My biggest complaint regarding NextBus has been that I cannot seem to bookmark stop IDs on my phone, so it's always just as hard to look up information on frequent stops as it is on infrequent ones. I can bookmark routes, but I'm much more interested in stops.

Still, that is vastly better than no information at all.

by BeyondDC on Sep 21, 2009 12:27 pm  

Really? Have one bookmarked on my home computer and another on my work computer. Not sure how I did it, come to think of it.

by цarьchitect on Sep 21, 2009 12:32 pm  

I have stops bookmarked on my iPhone, which shows the mobile version of the site. I didn't do it by Stop ID, though. I just bookmarked the page after selecting the route and stop from a list.

by Joey on Sep 21, 2009 12:39 pm  

I agree this is a great service. A few weeks ago I set off on a trip, planning to take a bus I'd never used before. I looked up the schedules in advance but when I got to the stop, I called nextbus and found out that it was going to be more than an hour until the next bus arrived. I don't know what the delay was, but I was very glad to have the information so I could walk two blocks to another route stop!

by ogden on Sep 21, 2009 12:44 pm  

My experience of NextBus has been pretty good -- sometimes it says a bus has left (and the next bus isn't there for 50 minutes), when the bus is actually just about to pull up, but it's easy enough to wait around five minutes or so before opting for a different bus/commute, just in case. My sister uses NextBus too, though, and her experience has been that the predicted times are regularly off by 10 minutes or so.

by Taeyoung on Sep 21, 2009 12:58 pm  

I've been having great experiences with the NextBus iPhone app. The bus route that runs right by my apartment building (96) runs only every 20 to 30 minutes, so it enables me to accurately decide whether it's faster to walk or wait for the bus, and allows me to sit in my apartment until right before the bus is about to arrive.

It's also allowed me at least once to take the bus home from the supermarket; usually, I pay for a taxi because I don't want to walk from Metrorail with groceries and don't know how long I'll have to wait around for a bus. Saving just one taxi fare offsets the $3 or $4 I paid for the application.

by Josh B on Sep 21, 2009 1:10 pm  

The single biggest problem I've had with NextBus is a very elementary one: how do you access NextBus when you call the number on the sign? The first time I went to use NextBus from my phone, it didn't occur to me in the slightest that I should simply say "NextBus" at the voice prompt. Instead, I spent a couple of frustrating minutes mashing keys hoping to arrive at some kind of prompt before walking down the road. I only learned to use the voice prompt because of a sign I saw at another stop with more fleshed-out instructions. A simple fix would be to put the phrase "Say 'NextBus'" under the phone number on the NextBus sign.

by Nate on Sep 21, 2009 1:20 pm  

I have had good experiences with NextBus as well. But there are definitely still ghost buses and agree with Taeyoung that it won't tell you about a bus that is only a block or so away.

The iPhone app is the best way to access it I think. Although I have had good experience just bookmarking each stop too.

I ultimately hope that WMATA and the public can use the data to better analyze on-time performance and get a better handle on the bunching problem.

by Reid on Sep 21, 2009 1:29 pm  

Does this include getting NextBus info over SMS? I don't know how popular that is, but could be interesting.

by Patrick O'Malley on Sep 21, 2009 1:43 pm  

NextBus is a pretty darn good system. It's way better than nothing. But working out some of the kinks would make it better still.

The ghost buses thing can be annoying. I noticed the other day there was no prediction for a bus at the beginning of its route -- has anyone else tried this?

When NextBus has no prediction but I know there should be a bus, I check the schedule. It'd be useful to link the next scheduled departures directly from the NextBus page.

Also, I've bookmarked some pages on the mobile site -- then later, those bookmarks didn't work. I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

Is there an SMS-based system? For instance, "text us the stop # and we'll reply with the prediction"? This would be useful for people who can text but don't have mobile Web service (and might be easier/cheaper than calling the voice system).

by Gavin Baker on Sep 21, 2009 1:49 pm  

I love NextBus. It's changed my life and the way I use Metro. It's almost always accurate. I also love some of the newer features - I'm not sure if all of you have seen the Alerts and Route Watch - go to the NextBus website - www.nextbus.com and click on the NextBus Alerts button on the left - it tells you how to set up a MyNextBus account (takes about 30 seconds) and then you can set alerts to send you a text or email at a set time before the bus is predicted to be at your stop, i.e. starting at 5 p.m. every weekday send me an alert 10 minutes before my bus is predicted to arrive at my stop. It's great!

by TransitNut on Sep 21, 2009 2:01 pm  

NextBus provides an SMS interface, but I don't think WMATA is paying for it. SMSs, in aggregate cost, can add up, possibly a few cents apiece. If even 1,000 are sent a day, that could be $10k a year, something they may not want to spend, given their current budget crunch.

by Joey on Sep 21, 2009 2:08 pm  

Joey, interesting.

