KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Knoxville Area Transit is making it easier and easier to track its buses straight from your palm.
The KATbus Tracker, a real-time bus tracking and trip planning app, is now available for Android and iPhone users. It allows users to find their bus on a map in real time, plan trips, save favorite stop locations, and find out about detours and other alerts.
It uses the bus GPS system to estimate the arrival time at the stop the user selected. It's is free to download.
Earlier this year, KAT launched its real-time texting feature. Each bus stop in the KAT system has a unique stop ID number; texting that stop number to #22827 provides immediate next bus estimates back to the user.
KAT placed stickers on all 1,300 bus stops in the system -- as well as new trolley flags at the trolley stops downtown -- that include instructions on how to find out when the next vehicle will arrive.
By texting the word “KAT” and that unique number to #22827 the user will immediately receive a text with the estimated arrival times for all buses going by that stop within the next hour.
The information is based on the stop number, not the location of the phone being used. This means that someone can find out from the comfort of the home or office when the next bus is due at his or her favorite stop.
“This tracking technology is an essential element for transit passengers,” says Melissa Roberson, Interim Director of Transit for the City of Knoxville. “Knowing how soon your bus will arrive, and also seeing it on a map provides a new level of comfort when riding transit. It is incredibly reassuring to know that the bus hasn’t already passed you by, and even better, when it’s coming.”
KAT is hopeful that passengers will take full advantage of this new app.
If the data from the earlier release of the texting feature is any indication, the app should be popular, according to KAT. In February alone, 730 individuals sent 6,131 next-bus text requests from 502 different bus stop locations. The texting numbers continue to climb.