[tabi] Re: Using StarMetro's 'Next by Text'
- From: "Adam Gaffney" <gaffney@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2011 12:58:46 -0400
Hi Erica, thanks lots for all this info. I was hoping the next by text would
be a little more useful in that I could find out how late the bus was running.
--
"The people may be made to follow a path of action, but they may not be
made to understand it."
- Confucius ca. 480 B.C.
----- Original Message -----
From: Erica
To: tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2011 10:42 AM
Subject: [tabi] Using StarMetro's 'Next by Text'
You need to text the whole stop I.D., such as SME1024, to 27299.
The stop I.D. can be found on the rectangular sign on the bus stop pole, in
1-inch letters, about 6 feet off the ground.
Whenever the braille placards go up, they will contain both the route letters
that that stop serves and the stop I.D. Unfortunately, the first 100 placards
have had errors on 2 separate occasions, requiring shipping back and forth to
an out-of-state vendor... (I thought part of the plan of this bus revamp was to
enhance LOCAL businesses?!). Understanding that there are 700+ stops, getting
the placards up at all stops will obviously be a long process....
Also be aware that although Starmetro's original hope was that the Next by
Text reply would be a real time ETA (based on satlite tracking of the bus), it
is, in fact, an ETA based on the printed schedule only.
I've used the texting system a fair amount over the past couple of weeks.
Overall it has worked for me.
A typical reply, if you texted from a stop which served the A and C routes,
for example, might be
A 11:30 / C 11:50 / A 12:10PM / C 12:30PM
Also, in every reply I've gotten, the above text was followed by a short text
ad (after 2 -s), such as "Check out a great book from your local library".
Finally, one possibly helpful tidbit: my observations have led me to conclude
that the stop IDs
1) are even on the even side of the street, and odd on the odd side
and
2) when more than one route uses a stop, the stop uses the first (alphabetic)
letter in its ID; that is, at the W. Tennessee stops served by both A and C,
the stops are all SMA####.
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