When Kanata resident Jonathan Huang arrived to catch a bus at the Eagleson Park & Ride, he nodded his head in approval when he noticed a new addition to the bus stop.
A new solar-powered screen has been installed beside the bus shelter, displaying route numbers and countdowns for the projected arrival of each bus.
“Hopefully it’s accurate,” he said with a laugh as the screen projected a two-minute wait before his Route 62 bus to Tunney’s Pasture arrived.
The transit information screen is one of four set up across the city as part of a year-long OC Transpo pilot project aimed to provide real-time bus information directly at stops. Screens have also been installed at Bank and Somerset, the Civic Hospital on Carling Avenue, as well as Bayshore Mall on Woodridge Crescent.
Each physical device costs about $9,500, said OC Transpo spokesperson David Jones in an email.
For Huang, who would usually text OC Transpo’s automated arrivals system for updates, he said the screen will save him from pulling out his phone each time he gets to the bus stop.
Two minutes later, just as the screen had predicted, his bus pulled up to the stop.
But while operating in a transit system that continues to
fall short
of reliability targets, many commuters said they’re choosing to take the information on the new screens with a grain of salt.
Uzair Ahmed, a Kanata resident who was on his way to class at the University of Ottawa, said the information on the new screen was not consistent with the route he was following on Google Maps.
While Google Maps predicted his Route 61 bus to Tunney’s Pasture would come in 7 minutes, OC Transpo’s screen showed the next bus on that route wasn’t scheduled for another 17 minutes.
“It definitely adds a little bit of confusion,” Ahmed said as he cross-referenced the two systems at the Eagleson Park & Ride.
Meanwhile, a Route 62 bus, which wasn’t projected to arrive for another three minutes according to the new screen, pulled up to the bus stop. Ahmed shrugged his shoulders as he got on the bus, which was also headed for Tunney’s Pasture.
(The bus that he was originally planning to take then showed up five minutes later, two minutes before Google Maps predicted and 12 minutes before the new screen had indicated.)
Other commuters said the new bus stop screens appear to be plagued with the same issues as the Transit mobile app, which can be used to track OC Transpo buses.
Even though information was consistent as Bartek Szerszen and Ayham Jalboukh were tracking the app and the bus stop screen as they waited for their Route 61 trip, the bus didn’t arrive at all. The time then disappeared off the screen, with the next bus scheduled to arrive in 37 minutes.
But for the two friends who are accustomed to navigating late or cancelled buses, the inaccuracies left them unfazed.
“It’s nothing new,” said Szerszen, adding he’s used to seeing buses disappear from the tracking apps.
Commuters will be notified on the screens of any cancelled buses, according to the city. “Undelivered trips will have a strikethrough to ensure customers are aware the bus will not be arriving at the scheduled time,” Jones wrote.
OC Transpo is seeking
feedback
on the pilot project and encourages commuters to take a survey, which can be accessed through a QR code at the bottom of each transit information screen.
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