Ottawa’s battle of the bus boards has been won by a group of local developers.
Beyond 2.0 created and installed the first bus arrival board at a Treats Coffee Emporium on Kent and Albert St. in downtown Ottawa.
“It's a display within a coffee shop or any other kind of business that allows people to see in real-time when the buses are arriving at the stops near that location,” says Ryan Androsoff, President of Beyond 2.0.
The idea has been floating around in the city of Ottawa for years. Still, the effort to get the digital screens into OC Transpo transit stations is at least a year away.
“Cities like Winnipeg already have this in place right now. And now we're being beaten to the punch by our local people with our own data,” says Ottawa Councillor Tim Tierney.
Tierney admits he’s proud of the fact the city of Ottawa released its open data and the work local developers are doing.
Still, Tierney says he wishes the city could act faster on these kind of projects which are delayed by red tape and other priorities like the Presto smart card system.
One of the developers Sean Kibbee already beat the city by creating a bus tracking mobile app well before OC Transpo released their own version.
The bus board at Treats Coffee Emporium has been met with positive reviews.
“I can see when the buses are coming, where they are in the city, so it's very convenient,” says one customer.
With a report from CTV’s John Hua
