With the MTA equipping its bus fleet with GPS, a transit riders group wants to use that technology to bring countdown clocks to bus stops.
The group, Riders Alliance, rallied at a bus stop near City Hall Sunday to get the de Blasio administration, City Council members and borough presidents to use capital dollars to get these clocks installed around the city. The DOT is piloting two countdown clocks in Staten Island at Bay Street and Prospect Avenue and Hylan Boulevard at Reno Avenue. The MTA is currently working towrads bringing real-time tracking info on Brooklyn and Queens to its Bus Time web app and smartphone apps, which has the data for Manhattan, Bronx and Staten Island buses.
“We think there’s a particular opportunity to expand the countdown clock program to bus stops that are particularly crowded, to bus lines that are notoriously unreliable and to communities that have a lot of people such as senior citizens who prefer a system that doesn’t require cellphones,” John Raskin, executive director of Riders Alliance, said.
Nicholas Mosquera, a DOT spokesman, said the agency got positive feedback on the clocks and is seeking maintenance and capital funds to expand the pilot.
