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Trimess
Sunday, October 16, 2011
I wonder just how much money does go into developing this fluff?
To answer your question, this was funded by $150K 2-year grant from Metro; and it was also co-developed by people around the world.
Also: I think Transit Tracker and the other third party apps are used a lot more than you think. PDXbus, for example, is reported to generate more than 100,000 hits a day.
I think the question to ask the riders is: "Do you ever check to find out when the bus is coming? How do you do that?"...then see what they say. Maybe I'll conduct a little survey.
BTW: Even if nobody used 3rd party apps, who cares? TriMet's investment is peanuts -- they already have the hardware on the buses and produce the data for their own dispatch system, Transit Tracker by phone/web/text, etc. Creating the data is expensive, but providing access to what you're already doing costs TriMet basically nothing.
Also I should reiterate, of course, that what has been announced isn't a third party app at all -- it's a new trip planner (i.e. to replace the one that TriMet is currently paying $51K/year to license).
4 comments:
Even if it was funded by TriMet (which it wasn't), it would still be worth the $$.
I don't think I have even one rider on any buses I have driven, E-V-E-R, and I am not kidding, that has ever used any of these applications Max!
As matter of fact, had it not been for you, I would still be using the transit tracker!
Most people I move, use the schedules.
That's right Max they don't even use the transit tracker!
It's fluff and stuff from where I sit.
So who is funding this then, if its not Trimet?
Of course you don't see people using the trip planner -- it's generally used at home from a desktop PC.
"TriMet's web site averages over 950,000 visits per month and about 550,000 of those visits are to plan transit trips. "
Or if you don't believe that -- go look at Google's stats. "trimet trip planner" is the second most common search for people in the Portlad metro area!
To answer your question, this was funded by $150K 2-year grant from Metro; and it was also co-developed by people around the world.
Also:
I think Transit Tracker and the other third party apps are used a lot more than you think. PDXbus, for example, is reported to generate more than 100,000 hits a day.
I think the question to ask the riders is: "Do you ever check to find out when the bus is coming? How do you do that?"...then see what they say. Maybe I'll conduct a little survey.
BTW:
Even if nobody used 3rd party apps, who cares? TriMet's investment is peanuts -- they already have the hardware on the buses and produce the data for their own dispatch system, Transit Tracker by phone/web/text, etc. Creating the data is expensive, but providing access to what you're already doing costs TriMet basically nothing.
Also I should reiterate, of course, that what has been announced isn't a third party app at all -- it's a new trip planner (i.e. to replace the one that TriMet is currently paying $51K/year to license).
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