Photo by Fredo Alvarez

One day into to the official relaunch of WMATA’s Next Bus service, and we’ve heard a lot positive feedback from bus riders about the usefulness of the system. But some problems with the real-time Metrobus arrival tool are already apparent.

The Washington Post ran a brief story today detailing the difficulties some users are having with the voice recognition software in the phone-based arm of Next Bus, for example, something that isn’t too surprising given the relative inadequacies of other voice recognition-based tools across the spectrum. We’ve heard from readers who say that road noise at their bus stops appears to be impeding their ability to get the system to recognize their queries.

We’ve also noticed that some bus lines aren’t providing very accurate arrival information just yet. Next Bus results in some instances are showing 70+ minutes before the next bus arrival, when in fact the bus is supposed to be arriving at regular 25 minute intervals. Those kinds of kinks could be due to issues with equipment on the buses, according to Metro spokesperson Candace Smith – drivers need to log onto the system in order to be detected along their routes, so if that wasn’t done properly or isn’t working, that could be one explanation for the discrepancy. WMATA plans to continue to test and look to improve the accuracy of information provided by Next Bus, and if you have specific questions about a problem you’re encountering, the first place to start is their Next Bus FAQ.

But completely outside of the technology behind the system, DCist has found that WMATA has accidentally placed the wrong Next Bus signs – signs which are supposed to provide the relevant bus stop number in order to look up arrival information in the system easily – at stops around the city.

DCist tested every Next Bus stop sign within one small cross section of the city, composed of the greater Logan Circle area. In an area bounded by 9th Street NW to east, 16th Street NW to the west, P Street NW to the south, and R Street NW to the north – which includes several north-south bus lines (the 60 buses, 50 buses and S buses) as well as a couple of cross-town lines (the G2 and the G8) – at least six bus stops have the incorrect Next Bus number posted on their signs.