On a rainy Tuesday afternoon, New Haven bus riders wish the Connecticut Department of Transportation’s GPS tracking system was already up and running.
“They’re not really usually there when they’re supposed to be there,” Jennifer Croll said, waiting for her bus by the New Haven Green. “If you had the GPS, you would actually know how far behind you’re running, if you need to call a cab, make other alternatives and it would be easier to get to and from where you’re going.”
The CT DOT encourages regular bus riders to utilize apps like Transit App, which Jasmin Johnson has downloaded on her phone.
“Right there it shows where the stop is,” she said. “But location is unavailable.”
The DOT is behind schedule in rolling out the GPS tracking system for the nearly 130 CT Transit buses in the Elm City. Gov. Dannel Malloy announced the program back in August 2015.
“It’s pretty decent,” Johnson said of bus service in New Haven, “you have your off days, but it’s pretty decent, I’m grateful for it.”
New Haven bus riders hoped this technology would have been available before the cold and wet winter months.
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“Yeah, cause I live right next door to the bus stop,” Croll said, “so I literally could have waited in my house until I saw the bus was close, instead of standing out in the snow for 20 minutes.”
A DOT spokesperson emailed NBC Connecticut saying third party apps like Transit App and Google Maps are using the real-time bus tracking data in Hartford.
“It’s January in Connecticut,” Johnson said, “it would be great to know really where the bus is and how much longer I have to wait.”
The DOT is looking at January field test of the new technology in New Haven with the hope of launching the system the next month.
