SEPTA's TransitView Shows Status Of Public Transit In Real Time
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- During a week this hot, waiting outside for a bus or trolley can be downright miserable. But for the first time this summer, SEPTA is posting the locations of its 1,600 buses and trolleys in real time on its website as part of an effort to provide more information to passengers and make commuting easier. It's called TransitView.
"You can time your walk to the street corner, so you're not standing out in the hot weather," said Ron Hopkins, director of SEPTA's control center.
You can time your walk that is, if the system works.
The information is posted on SEPTA's website, which is available on smart phones and iPads. Armed with an iPad on Tuesday, Eyewitness News set out to see how accurate TransitView really is.
Watch the video...
Aside from SEPTA's server timing out on one occasion, we found it works pretty well for bus service. Trolley routes, however, are another story.
On a map, TransitView shows the location and direction (using a color code) of every bus on a given route. The progress of each bus is updated about every three minutes using GPS signals from antennas on the vehicles. SEPTA officials say they'd update the locations more often, but they are restricted due to data limitations. Still, TransitView gives you a general idea of how far away the next bus is and how long it might take to arrive.
Both the C route along Broad Street and route 33 along Market East were entirely accurate. Just when we estimated a bus should come into view, it did.
The Route 15 trolley on Girard Avenue, however, was wildly inaccurate. Several trolleys passed us without showing up on TransitView.
SEPTA says that's because they are still upgrading the GPS signals on several of the trolley routes, including route 15.
"I would say we're at least at a 'B' right now," said Ron Hopkins when asked what grade he would give the six-week-old system. He openly admits SEPTA is still working out the kinks.
"We realized we had to upgrade all our GPS antennas," he said. "We did our buses first. Then we did subway-surface lines. Now, we're working on the Media, Sharon Hill routes and route 15."
SEPTA officials say they saved millions of dollars on the system by putting it together entirely in-house. They say several other transit agencies opted to put similar systems out to bid, and some wound up with costly programs that don't work well.
"Any feedback we get from passengers is critical to us, because we can go in and improve the system," Hopkins said.
And at least one big improvement is coming in the next year. SEPTA has assigned every stop in its system a numeric code. Soon, passengers will simply be able to type in the code for their stop and a list will pop up with the location of the next buses to arrive.
Reported by Ben Simmoneau, CBS3
