Northstar Village Transit 4+

It’s a lot better then the last transit app, however it still needs a bit more work, the UI and design are fantastic, but the actual wait time shown is incredibly inaccurate and jumps time schedules around after you order. I used the last app last season and the year before that, and that app was terrible, at least now this is a huge improvement to what came before, but still needs more work. The user interface is spot on, now just work on the timing.

I’ve lived here for a while and am friendly with my usual drivers. At first, I thought this app was great because it would give an accurate estimate and was better looking than the old app. Then the bus drivers filled me in on how the app doesn’t actually understand their routes. It doesn’t understand that we have to go to the end of a street and turn around, we can’t dart back and forth between the closest houses. It also took the entire human aspect away from being a bus operator; they no longer are supposed to radio to each other and self-regulate to make sure each village stop gets taken at some point. During off season, I was very happy. Now, I am extremely disappointed since my route has become the worst zig zag of pickups in the morning and then no buses at all in the afternoon. I would trade back for the old ugly app if I could.

The app is set up well with a UI that is relatively easy to navigate. The challenge comes after your request is submitted. It has take over 60 minutes two days in a row to be picked up in the morning. Tonight, 3 busses rolled through my stop before one would pick me up to my street even though there was space on the bus going right by my street.

It’s frustrating to see an estimated wait time of 15 min before ordering, jump to 45 minutes immediately after an order is placed, only to see that estimate jump to well over an hour in real time.

Someone in the main dispatch needs to be assigning pick ups and drop offs to the bus drivers and not allowing them to just accept who and when they want to pick up people. Right now it feels like a lord of the flies situation out there and you have to win the lottery to land a ride in a reasonable amount of time.

2 stars for ease of use, friendly drivers once you get on, and no more because of the extensive wait times and unrealistic estimates advertised on the app.

The concept is a good one but without an Uber like AI, or a competent dispatch assigning routes, it’s a slow mess.