The county’s Department of Transportation is planning to create a crowd-sourced app that will give riders and DOT’s central dispatch real-time information on the status of bus routes and passenger counts, officials announced.
The Ride On Crowd Sourcing System is being developed with the help of a $450,000 grant from the Federal Transit Administration. The technology will allow the coordination of strategically placed buses to assist routes nearing capacity and offer “How Full Is My Bus?” trip-planning services, officials said.
“This project will support social equity by making our buses more reliable for our residents that depend on them,” County Executive Marc Elrich said in a press release. “In order for us to achieve our county’s goal of reducing carbon emissions, we need to reduce the number of cars on our roads and increase the number of residents choosing mass-transit as their commuting option.”
The project, the first of its type in the region, is slated to begin this fall with a pilot program of users from the county’s Transit Advisory Group. Rollout to all riders is projected to begin in spring 2022.
The app will decrease bus wait times by positioning buses for quick responses when a route is nearing capacity, and informing riders when a new bus is dispatched. Officials expect to be able to provide real-time passenger capacity information every 20 seconds.
“2008 06 03 – 2228 – Rockville – Ride On Bus on Research Blvd” by thisisbossi is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.0