into the NexTrip form and after I entered my end point, W Sunset Bl/N Crescent Heights Bl, the interface gave its ETA: Next Trip in 26 minutes. I looked at my watch, it read 1:08, I knew from consulting the schedule before I left that a bus was supposed to arrive at 1:10. Was the bus really going to be that late or was NexTrip lying to me? As I said before, NexTrip also includes the schedule with it’s estimated time of arrival, and the schedule confirmed the 1:10 scheduled arrival time. It also confirmed a 1:34 arrival time, exactly 26 minutes from 1:08. As the 1:10 bus arrived at 1:13, my suspicions were confirmed - NexTrip isn’t really ready for the real world and as of know it seems to not be using GPS information but schedule information, and selective schedule information at best.
Hopefully Metro will continue to work on this tool and make it full operable, because it has the potential to revolutionize bus travel in this city. Currently waiting for a bus is an exercise in patience and chaos theory, but with a functioning real-time arrival system, it could become an effective way to get around the city. At least if you’re going to be late for work because a bus is late, you can let your boss know how late he can expect you.
If you’ve had any experience with the new NexTrip Beta widget, report your findings here, and let Metro know how you feel through the customer feedback form they’ve provided.
Discussion
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That’s great that they are finally rolling this out for online use. The NextBus system works great up here in the Bay Area… AC Transit and Muni both use it right now for online service and Muni has installed a lot of ETA signs at bus shelters throughout the city. AC Transit has installed some on the 1R (International Ave) and 72R (San Pablo Ave) Rapids they are rolling out here but the ETA signs are only operating on the 72R. The online system works great because some routes are notoriously off schedule, so this helps to make the trip much more predictable. Now, instead of being frustrated, you will know ahead of time that the next three buses will come in 1 min, 2 min, and 37 min! But at least you now know whether it’s worth walking or taking a nearby bus line instead.
I have found the Metro Rapid 720 and Orange Line ETA signs to be particularly undependable. Sometimes I see it say “8 min” when a bus is arriving, “Delayed” with no other information, or just simply not give a prediction and saying “Metro Rapid Bus”. They should work out those kinks and also get going on the new LCDs on the Red/Purple Line. I can see they have been making progress from Union Station all the way down to 7th/Metro (when I rode this past weekend). I don’t see how they couldn’t use the existing one line red displays that are currently at the remaining stations. Is it just not capable of displaying that information? Because BART uses a similar looking red LED sign, albeit larger, and it works perfectly fine. I don’t think we necessarily need our arrival times coming to us in high def.
BTW, I forgot to include this in the previous post (and can’t find the edit button for it) but I wanted to share a ride experience from last Friday. Hopefully this is the right place to post? (I can’t find the equivalent of a BART Rage for Metro).
Does anyone knew why the 720 WBs were virtually non existent for over one hour from 10:15 to 11:15pm, while waiting at Wilshire/Vermont last Friday night. There were (I am not exaggerating numbers here) seven 720 EBs that came the other direction while we were waiting here. It may have come in handy to use the NexTrip software in this instance, as the ETA sign displayed “Metro Rapid Bus” and no other info. We ended up taking a 20 Local all the way down toward Westwood while I still noticed a good number of people still waiting at the Rapid stops along the way at Western, La Brea, Fairfax, etc. I really wanted to find out what was going on since I didn’t know how to (or even if I could) contact Metro dispatch. I have never had to wait more than 15 minutes for a 720 before.
Also, I took the 920 inbound last Friday around 5:30pm from Westwood and was thinking it would be great and we could perhaps skip some 720s. Well two 720s and one 920 passed us. So I guess it also needs a little luck and a good driver to make it work?
Lastly, is TransitTV being phased out? I know they were working over the summer, but I’ve noticed LCD panels being removed on some buses and others that are simply turned off. I know a lot of people dislike it but I personally think it helps pass the time and the Local Live map feature makes it easier to see what will be coming up (though it would be better if they tilted the left sidebar to make it a bottom sidebar for routes that go east-west such as the 720, that way you can see more of what the route will actually be serving).
This is something that would work wonders for late night rides and for buse lines that don’t have a high volume of buses.
And to stephen, it was announced earlier this year that they were going to start taking off TransitTv. I liked it, but I feel like it made too much noise and I miss the awkward silence on buses.
It’s quite common for the GPS locators not to work on Metro buses. In fact, I believe a few of the very oldest buses don’t even have them. So, next bus really means next bus with a functioning GPS - which may not be the next bus that actually arrives.
Actually, with the fiscal crisis, they are going to have more ads, not less. Perhaps they were either broken or you were on a new bus, or a contracted service bus.
oh fear not stephen, there is much rage here in soCal and this board is chock full of it sometimes. however, there’s always that fine line of, “yeah it sux and it should be better, but i still gotta back ‘em cuz metro has enough (nearly an entire city populace) against ‘em.”
as for your 720 experience, i’ve had that happen to me before as well. its annoying as all hell. its not common and of course the LED’s are completely useless (have never seen one working the entire length of wilshire) but i’ve def waited on a rare occasion for about 45 minutes as i watched in envy of the opposite bound 720 (or any bus for that matter) pass by in abundance.
i’m trying this new beta out right now. i’m not usually a trip planner person because i hate the interface but this new one looks great and works great on my computer at work. however, like rapidbus.net, it doesn’t work on my sidekick3. curses!!!
i shall write some times down and test it anyway for fun.
p.s. transit tv is still around and in abundance