The Central Ohio Transit Authority says it's real-time bus tracking service will be available to the public next Friday, May 6. Jim Letizia reports.
A third-party app will allow people to check when a bus will arrive at a particular stop, though COTA notes bus arrivals and departures are pre-scheduled. It will be available on smartphones through the Transit App. COTA says it has been trying to launch the service requested by riders for seveal years, but data proved unreliable until now. In 2009, the agency paid a private firm 7.6 million dollars to provide a system for locating buses, including real-time tracking. COTA has spent the last seven years working with that firm to improve the data. The feed will also be available on COTA's website for use by developers of other apps. The app will be available for download at the website transitapp.com.