I wonder whether the cost for SMS is greater or less than the cost for the voice system.

by Gavin Baker on Sep 21, 2009 2:26 pm  

I use the NextBus SMS all the time.

Here's a link to the instructions.

by Pat O on Sep 21, 2009 2:30 pm  

Interesting. Are we going to see the day that metro bus has fewer complains per capita than metro rail? 15 minutes trapped underground this morning on the red line didn't help my disdain for metrorail these days.

by Tom A. on Sep 21, 2009 2:31 pm  

What's a 'web-site use'? Do reloads count? How about NextBus DC iPhone app distribution stats and usage patterns? And most importantly, has this affected ridership?

I'd say that my use has gone from about 10 rides/month to perhaps 30. I think my bus, the D6, is now busier, especially with white-collar types, who are likely to carry smartphones.

I think NextBus justifies my iPhone. The occasional ghost bus is my only complaint.

by HM on Sep 21, 2009 3:13 pm  

I've found Nextbus to be frustrating to use but it may have something to do with where I pick up my bus it has hard time predicting arrival times correctly, I'm glad to hear that others are finding it helpful. Personally I think it would be more helpful to know where the next bus is located rather than the computer generated time estimate. And it would be improved if the phone system announced the next buses by soonest arriving and not by bus route (for stops that serve more than one bus route) including buses that are about to arrive.

by DC_Chica on Sep 21, 2009 3:25 pm  

A further issue is two-fold. I'd like to see NextBus data displayed in more places. And part of the blame is due to the data-licensing issue that gets many of us here agitated frequently.

On the subject of more displays:

1. I think WMATA has to try harder to get information to those who don't have smartphones. I don't think very highly of the automated phone response system. I think more bus-stands should have displays. I believe some of the BIDs have contributed to the upkeep of stands in the city. Some kind of standardized install with a price-tag might have some consider an upgrade.

2. In my home, I'd like to use one of those digital photo display devices without having to write my own screen-scraper. This is clearly a licensing issue. WMATA and NextBus just have to give it up on this one. From there, an $80 frame plus a service like http://framechannel.com gets you to a private in-home display. For bus-nerd cred, add a shelter.

3. We need more displays in public places. Why wouldn't every one of those unique but off-the-metro-grid places on H Street NE not have such a display letting people know when the next X2 is coming through? Why wouldn't you have a monitor in the foyers of buildings downtown doing the same.

Free the data. Add displays everywhere.

by HM on Sep 21, 2009 3:37 pm  

My PARP request for the NextBus contract should enlighten us all on the specifics behind data licensing. I don't expect WMATA to reply within the mandated 20 business days, but probably soon after.

by Michael Perkins on Sep 21, 2009 3:56 pm  

I love NextBus, but, here are my complaints about it:

1)Sometimes the signs bearing the code are vandalized (as the one for the northbound 90s was at 8th & G SE last week when I was there), and there's no easy way by phone to get the information based just on your location.

2) The phone interface should offer an option to key in the information. SMS as some others above suggest would also be fine. I might be the only one who gets self conscious about talking to a distant robot in a crisp, loud, staccato at the bus stop, but I doubt it. Maybe the voice-only approach is intended as a "heads-up" idea that's supposed to keep users from having to look down from their surroundings and potentially put themselves at risk where they wait for the bus, but I really don't think punching the numbers would make a significant difference in that regard.

by Lucre on Sep 21, 2009 4:29 pm  

This post will inspire me to write them about my main complaint. The phone interface is extremely sensitive to noise. For example, every time a truck or bus goes by, it stops announcing bus times and says, "I'm sorry could you please repeat that" and I need to repeat the schedule from the beginning. Considering, I'm usually on a street when I'm trying to find the schedule, this is very annoying.

Besides that and the issue of ghost busses, I've very glad the system is in operation.

by dh on Sep 21, 2009 4:32 pm  

I've used it twice. Once it was dead on. Once it was off by 30 minutes, causing me to call a taxi instead. I had to figure out my address and as I walked over to a building to figure it out, the bus blew past me. I was none too pleased.

by David C on Sep 21, 2009 6:06 pm  

I like NextBus. It's not perfect but it's good enough.

