On June 25, OCTA received the Golden Hub of Innovation award from the Association of California Cities – Orange County (ACC-OC) for its real-time bus information.
OCTA provides bus schedule information in a variety of ways, including printed and digital busbooks. Seven years ago, OCTA launched Text4Next, a free service that helps customers determine when the bus is scheduled to arrive at their specific stop.
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However, on a day-to-day basis, there are a number of factors, including weather and traffic delays, which can alter the schedule of a bus.
Last year, OCTA continued its strong history of digital innovation by offering access to tools that provide real-time information to those waiting for a bus. From OCTA’s website, riders can download apps to their mobile phones that provide information about current bus locations and bus stop arrival times.
OCTA reached out to the developers of two of the most popular transit trip-planning apps to forge a partnership using OCTA’s real-time bus customer information. Instead of creating a costly mobile app from the ground up, OCTA sought out the best apps already popular with customers and developed a strategic partnership to provide an immediate and accurate answer to the question, “Where’s my bus?”
Developing the technology using external vendors would have been costly. An in-house solution appeared time consuming and expensive. By partnering with developers of established transit apps that already had proven technology in place, OCTA delivered the solution more quickly and at less expense.
These real-time mobile bus apps are popular. In a survey of customers who use the apps, nearly 90 percent said they use it a few times a week, with the majority using it multiple times a day. Ninety percent said the apps were very helpful, and 91 percent said the apps were very accurate.