MTA Bus Time
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

MTA Bus Time, stylized as BusTime, is a
Service Interface for Real Time Information The Standard Interface for Real-time Information or SIRI is an XML protocol to allow distributed computers to exchange real-time information about public transport services and vehicles. The protocol is a CEN norm, developed originally as a tec ...
, automatic vehicle location (AVL), and
passenger information system A passenger information system, or passenger information display system, is an automated system for supplying users of public transport with information about the nature and the state of a public transport service through visual, voice or other m ...
provided by the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the New York City metropolitan area of the U.S. state of New York. The MTA is the largest public transit authority in th ...
(MTA) of
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
for customers of its bus operations under the
New York City Bus MTA Regional Bus Operations (RBO) is the surface transit division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). It was created in 2008 to consolidate all bus operations in New York City operated by the MTA. , MTA Regional Bus Operations ru ...
and
MTA Bus Company MTA Regional Bus Operations (RBO) is the surface transit division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). It was created in 2008 to consolidate all bus operations in New York City operated by the MTA. , MTA Regional Bus Operations ru ...
brands. First tested in late 2010 and officially launched in early 2011, MTA Bus Time was installed in all MTA bus routes in New York City by 2014. The software uses
Global Positioning System The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...
(GPS) technology equipped in buses to relay real-time location information to passengers via internet-enabled devices (particularly
smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...
s), SMS messages, or
countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...
clocks installed at bus stops. Since 1996, the MTA had tried to install positioning technology for buses through numerous pilot programs, which were implemented in various stages.


Usage and software

MTA Bus Time allows riders to track the location of buses along a route. On computer browsers, the service uses
Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets ( Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and rou ...
to display bus routes and the position of buses along routes, by typing in a route (e.g. ) or intersection into the search box. It will also give the distance (in number of stops or miles) and approximate time away from the next stop for each bus. For web-enabled mobile devices, typing in a route will display the list of stops along the route and the position of buses along it. Typing in an intersection will give a list of buses operating to that stop and the approximate time for the next bus to reach the stop. Intersection information can also be found by scanning the
QR code A QR code (an initialism for quick response code) is a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional barcode) invented in 1994 by the Japanese company Denso Wave. A barcode is a machine-readable optical label that can contain information about th ...
for a stop, or texting the stop's numerical code to receive information via
SMS Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...
; both codes are found on the
Guide-A-Ride Guide-A-Ride is the bus stop information display for MTA Regional Bus Operations of New York City. It is a rectangular box attached to the bus stop pole that displays a route map and a schedule. Originally designed for MTA New York City Transit o ...
box affixed to bus stop signage.See: * * Bus Time is also integrated into countdown clocks installed at several bus stops throughout the city, displaying how many stops away the next bus is, to serve riders without internet devices or mobile phones. The current Bus Time system uses on-board
GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...
and wireless communication units, at the cost of about $20,000 per vehicle. For most buses, the console is equipped behind the driver's seat.See: * * The hardware is provided by two companies,
Verifone Verifone is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Coral Springs, Florida. Verifone provides technology for electronic payment transactions and value-added services at the point-of-sale. Verifone sells merchant-operated, consum ...
and
Cubic Transportation Systems Cubic Corporation is an American public transportation and defense corporation. It operates two business segments: Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS) and Cubic Mission and Performance Solutions (CMPS). History Cubic Corporation was founded i ...
, with GPS devices supplied by
Trimble Navigation Trimble Inc. is an American software, hardware, and services technology company. Trimble supports global industries in building & construction, agriculture, geospatial, natural resources and utilities, governments, transportation and others. Trim ...
, and
open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...
software called OneBusAway. The Verifone system is the successor to a pilot "Smart Card" payment system developed along with MasterCard.
Cambridge Systematics Cambridge Systematics, Inc. is an independent, employee-owned transportation consultancy firm with corporate headquarters located in Medford, Massachusetts. Cambridge Systematics provides strategic planning and management services, objective anal ...
was also involved in the development. The MTA uses the same servers as
Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economi ...
. The technology is similar to the technology used for countdown clocks found in the
New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...
system (called Subway Time). Bus Time is also used by the MTA to create performance reports for bus routes, and by bus dispatchers and managers to monitor and improve service. This technology is called Bus Trek.