My biggest problems that I'd like to see addressed are:

1. I too experience the ghost bus effect, especially at the end of the line. I'll often check NextBus at McPherson Square, where a number of bus lines begin and end. I notice several buses just sitting there that do not appear on the app.

2. The phone system is annoying. It lists the times and bus routes in order, as opposed to saying what's coming first. If I'm at 16th and Irving going south at 10:30, I don't need to know that there's an S2 coming at 10:45 and 11:08, and an S4 coming at 10:37 and 10:58. Just tell me that the S4 will be there in 7 minutes.

by Adam L on Sep 21, 2009 6:48 pm  

Put me in the NextBus fan column (and circulator bus info as well). I use both all the time.

There is a transportation axiom that holds true here. People are less upset about delays if they have access to information.

by beatbox on Sep 21, 2009 8:51 pm  

Next bus is good. I've used it on a cel phone and was relatively pleased.

It's amazing though how one bus not having the GPS turned on can render the whole thing useless.

Next bus is no substitute for the buses running on time, and I hope for the senior citizens and others who don't have digital technology, improvements continue aggressively.

(I don't know what PARP or ghost buses are.)

by Jazzy on Sep 21, 2009 8:55 pm  

Has anyone had problems with the service giving you info on the bus going the other way.

I was North Capitol & I street and was trying to get info on an 80 going toward Fort Totten it gave me info on the bus going toward Kennedy Center and i just decided to hear all buses coming soon it gave me the X2 to Lafayette Square, 96 Capitol Heights and 80 Kennedy Center it seems like some of the id's should be across the street and over a block

On any bus stop that serves more than 3 buses it does not work I have gotten bus does not stop here many times when it clearly does and it says it on the stop.

by kk on Sep 21, 2009 10:51 pm  

I find that the optional destination field doesn't work when NextBus suggests a bus other than one you asked about. For example, around mid-day lookup 2A from Ballston Station to Dunn Loring Station. NextBus will suggust taking the 2B (as 2A only runs early morning and late at night), which doesn't stop at Dunn Loring Station and the 2C, which does stop at Dunn Loring Station. More than once I have trusted NextBus without consulting the route map only to find out that it wasn't right.

by Tony on Sep 22, 2009 11:47 am  

Really liking NextBus so far. Though in the last few days there seem to be a few more errors that usual. Nothing major. Just bus arrival times suddenly jumping from say 8 minutes down to 3 in the span of a minute (like this morning). And the other day it completely omitted one of two buses that pulled up at my stop at about the same time.

by Mike B on Sep 22, 2009 12:50 pm  

I think it would really be great if there was some way that places like building's lobbies or any central room (such as lounges or open offices) that often have computer screens or CNN on anyway can have some way to display a transit status screen (like they do in airports). Building management, HR, or whoever could customize a screen that showed the various local bus stops (metro stations if nearby/applicable), their service routes, their Nextbus/Nexttrain info, and advisories (delays) and that screen could be put on display or bookmarkable online. If the data were available (web app-able), it would be a cinch to put together that screen (and really cheap and really useful). VDOT lets you do something similar with highway congestion cameras.

Also, I just tried the texting mentioned above. Texting is much cheaper and easier for me than the speech "recognition" hotline. One nitpick though: it won't just list all the buses coming to the bus stop, but forces you to choose one and then go through everything to choose another. (I don't care which 2 series bus is coming to the bus stop because they all go to the metro station - I just want the one soonest.) I realize they have limited space, but more than half the text is devoted to an advert, plus they could just span messages.

by James M on Sep 22, 2009 1:51 pm  

One way they could shorten the SMS is by getting rid of the route title. For example:

r=G8 Rhode Island Ave
S=17th NW (Est) + I NW
d=Est->Avndle
9&39min
s=I NW + 17th NW (W)
d=Wst->Frrgt Sqre 7&37min

I don't really need the "Rhode Island Ave" title that metro gives the route, since it doesn't really provide useful information to me standing at the bus stop. I only need to know the route (G8) and which direction (Avondale or Farragut Sq)

by Pat O on Sep 22, 2009 2:18 pm  

I like it a lot and used it last week to decide whether to wait for the 70 bus or use the Circulator to head north from the SW Waterfront area. However, there seems to be a problem with the code for the stop at 4th & N or O SW...I typed it in and it didn't recognize the code; when I talked with an operator I got the correct info. My guess is that they didn't lodge that as a complaint even though I let them know that I was only speaking to them because of a problem with the automated system.

by Stacy on Sep 22, 2009 11:24 pm