The MTA has soft-launched a newly revamped mobile site optimized for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users (but fully functional for those with other smart phones). Available at http://onthego.mta.info/, the new On-the-Go site streamlines the MTA’s previously unwieldy mobile site and offers schedules, point-to-point directions and a plethora of real-time information.
For now, the site remains a work in progress. It’s still in beta, MTA officials told me, and thus users might find some bugs and design aspects that need upgrading. Additionally, while the webapp requires an active data connection, the authority may begin to explore off-line features as well. “Directions cannot be offered off line using our Trip Planner platform because the algorithm is based on the server and the number of possible trips is infinite,” Sohaib Mallick, Senior Director of Information & Technology Services at Transit, told me. “Other items might have off-line potential. We will have them in future phases.”
This week, I took the On The Go site for a spin using an iTouch. Let’s take a tour. From the homepage, pictured above, users can choose one of nine options. We’ll start with the map, and it urges us to start with a borough. I went with Brooklyn.
After the map, the app offers the now-ubiquitous service status page. Users can opt for the subways and buses, the LIRR or Metro-North, and the display appears as it does on the MTA’s full-browser site and in the authority’s new information boards.
The Stops and Schedules feature comes equipped with MTA timetables and, if you allow it to do so, uses Apple’s GPS technology to identify the nearest stations. I went with Grand Army Plaza and discovered some strange late-night headways on the 2 and the 4 through Brooklyn.
The information from the 34th St. bus tracking pilot. During the day, when more buses are running, the results are populated as the website is. Overnight, few vehicles are making the rounds up and down 34th St.
The design bugs I encountered cropped up in the pages giving directions and service advisories. The text didn’t wrap to the size of the iPhone screen, and I had to scroll to the right to see the full advisory.
The MTA’s elevator outage information is also on hand.
Finally, another GPS-related feature rears its head. The webapp will automatically locate the nearest MetroCard vendor if you allow it to access your phone’s location. Considering that these vendors won’t be levying the $1 surcharge on new MetroCards come 2011, this feature might just become more handy in two months. I never knew so many businesses near me sold MetroCards.
Mallick, the lead developer on this project, told me that Transit wanted to include as many features with “service information” as possible, and as long as the user has a cell signal, the MTA’s reams of transit travel data are now literally at everyone’s fingertips. It won’t work underground though so the app is best used as a pre-travel planning tool. As the MTA moves forward with its embrace of technology, expect to see more mobile-oriented offerings. This is a true customer service initiative.
12 comments
For those of us who eschew Steve Jobs’ mobile devices, the site is working without a hitch on my Android HTC Evo 4G, although the graphics are slightly inferior to those shown above.
FYI, this site works just fine on other phones, like android
Clarified that in the post. It’s optimized for Apple but works on any smartphone.
Can you drag the map? The “select an area” can be cumbersome, and the LIB map is way incomplete.
Sunny, on my Android, yes you can drag it. It’s much easier on the eyes and easier to use than the PDF (or HTML version) on the previous mobile site.
The letters and numbers in those route bullets don’t look quite right; they’re either off-center, not as bold, or not sized right. For an agency that vigorously protects its trademarks, I’m surprised the MTA is letting this slip by…
I’ve noticed the same thing on the new service advisory posters in stations.
Hmmm. No LIRR Schedules.
What the heck is an iTouch? It’s called an iPod touch.
Yea, great article but it’s definitely iPod Touch, not iTouch. I still wonder where that came from because I see it a lot!
Honest question: Who cares if Ben says iTouch or iPod Touch? Does it really bug you guys that much that yet another person on the Internet may have improperly referred to the latest iPod model by a shorthand that everyone understands?
Talk about not seeing for the forest for the trees.
The map that you get when you select an area (like Brooklyn as shown above) – does it incorporate service changes like the maps on Subway Weekender? Because, I mean… no offense, but what’s the use otherwise?