Comments for Capital MetroBlog

Comment on A few words about productivity… by Tim Thomas

Tim Thomas — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:23:29 +0000

The lifetime of cellphones are generally less than the lifetime of posted bus schedules. If their current cellphone doesn’t have the capability they’ll have it within 2 years. You can now get information about bus schedules at all stops in Austin. That’s a massive change even if it requires technology. Pretty much every bus stop I’ve visited didn’t have that information or it was too washed out to read so it was just as useless as having no QRCode reader. The big difference here is we have a cost effective manner of making sure the schedules are ALWAYS up to date, and add real time information in the future without changing signs. And it’s a feature riders can make sure is on their next cellphone.

Comment on A few words about productivity… by mdahmus

mdahmus — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:01:28 +0000

Cell phones, yes. QR code scanner, though?

Comment on A few words about productivity… by Tim Thomas

Tim Thomas — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:12:21 +0000

CapMetro did research on this and actually the majority of their passengers do have cell phones. I think the QR-Codes are great. Previously I could probably count on one hand the number of times I actually saw a bus schedule at a stop, and it didn’t actually explain where the bus went or useful info like that. Not to mention that with technology the route information can be internationalized and presented in multiple languages.
When you consider that you can get Pay-As-You-Go phone plans with data for $35/month, the trend is going towards more people having access to the Internet via phones as their primary access point. It’s much cheaper to have a mobile phone with Internet than a home phone and home broadband.

Comment on A few words about productivity… by mdahmus

mdahmus — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:23:01 +0000

“which is one of the reasons why Lamar Boulevard, Guadalupe Street and South Congress Avenue were selected as the alignment for our first MetroRapid route.”

It’s also the reason why that route should have gotten rail, since MetroRapid is a complete waste of time and money – providing 0 minutes of travel improvement on the most congested part of the corridor.

Comment on A few words about productivity… by erik

erik — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:39:16 +0000

I completely agree. People who have higher technology already use Google Maps to determine their trip itinerary. This initiative was a total waste of money. If just trying to “be cool” they could’ve put up LED heads-up displays at some of the stops downtown, while leaving the other stops with a standard timesheet. Reliance on cell technology is shortsighted.

Comment on A few words about productivity… by Jorge

Jorge — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 02:00:39 +0000

Thank you for being the spokesperson for all Spanish speakers Guillaume! Indeed we do not text, or scan QR codes, because the complicated Anglo technology is too complicated for us. Gracias for filing this complaint on our behalf and being a hero to our people!

Comment on A few words about productivity… by Will

Will — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:33:29 +0000

The 44 percent of your Spanish speaking passengers don’t text, or scan QR codes to find out when the next bus comes. It is time for Lucas to go, and post those signage which gives the timepoints and the map of route on the bus stop. As a taxpayer funded entity you should be all things to all people. I am just finalizing my FTA civil rights complaint over your new bus stop signage, and will be sending it off soon. .

Comment on A few words about productivity… by Tim Thomas

Tim Thomas — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:59:52 +0000

The problem with focusing on productivity is that you make a system that serves only grocery stores and commuters. If you need to go anywhere else the system is fairly useless. There are huge swaths of town with no bus service. You say that routing the #7 to St Johns increased ridership, you abandoned anyone who bought or rented on the previous line for bus proximity.
I’d suggest that a better measure might be ensuring that 95% of Austinites are within walking distance of a bus line.

Comment on Raising the bar on service at 2,700+ bus stops by M.M

M.M — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 08:05:43 +0000

I have been riding capital metro pretty much my whole life and getting bus times required having to call capmetro or leaving the house 2 hours before you needed to be anywhere “just in case”; it was a nightmare and it made getting around a really big hassle but for for past 2 years riding the bus has been much simpler thanks in major part to my Google Maps app on my phone. For the past few weeks it has been a major pain in the a** trying to plan my trips!Capital Metro’s “trip planner” is horrible! No estimation on walking distance to the bus stop is included and neither are walking directions to the bus stops. This is a major step backwards. BRING GOOGLE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!

Comment on Getting around town in 2012: by Train, by Bus, by Bike by Matt

Matt — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:17:56 +0000

1. Kegs don’t have protruding/sharp parts.
2. From a single picture, you can’t tell if those kegs are full or empty.
3. Even if full, a full keg weighs about 120 pounds I believe, less than a person (or most Americans at least). People standing on buses/trains don’t usually seem to have any problems controlling themselves in cases of a sudden stop.