[HN Gopher] Show HN: We relaunched the Official MTA App for NYC ...
___________________________________________________________________
Show HN: We relaunched the Official MTA App for NYC public transit
You might remember MYmta, and maybe you loved it, but it was
impossible to maintain. The Digital Services team at the MTA + Axon
Vibe + many others contributed to relaunching the official MTA app
with new features based on user feedback. Let us know what you
think!
Author : jcrabb8
Score : 101 points
Date : 2024-04-19 16:46 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (apps.apple.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (apps.apple.com)
| pondemic wrote:
| It certainly looks and feels much more modern, but I'm most
| curious what was behind the decision not to emulate the LIRR's
| app - that one's awesome
| trainyperson wrote:
| Assuming you mean TrainTime (which does both LIRR and Metro-
| North). That app is one of the best transit apps I've used
| (public or private).
|
| TrainTime has different requirements though - it's focused on
| schedules and ticket-buying (and does both of those things
| really well). The relaunched MTA app seems more about way-
| finding, trip planning, service status. For those functions,
| I'm not sure it does much of a better job than Transit app or
| Citymapper app (although certainly an improvement over Apple or
| Google Maps).
| matthewtse wrote:
| Hmm, I've been using Google Maps for this purpose for years,
| just helping me decide how to get to a particular spot in
| NYC, walking, subway, bus, citibike, or uber if its worth it.
|
| It also takes into account the official schedules, so I
| generally trust its routing.
|
| What am I missing out on that the MTA app does better with?
| paulgb wrote:
| The built-in offline maps are a great feature, thanks for that!
| jrockway wrote:
| Back before there was a mobile app, I just made a tiny web page
| that polled the API: https://jrock.us/mta.html It served me very
| well for many years (just added it to my phone's home screen as a
| bookmark).
|
| It doesn't work anymore (CORS), so I guess I might as well
| install the app.
| OsrsNeedsf2P wrote:
| I shamelessly leach off https://codetabs.com/cors-proxy/cors-
| proxy.html to get around CORS. Simply update your URL and it
| works
| noahmasur wrote:
| You might like Here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/here-nyc-
| subway-arrivals/id644...
|
| I use it because it opens instantly and just shows me nearby
| train arrival times. The other apps have always taken too long
| to bother checking.
| timr wrote:
| Oooh. This looks like exactly what I've wanted out of the MTA
| app. Thanks!
| jonmoore wrote:
| Thanks. This focuses on the most common daily need, with
| really clean design and display of information, and live
| updates as a flourish. Definitely sparks joy.
| areichert wrote:
| I built something similar last year if you're interested!
| https://www.bktransit.com/
| alsodumb wrote:
| This looks great! But also, the UI looks a LOT like my favorite
| Transit app, Transit.
| dotcoma wrote:
| Yeah, it seems like they "borrowed" the UI, especially the
| first tab, from the best transit app out there, Transit App.
| sccxy wrote:
| Is there also web app?
| figmert wrote:
| I live and swear by Citymapper[0] for all cities that it
| supports. No other app I've used has been as good for public
| transport as Citymapper has been.
|
| I really hope one day one of these city transport organisations
| either buy it out, push for it, or license their tech.
|
| [0] https://citymapper.com/
| tchalla wrote:
| Citymapper was recently acquired by Via
|
| https://citymapper.com/news/2582/citymapper-joins-via
| makeitra1n wrote:
| And Via is like if Uber wanted to dismantle public transport.
|
| Knowing how they are using the data from citymapper, I've
| since uninstalled it.
| mushufasa wrote:
| ...no?
|
| Via is primarily SaaS where their customers are cities
| themselves to help digitize and optimize their public
| transit networks. You might be thinking of: at one point in
| time and in some places, Via operated ride shares, but
| that's not their main business and they discontinued much
| of that during the pandemic.
|
| The citymapper acquisition notes really fit Via's strategy
| of being able to help cities unify and optimize transit
| infrastructure.
| eek2121 wrote:
| Doesn't support my city, sadly.
| avel wrote:
| For NYC specifically I've been burned many times by Citymapper.
| It is trying to be clever and parse the messages about service
| changes, but does it all wrong and in the end gives you wrong
| directions, leaving you stranded. Sometimes it doesn't show the
| alerts by MTA at all.
|
| Now that the MTA app is so good and has achieved feature parity
| with Citymapper, I prefer that for 90% of the time. It doesn't
| have multi-modal (eg subway + citibike) and doesn't show
| estimates of uber/lyft prices, but those have not been very
| useful in my experience.
