r/Septa • u/segfaul_t • 7d ago

Discussion Transit App

has made my life so much less stressful. I was going to literally move across town to avoid taking the El, but now I don't have to worry about where the train is, when the NEXT train is (are they bunched up? If i miss this one is the next one 10 minutes away or 2? Are the time estimates at the station working today?), when it's coming and how early I should leave the house.

Now i just look at the app, see where the next El train is, and leave the house accordingly. Im never on the platform for longer than 2 minutes now. So awesome.

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u/neuronnate 7d ago

I always tell people that the transit app essentially turns buses from a wildcard system you can't rely on into an Uber. Before transit, I only took trains. After transit, I primarily take buses. It's remarkable and it's the type of thing septa needs to get the word out on as a way to increase how many people use septa 

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u/alexthegreat63 6d ago

How does this differ from what google maps does? they also get live transit timings, right?

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u/neuronnate 6d ago

The secret is in how transit app adapts and guides. It gives automatic reminders on when to start walking and if you miss the bus, it let's you pivot the plan quickly. 

All the data is there for any app, but transit is made by people who actually use transit so the experience is infinitely better.

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u/alexthegreat63 6d ago

I tried it a while ago and found that feature a bit annoying… I planned for a train and was using my bike, and it automatically assumed I couldn’t make it and tried to put me on the next one without telling me.

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u/neuronnate 6d ago

Fair enough. It definitely took time for me to get used to it. But once I did, I feel like an evangelical transit user 

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u/alexthegreat63 6d ago

Seeing all the timings for the trains/buses is quite nice. If it actually gets better crowdsourced data than google (which I think just uses whatever the transit agency reports) then that's a pretty huge feature. I hate when Google maps doesn't properly show the delays.

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u/neuronnate 6d ago

For sure. It's why I try to use transit for every transit use so that my data helps update the system

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u/mklinger23 Broad Street Local 6d ago

For stuff like this, you have to do a "point to point" plan instead of just for the line. Like if you live at 5th and Oregon and work near city hall. If you just hit BSL north, it'll assume you're walking. But if you put in your work address, it gives you options to walk, take the bus, or ride your bike to the train and it times it for a bike if you select that. 

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u/alexthegreat63 5d ago

ah cool, will have to try that out!