mobile

OCTA's taking more and more steps to open up data for mobile transit applications. Their new webpage on Mobile Apps feature mobile device applications that let you plot trips for OCTA's transit services. Most of the applications available are for Apple's iPhone OS (soon to be iOS), but the biggest application of all is Google Maps, which you can download for Blackberry OS, Android OS, Windows Mobile, Java, Palm's WebOS, and, of course, iPhone OS/iOS.

Currently, they offer Google Transit Feed files — which includes bus stop schedules, bus stops, and bus routes — and GIS mapping data. In the future, they will offer XML schedules and a Rider Alert RSS feed. read more→

• OCTA Mobile Apps — http://www.octa.net/MobileApps.aspx
• OCTA Resources for Developers — http://www.octa.net/OpenDataFeeds.aspx

OCTA just launched Text4Next, which allows you receive text messages for the next upcoming bus (thus confirming my blog post on OCTA's text messaging system from a few months back). It's a nifty new tool to make riding the bus easier. Kudos to OCTA staff for — in the face of budget and political constraints — trying to improve the transit experience as much as possible.

You can text "bus <stopnumber> <routenumber>" and optionally "<time> <date>". For example, text "bus 3563 71 400p 102309" to OCTAGO to receive bus arrivals for route 71, 4:00pm on 10/23/2009.

For more details and instructions, visit www.octa.net/octago .

Normal text messaging rates apply. read more→

It certainly seems so. Earlier this year, their customer service roundtable made it clear that OCTA staff were looking at mobile technologies to enhance customer service. And their recent OCTA Operations Observer newsletter in July shed some light on their plans:

SMS System - With the leadership of the Marketing Department; Transit, Customer Relations, and External Affairs are in the process of implementing a Short Message Service, better known as texting, whereby a customer at a bus stop could text a message to the Authority with the route and bus stop ID and in return get a response indicating the next 3 passing times at the stop of the route indicated. At this time, we will be providing scheduled arrival time only at the bus stop. Later, once the other enhancements of other systems are completed, the passing time will be real time.

This capability will enable our customers to save time and plan their trips more efficiently.

Due to budget cuts, OCTA has removed all of its timetables from its bus stops and reduced its timetable printing, making it difficult for passengers to find out when their bus is supposed to arrive. There's no indication as to when the SMS (text messaging) schedule announcements will be implemented, but this will be  great for those lucky passengers who have mobile phones with text messaging plans. read more→

Kudos to Metrolink for testing out sending system status alerts using bleeding-edge SMS text messages. According to Metrolink's post on Twitter,

We've been sending ‘tweets’ to our ‘followers’ since mid-August 2008 as a pilot program and we plan to continue to test Twitter's effectiveness over the next few months but we need your feedback.  But first you have to subscribe.  Visit twitter.com to learn how to set up your free account.  Next, use your cell phone or computer and send the following message to 40404:  follow Metrolink.  You should get a confirmation that you are now following Metrolink.

What kind of messages does Metrolink send out? Take a look at their web feed at http://twitter.com/metrolink and you'll find nuggets such as "Antel. Vall. Line Train 222 is 28 min. late out of Lancaster". This is the kind of quality up-to-the-minute information commuters have been craving for when they've found out their train has been delayed for an ambiguous amount of time, and information that should be on every LED display at every station!

(By the way, this initiative is similar to the Caltrain twitter feed that Ravi Pina, a Tellme, set up, except his feed is user-powered and includes bits of train commentary like alerts for crotchety train conductors: http://twitter.com/caltrain ) read more→