|
| Citymapper is still ok to quickly check upcoming train or bus
| departures.
| IneffablePigeon wrote:
| Me too - no experience of it in NYC but I swear by it in London
| and it's also been fantastic in other European cities. Far more
| reliable and accurate than Google Maps.
| nnyms1 wrote:
| This looks _very_ similar to TFL Go [0], the equivalent app for
| London. That's probably a good thing, as I really like TFL Go due
| to its focus on showing transit information as opposed to
| Google/Apple Maps where that is just a layer on top of shops,
| restaurants, hotels, etc.
|
| [0] https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/tfl-go-live-tube-bus-
| rail/id14...
| prncd wrote:
| And even more similar to TfNSW's Opal Travel [0], the
| equivalent app for Sydney. Again, not a bad thing, just very
| striking resemblance.
|
| [0] https://apps.apple.com/au/app/opal-travel/id941006607
| vinay427 wrote:
| In particular, TfL Go also has a focus on upcoming nearby
| departures rather than directions which Google Maps and Apple
| Maps prioritise. For anyone with some public transport
| familiarity, it's quite nice being about to see your
| approximate position on a schematic tube/rail map or easily
| view nearby bus stops.
|
| However, a friend who was briefly visiting London found this
| quite confusing as it wasn't focused on navigation. Separately,
| I find the UI far too information-sparse for my taste compared
| to some other official apps (Zurich, Prague, etc.) which makes
| it somewhat inefficient to use, but perhaps this works for
| some.
| anotherhue wrote:
| A quick check seems to show that it doesn't know about the
| Roosevelt Island Cable Car.
|
| Apple maps helpfully recommended it to me just recently.
| dayofthedaleks wrote:
| Not operated by MTA so maybe out of scope.
| euroderf wrote:
| Dear MTA, 1) Add to map 2) Add "Not MTA" disclaimer 3)
| Mission Accomplished!
| nailer wrote:
| The worst thing in mapping software is Google Maps public
| transport.
|
| Ten minute walk to the subway/tube then a fourteen minute ride?
|
| Every other app, like citymapper or apple maps, tell you this
| takes 24 minutes.
|
| Google Maps simply omits the walk time and incorrectly tells you
| the journey takes 14 minutes - making you late.
| smcl wrote:
| This isn't true. I just looked for directions to somewhere in
| my city that involves an estimated 3 minute walk to the tram
| stop and a 34 minute ride and it correctly reported 37 minute
| journey. I already knew this though because it's walking speed
| estimates are a little slow for me, so I often arrive earlier
| than I need to.
| nailer wrote:
| Yes I re-checked myself and it looks like they've finally
| fixed it after a decade.
| exegete wrote:
| Apple Maps does this with some of the larger subway stations in
| NYC. Get off the bus at Port Authority and get on the 1 train
| for example. The "entrance" is at the Port Authority bus
| terminal but it's a long underground tunnel to walk to get to
| the 1 train and it doesn't seem to account for that walking
| underground since your already in the "station".
| tekla wrote:
| > Google Maps simply omits the walk time and incorrectly tells
| you the journey takes 14 minutes - making you late.
|
| No it doesn't, it calculates the walk time. How about we take
| 10 seconds to Google this?
|
| https://maps.app.goo.gl/1JcSMN3qrNuFpNSL8
|
| Has walking times
| nailer wrote:
| OK they've fixed this. They hadn't about a year ago and a
| decade before that.
|
| > How about we take 10 seconds to Google this?
|
| How about you learn the HN guidelines?
| ThePowerOfFuet wrote:
| >Data Linked to You
|
| >The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:
|
| >Health & Fitness Location Contact Info Identifiers Usage Data
| Diagnostics
|
| Location, linked to my identity? No thanks.
| timr wrote:
| I've been trying really hard to reserve judgment on this upgrade,
| but since you're asking here, this is a _huge_ step backwards in
| usability.
|
| The good: you've added offline maps. Unbelievable oversight from
| the original app.
|
| The bad: the new app completely fails for essentially all of my
| practical uses as a local.
|
| My most common use case for the MTA app is to look up the train
| schedules from whatever station I happen to be near. _Most often_
| , this means I am standing in front of a station with lines I
| don't know well, and I want to know when the next trains will
| arrive, and where they stop. This redesign makes that 10 times
| harder than before to find either answer. Specifically:
| * If I don't have the line I'm using starred, it's almost
| impossible to bring it up quickly.
