Along with taking over the Blue Bus Dupont to Rosslyn Route, the DC Circulator has decided to get all techie on us with the roll out of QR codes. Recently, I noticed these bar code-esque additions (located near the bus exits) on my daily commute and I was, naturally, curious. Where would the code take me and my smartphone? Turns out the location it’s too exciting, it’s a quickie “how are we doing” customer service form. However, it did open my eyes to the super mobile and user friendly “Where is My Bus? For DC Circulator” app that covers all the various DC Circulator routes and schedules. Super useful.
A born and bred New Yorker, Rebecca made the big trip “down south” to DC in 2006 and hasn’t looked back. She spends her days strategizing/planning/ideating how interactive products can help her clients and change the world. In her free time, she explores DC’s ever expanding bar, restaurant and small business scene, plays a crap ton of soccer, attends concerts that contribute to her sleep deprivation and embarks on local adventures. Read why Rebecca loves DC or follow her on twitter.
As a regular rider of the convention center line (I commute on it every day), the Where’s my Bus app is unfortunately inconsistent (it is either inaccurate or goes down completely). Also, after a recent “update” has bugs – such as the first stop or two on each direction of the line not showing buses finishing previous routes. For the first stop on the southbound line, for instance, it never shows any buses unless they are less than 1 minute away (i.e. at the last stop on the northbound direction). I’ve emailed them about a dozen times in the past month about this…
Bright side is that the Circ generally has buses every 10 minutes like promised, so I never wait long even if I can’t check to see exactly when the next bus is coming.
Well, Rebecca, I don’t want to tarnish the shiny you are feeling re Circulator right now but I feel I need to warn you– the app is down/ malfunctioning more often than not. It worked this morning for me but hasn’t worked any time I have tried it in the last 2 days.
Before their last update, I would have days and days of it showing me the exact same inaccurate info no matter how many times I refreshed it.
Nice in theory, not always nice in actuality.