Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Crazy Talk

I have a post-work event this evening, so I needed to drive into work this morning. Whoever said the traffic is light on the Mass Pike recently is crazy. I left my house at 7:12 a.m. and didn't arrive into the office until 9:03 a.m. Nearly a 2 hour commute! Blech!

Sure, maybe there are fewer recreational drivers, but the daily commute on the Commonwealth's only toll road is still heavy. Insane.

I feel for those who have to use the Pike every day to get to work. What a lousy, lousy commute.

For all you MBTA bus riders with mobile phones, there is a new app you might be interested in. Yesterday The BusRyda Crew sent me an email about the boston.busyrda.com mobile application. Here is the description they sent along:
BusRyda.com is a free service currently serving Boston-area MBTA bus riders who love using their mobile devices for as much as possible. BusRyda was recently updated with a significant new feature: Boston BusRydas can now get a short list of the next few upcoming buses from the exact minute they’ve made a search, right on their mobile phone.

Say it’s 8:30 AM, and you’re up for some reason and want to go to Davis Square from Sullivan Square. Point your phone’s browser to boston.busryda.com — the secret shortcut for Bostonians — and plug in the bus you’ll likely take, so the 89 or the 90, Outbound, on a Weekday. Click ‘Display Route.’

Sha-BAM! The next few buses — about 1 hour’s worth — at your fingertips. No shuffling through paper schedules or scrolling to the right spot on the MBTA’s good-but-not-awesome mobile bus schedule offering.

If you need a schedule for later in the day, simply click on ‘Or see the full schedule’ at the bottom of the page.

BusRyda works on any mobile device such as Sidekicks or Blackberries, but is especially attractive on the iPhone.

BusRyda is not affiliated with the MBTA.
Below are screenshots of what the BusRyda updates look like. If you have questions about the BusRyda application, feel free to contact Eric of The BusRyda Crew at info AT busryda.com.



4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It looked bad going into the city this morning. Usually, it’s the 128 ramp that is screwed up, but it was the Weston direction that looked hosed this morning.

Train Rider said...

Thanks Commutes to Wellesley -

The Weston exit was a mess. One of the Fast Lanes was closed, so all the traffic had to cram into the other lanes.

Quite the cluster frak!

Why oh why must the Mass Pike shut down Fast Lane lanes during rush hour?

Adron said...

Glad there are apps being provided in other places like that now. I like to use them when I travel.

Portland of course, being the bleeding edge hippy land that it is, has had this service for at least 3 years now. :)

Anonymous said...

I would like to stop all commuter trains.They are old, dirty and noisey.By having 5 horns, spread out like a hand, they create a noise that is above the standard noise level for human hearing.
They don't mind telling you that it takes about two miles or so to stop a moving train going 60 mph.
Don't get me started about trains.