| | Published January 16th, 2013
| Software Application Allows Riders to Track Buses Online
| | By Sophie Braccini |  | | Bus tracker Chris Lohmann Photo Sophie Braccini
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Christoph Lohmann agrees with County Connection: the new Bus Tracker application is a really helpful tool. The online application lets users visualize where buses are on their route and calculates arrival times at whatever bus stop riders are interested in. Lohmann, who takes the bus about four times a week, likes to be able to plan trips with Bus Tracker, but he hopes that the smartphone app will be improved and made more user-friendly in future versions.
Contra Costa County Transportation Agency (CCCTA- County Connection) announced at the end of last year that all buses would be equipped with GPS devices that track their positions in real time. With the help of software called Bus Tracker, users can see where the buses are located on a Google map; the product can also calculate how long it will take a bus to reach a specific stop. Riders create a free account and can get personalized alerts, so they know when to leave their home/office to get to the stop on time.
"I tried this out this morning and it is a really good tool, especially when planning the trip home from the office (in San Francisco) on BART then taking the bus to Moraga," said Lohmann. "The desktop (full browser) version works really well but I think the best value comes from being able to view arrival times when you are en route on BART."
Finding and using Bus Tracker is easy. First, visit www.cccta.org and click on "Bus Tracker" - on the upper right of the home page. Then choose "bus location map" and click on "find stop" - Lafayette/Moraga/Orinda is Route 6. The map displays where the bus is located on the route and is refreshed every 30 seconds. There is a smartphone version to plan on the go, but Lohmann notes, "I tried using this on my iPhone and it only works so-so."
"If they would develop an app optimized for smartphones to track the bus routes that is something I would use on a daily basis," he says. "The text version is okay and useful but not as user-friendly as the BART app, for example. I use their app every day and it has proven to be very useful. I hope that they go beyond the text version for mobile phones."
In an area like ours where buses are infrequent, this added feature will add peace of mind and more predictability. "I have to say that [Bus Tracker] is a great service and it would be great if [CCCTA] were to add a 9 p.m. bus to their regular daily schedule," concludes Lohmann.
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA