RouteShout, a free service that allows Port Authority bus riders to access bus arrival times from their mobile phones, is being tested at selected bus stops around the City of Pittsburgh.
RouteShout, launched in Pittsburgh by deeplocal, a CMU spin-off mobile technology company, is currently being beta tested by the Port Authority of Allegheny County at 22 stops located in areas that service primarily college students. The RouteShout service enables public transit companies to make their timetable data accessible over text message and mobile phone.
Passengers simply text in a stop ID printed on a bus stop sign near them, and they receive information about the next buses scheduled to come their way. The Port Authority created and installed orange signs at 22 select stops around the city each labeled with a unique code. The service uses these codes to pull timetable and location data of bus stops from the Port Authority’s database.
A bus rider simply texts in the unique bus stop code to receive arrival times for the next buses scheduled to arrive at that stop. Additional features are being developed by deeplocal that improve the accessibility of the RouteShout service. Since preliminary testing began in late December, several thousand passengers have used RouteShout to retrieve information about upcoming buses.
This system marks the beginning of a set of opportunities to provide information to transit riders about where they are and what is available around them. Bus stops can become living kiosks of information, requiring no physical maintenance at a low cost. Pending the success of this beta testing period, the Port Authority may expand the service to additional stops throughout the county.
RouteShout is one of several text message based applications built on deeplocal’s proprietary Gumband platform. Early support for this platform’s development came from the Sprout Fund’s Engage Pittsburgh Award.
I like the idea behind this technology, and it’s great that they’re working with the Port Authority.
To really knock this one out of the park I think they’re going to need to integrate real-time bus tracking, rather than just parroting what’s in the timetables.
RouteShout is a new product we are launching with the Port Authority as our guinea pig. They have been fantastic at working with us to pilot RouteShout here in Pittsburgh. To address the issue of real-time tracking – Yes we agree that integration with real-time GPS is a key ingredient for many transit organizations (for some it is not). RouteShout has several exciting features being launched in the coming months and GPS integration is something we are definitely paying attention to (as are others). One thing to note, the goal of RouteShout is to reduce calls to customer service for transit organizations thereby improving rider satisfaction and reducing costs. We believe that by making schedule information available over SMS and voice for our customers is a significant step for many and one that can have real financial benefits. To put it simply, services by some of the competitors in this space take months to years to set up and can cost millions of dollars. RouteShout.com allows transit organizations to build and manage their routes and stops all through a web-based system with monthly billing for service. It greatly simplifies the setup and requires no sales staff.
But, I agree, we continue to develop where our clients push us and where we see problems that we can fix. GPS, mobile devices, and other types of access and display are of course on our radar and some are being tested now.
If you do like the service and the direction it is headed, please fill out the survey at routeshout.com. The survey is for the Port Authority to validate their own assumptions about rider demand and technology access. Your comments and answers will greatly help in determining how the Port Authority’s implementation of RouteShout will progress in the future.
Thanks though. We love working on all things Pittsburgh and have our hands in a bit of everything. We love to have now run the transportation gauntlet from designing the Pittsburgh Bike Map to producing RouteShout for the Port Authority. We’ll keep developing if you keep responding!
thanks, all of deeplocal
deeplocal is building some great technology that is connecting people and making our lives a little bit easier. We need more companies like deeplocal in the ‘Burgh. Keep up the great work.
It’s great to see this kind of marriage of design, utility, and old-school infrastructure – a perfect example of the pragmatic innovation that sets Pittsburgh’s tech community apart.
This reminded me of something I read over at Cooper’s journal: http://www.cooper.com/journal/2009/02/commuter_buddy.html. The difference is that deeplocal is actually doing it (especially if they tie in location tracking!).