History

The mass transit system of
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
did not have any sort of arrival-time information system prior to the installation of the first subway and bus countdown clocks in the 2000s. Many other major cities (such as
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
,
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, and
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
) had used the technology for many years; several American cities such as
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
,
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
, and
Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...
, have also had bus-tracking systems prior to MTA implementation. In 1979, the MTA tested a radio-based monitoring system on the buses from the Queens Village Depot, called the "Radio-Data-Locator System" and designed by
Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent p ...
. The buses automatically communicated their location to the East New York Bus Command Center in
East New York, Brooklyn East New York is a residential neighborhood in the eastern section of the borough of Brooklyn in New York City, United States. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise, are roughly the Cemetery Belt and the Queens borough lin ...
, every 90 seconds. The system was used to improve bus performance and prevent
bus bunching In public transport, bus bunching, clumping, convoying, piggybacking or platooning is a phenomenon whereby two or more transit vehicles (such as buses or trains) that were scheduled at regular intervals along a common route instead bunch togethe ...
, but was not accessible to the public.See: * * * * In 1996, the MTA's
New York City Transit Authority The New York City Transit Authority (also known as NYCTA, the TA, or simply Transit, and branded as MTA New York City Transit) is a public-benefit corporation in the U.S. state of New York that operates public transportation in New York City. P ...
(NYCT) contracted
Orbital Sciences Corporation Orbital Sciences Corporation (commonly referred to as Orbital) was an American company specializing in the design, manufacture, and launch of small- and medium- class space and launch vehicle systems for commercial, military and other governmen ...
to design a bus-arrival monitoring system, planned to be installed on 170 city buses by 1998. The routes on which it would be implemented were the and , which operated out of the 126th Street Depot in Manhattan. In 1997, the MTA awarded a second contract to Orbital to install a tracking system on the Long Island Bus system (now the independent
Nassau Inter-County Express The Nassau Inter-County Express (NICE) is the local bus system serving Nassau County, New York. It also serves parts of western Suffolk County, New York as well as eastern portions of the New York City borough of Queens. It was formerly operated ...
). An additional contract was awarded in 1999 for the MTA's Access-A-Ride
paratransit Paratransit is the term used in North America, also known by other names such as community transport ( UK) for transportation services that supplement fixed-route mass transit by providing individualized rides without fixed routes or timetables. ...
service. The system would have included countdown clocks and
interactive kiosk An interactive kiosk is a computer terminal featuring specialized hardware and software that provides access to information and applications for communication, commerce, entertainment, or education. By 2010, the largest bill pay kiosk network ...
s at stops, and recorded "next stop" announcements on buses (similar to that of modern subway cars and the still-used Clever Devices system used on the ex-MTA Long Island Bus/NICE Bus units). NYCT Buses would be monitored at the East New York Depot control center, and Long Island buses at a command center in Garden City. After four years, the company had missed most of its deadlines. The technology, meanwhile, was faulty because the
skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...
s in Manhattan blocked signals and the
dead reckoning In navigation, dead reckoning is the process of calculating current position of some moving object by using a previously determined position, or fix, and then incorporating estimates of speed, heading direction, and course over elapsed time. ...
system had failed. The NYCT contract was terminated by the MTA in 2000. In 1999, the
New York City Department of Transportation The New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) is the agency of the government of New York City responsible for the management of much of New York City's transportation infrastructure. Ydanis Rodriguez is the Commissioner of the Departm ...
(NYCDOT) planned to launch a tracking and countdown clock program on the route (then privately operated under a DOT subsidy by
Green Bus Lines Green Bus Lines, also referred to simply as Green Lines, was a private bus company in New York City, United States. It operated local service in Queens and express service to Manhattan until January 9, 2006, when the city-operated MTA Bus Compan ...
) along
Queens Boulevard Queens Boulevard is a major thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Queens connecting Midtown Manhattan, via the Queensboro Bridge, to Jamaica. It is long and forms part of New York State Route 25. Queens Boulevard runs northwest to so ...
. The DOT planned to put it in operation by 2002. In summer 2005, a $13 million contract was awarded by the MTA to
Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...
for a pilot countdown clock program at fifteen stops along the same six bus routes in Manhattan of the previous NYCT program. This project also experienced delays, with the first countdown clocks operational by October 2007. After issues with arrival time accuracy, the clocks were shut down in February 2008, and MTA pulled out of the program in early 2009. In August 2009, countdown clocks were installed at eight stops for the and crosstown buses along 34th Street in
Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildin ...
. These clocks were installed at the top of the
Cemusa Cemusa is an advertising company based in Spain. The company specializes in providing and maintaining outdoor fixtures such as bus shelters in urban areas, paying for the right to run advertising on the fixtures.Hu and Santos. It was a unit of Fom ...
bus shelters at the stops by
Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
-based Clever Devices, which provided the GPS equipment free of charge. The clocks were praised by ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' as a "Miracle on 34th Street," a play on the famous film of the same name.See: * * * Around this time, many new Orion VII NG buses delivered to the MTA were equipped with AVL consoles built by Clever Devices. On October 14, 2010, the first version of the Bus Time web service, also developed by Clever Devices, was launched along the route using the same GPS system. Following the transition of the two routes into the M34 and M34A Select Bus Service in late 2011, the countdown clocks were removed by the contractor in April 2012, and were replaced with the current Bus Time system. The pilot route for the most recent iteration of MTA Bus Time was the in Brooklyn, where thirty buses were equipped with the technology in February 2011. By January 2012, every local and express bus in
Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull an ...
was equipped with the system. The M34/M34A SBS began using the system on April 6, 2012, with nearly every Bronx bus route using the system by the end of 2012. All five boroughs of the city used the system by March 2014, and a
mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...
was released in 2015.


References


External links

* "MTA Bus Time" on MTA website: *
Main Site
*
About
*
Technology
{{MTA RBO MTA Regional Bus Operations Bus transportation in New York City Public transport information systems Mobile software