As you may have noticed, the already decrepit T system took a turn for the worse over the past month, thanks to a barrage of blizzards. And as a result of the constant MBTA service limitations and delays, commuters who've braved the subway and bus system have been left hoping that everything is running on schedule (probably not) while their nostril hairs formed icicles—and that's if they didn't just miss the last train my a marginal amount of time (they probably did). To say that conditions have been frustrating for commuters in Boston, Cambridge and other communities on the MBTA is a major understatement. But a number of Boston-area software developers are seeking to turn these unfortunate circumstances into an opportunity for innovation—and a chance to improve your daily commute.
Recently, a flurry of new apps have emerged all aimed at one pain point: easing public transportation woes. While certainly things have improved somewhat since Red Line and Green Line B Branch service were restored, that doesn’t change the exasperating fact that—regardless of winter weather—the MBTA is often not reliable anyway.
For the large percentage of people who rely on the T or bus to get to work and back home every day, there has been a general feeling of powerlessness. And while these apps may not make trains come any faster or more frequently, they could help everyone plan and time their commutes better .
There are a lot of apps to choose from, though, so we rounded up some of the newest MBTA tools and highlighted their differences. That way, you can figure out which one is most likely to help you stay sane on the subway.
DELAID
Forecasting delays based on various data sets
The two co-founders of altr, a local digital marketing startup have taken on the ambitious endeavor of attempting to "unfuck your morning commute."
To do this, they’re building an app called DELAID, which will rely on a combination of social media updates, historical MBTA performance data and weather trends to predict the likelihood of train delays and system failures. They’re even aiming to integrate smart filters that weed out potentially inaccurate tweets. The creators admitted that the innovative app is certainly not a cure to the MBTA problems, but they’re hoping to ease the pain. DELAID isn’t available quite yet—but the duo behind it is planning to consult with developers ASAP to come up with a game plan.
"If there's interest in the app, we will build it and make it available well before the T stops having delays," said Geordie McClelland, co-founder of altr, told the Boston Business Journal.
Greenline
Tracking the next train’s location
The newest startup from Paul English's startup incubator Blade, Greenline doesn’t just guess where the nearest train is, it shows you its precise location in real-time so you can determine when it will be arriving at your station. That’s especially helpful for riders in the winter who want to avoid waiting outside in the cold when a train is delayed, or are worried about missing the next T. Built by a father-son team of MIT/Blade engineer Alex Grinman and Vladimir Grinman, the Greenline iPhone app is already available in the App Store. In just two weeks, Greenline has garnered 5,000 users.
MBTA Ninja
Crowdsourced alerts for the subway
Locals Geoffrey Litt, David Lago, and Radhika Malik realized that commuters themselves are the ones who are most aware of MBTA issues—why, they wondered, can’t they keep their fellow T-riders informed about any updates? So they created a Web app for the recent Code Across Boston 2015 hackathon that does just that by aggregating news from passengers about public transit delays and other related information, such as overcrowded stations.
Billed as the “Waze for the T,” MBTA Ninja enables users to provide details on any problems they witness or encounter to alert others about them, who can also chime in with any missing or disputed elements around the incident. Currently, the app features info for the Red, Orange and Green Lines in both inbound and outbound directions.
On Tuesday, co-creator Geoffrey Litt told BostInno that more than 4,000 people were already using MBTA Ninja. Now, the team is aiming to build the app out further at upcoming Code for Boston weekly sessions. If the MBTA were to give Ninja access to its existing data, the app could integrate GPS location tracking as well.
Updated alert maps
While the MBTA has a schedule it runs on, it’s hardly dependable. So Harvard grad Cyrus Dahmubed sought to develop a series of maps that would provide a more accurate and visually digestible depiction of the transit service. Based on the MBTA Alerts system, the map is continually updated, depicting the scheduling status for both subway trains and buses, and then posted via the creator's Twitter.
UPDATE: @MBTA B Branch and Braintree service restored ahead of schedule! @MassDOT @universalhub @streetcartracks pic.twitter.com/cUeEtdUT9L
— IQubed Design (@IQubedDesign) February 22, 2015
MBTAwesome
Real-time service alerts and station ETA
Built by Bocoup engineer K. Adam White, this recently launched app locates trains and accesses MBTA system alerts for the Red, Orange and Blue lines, displaying the average wait time in both northbound and southbound directions as well as the ETA for each individual station. So far, the Green line section of MBTAwesome has alerts but no prediction data—yet.
“The T provides location data for above-ground trains now, so we're working on ‘distance to train’ at the moment,” White told me over Twitter. “We don't have a timeline on when proper prediction data will be available—we'll announce if that changes!”
Image of Red Line train via Shutterstock.
