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Compromise Uncertain on Same-Sex Marriage Law
Fire at 17th and L NW Forces Evacuations
Sculpture Garden Ice-Skating Rink Remains Closed
Fairly exciting news from WMATA: the transit agency let the world know this morning that they are planning to relaunch the much-clamored-for Next Bus service on July 1. In preparation, your bus stop du jour will be getting new signage anyday now. The Next Bus system, which uses GPS technology to accurately estimate the real-time arrivals of buses, should really assist those of us -- all of us, I should say -- who know the frustration of waiting forty minutes in the rain for a Metrobus, only to find three bunched buses, arriving at the same time.
Of course, any regular around these parts will remember the brouhaha over the last usable, but hush-hush iteration of Next Bus. When alerted to an operational beta version of the useful system, WMATA pulled it from circulation, claiming that it wasn't "ready for prime time" -- although many were using it with modest success. Hopefully, things will go a little more smoothly this time.
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Hmmm, July 1st ehh? It all makes sense now:
The largest manufacturer of buses is Alstom, a french manufacturer. Nextbus will cause a big splash. Such a big splash that people will spend all of July 1st thinking about buses and nothing else. That benefits Alstom, right? Yes, but you've got to go deeper.
You might not realize it, but Alstom is secretly a front for the French-Canadian freedom-fighters.
And what day of the year do the French Canadians hate most of all:
Canada Day.
July 1st.
DC Canadians will completely forget to sing Oh Canada this year. Their patriotism will slip and they'll finally give up their tyrannical grasp on Quebec. New France will finally be free!
Ha-le-lu-iah. NextBus, when it worked, was a marvelous way to guess with slightly more accuracy than normal when you needed to get to the bus stop to actually catch a bus. Now we just have to get the drivers to leave the little GPS thingums on all the time so they register in the system....
If you go to many world-class cities overseas, they have actual digital displays at major bus stops, showing when the next bus will arrive.
DC's mass transit may be among the best in America, but it's still a joke by world standards.
By 'world,' do you mean europe and japan?
SF has those displays too.
Select bus stops will have the bus arrival displays in D.C., too.
I noticed Nextbus signage at the bus stop near my house (MacArthur Blvd.; D3, D5, D6) last week. But when I try to get information on the stop via text message, it says "no predictions," and it only lists one bus (D3) -- and noth the others (D5, D6). Maybe I am using it wrong, but it looks like they really do have some bugs to work out.
modest success? how about damn near perfect for a non-supported beta version?!
So what? What's your point? I don't think any intelligent person would claim that the US is at the forefront of public transportation. Or are you suggesting that because our public transportation is a "joke", we shouldn't adopt new technologies and emulate what's available in the rest of the world?
Many DC buses have been equipped with GPS for years now, so that the bus can display the next bus stop. London's bus system is only now in the process of implementing this system, and I don't believe they have yet to roll out any real-time arrival service. Does this mean that UK's public transportation is a joke and London can't compare as a world-class city?
Given the lack of emphasis on public transportation in the US, we should be ecstatic with what we have in DC--while harassing WMATA and the local governments to continue improving the rail and bus systems. Hopefully the Prez will be pushing the entire US forward in this regard over the coming years.