|
| It requires (?) a free-text search that doesn't work very well,
| because numbers and letters are commonly shared amongst train
| lines and stations. This is a baffling choice -- there aren't
| that many lines in NYC, and they have distinct iconography. Just
| _list them_ and let me bookmark the lines (and maybe stations) I
| care about most. * Even if I do happen to have
| the line starred, getting to the interface I actually care about
| (the arrival/departure times for whatever station I am near),
| requires multiple clicks, which I usually screw up.
|
| Again, trying to reserve judgment here, but I'm a technically
| savvy person, and I _still_ can 't figure out the UI, after
| several weeks of daily use. * Getting to the
| (ever-present) set of service exceptions is difficult, and even
| when I know that service is disrupted, it can be nearly
| impossible to see the relevant alert(s).
|
| For example: today service was disrupted on the 1,2 and 3 lines
| at various stations throughout Manhattan, but I was misinformed
| repeatedly by the app about closures in different directions. I
| don't have my phone in front of me right now, but the way these
| are shown is truly baffling, and I can't explain in detail from
| memory. I'll follow up later with more on why, if you're
| interested. * I rarely need trip planning. If I
| do, I have a maps that will tell me a plausible route, and do a
| better job of it.
|
| What I need from this app is the real-time arrival data,
| closures, and less often, the system map. Yet this app seems to
| be pushing trip planning over all other features.
|
| If I had to build this app, I'd do the following:
| * Rip out the trip planning.
|
| You're not good at it, and you're never going to be as good at it
| as maps. It just confuses the UI. * Keep the
| system maps. Make the common one available from a single click.
| Make it available offline.
|
| Again, this is the only major improvement I can identify from the
| prior verison. * The primary screen should be a
| list of lines.
|
| I should be able to bookmark lines and stations. Those
| lines/stations should sort to top. * Clicking on
| a line should take me to the list of stations on that line.
| Clicking on stations should take me to station pages.
|
| I should be able to toggle between uptown and downtown, and view
| cached arrival times for all stations, even without network
| access. * The line page should have all the
| alerts in one place.
|
| I shouldn't have to click multiple times to see the relevant
| alerts. Put the ones affecting the entire line on the line page.
| Put the ones affecting particular stations on the station
| page(s). * Stations on the line page should have
| iconography to indicate if they are currently being skipped due
| to closures / maintenance.
|
| Goal here is to have one-glance knowledge of the stations being
| served _right now_. * Stations on the line page
| should show me the list of lines I can transfer to from that
| station.
|
| Bonus points if you indicate which ones aren't running.
| * Ideally, you'd show me the projected arrival times for the
| current line *to each station on the line page*.
|
| Having to click a station is failure prone (doesn't work w/o
| network access), and it doesn't allow me to quickly see if I can
| go to a different station. * BONUS POINTS:
| automatically use my location to figure out the set of
| lines/stations near me, and sort these to the top.
|
| Double points if you preload these, so that they work offline.
| dotcoma wrote:
| Have you tried Transit App ?
|
| https://transitapp.com/
| tootie wrote:
| I use an app called Closing Doors which is just train schedule
| with some geolocation and it's about perfect. I installed it a
| few months ago and yet it seems to have vanished from the Play
| Store?
| exegete wrote:
| Check out the "Data Linked to You". Why does a subway app need my
| health and fitness data or any of my data at all?
| ploxiln wrote:
| How can you improve software, without tracking the ever-living
| s*** out of your users? (How did programmers do it for the
| first 30-ish years? As we all know, it's impossible ...)
| dylan604 wrote:
| They need to know if you had a medical condition while on the
| train that it was a preexisting condition to avoid any
| liability.
| e40 wrote:
| What absolute bs.
| dylan604 wrote:
| sorry you didn't read the implied /s that I felt was
| absolutely unnecessary to actually type out giving readers
| here the benefit of the doubt that it was understood
| without stating the obvious. but thanks for reminding me
| that not everyone reads the intent
| bragr wrote:
| You fell afoul of Poe's law [1]. People do read intent,
| but I think you're overestimating how clearly you
| communicated your intent. You say the /s was implied, but
| implied by what? It's a crazy statement for sure, but
| people come make matter of fact crazy statements on here
| all the time.
|
| [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law
| altairprime wrote:
| The full privacy policy is here.
|
| https://new.mta.info/privacy-policy
|
| As a transit provider, they seem to be offering the option to
| report detailed location data for a "smart alerts" feature
| provided by subcontract to a third party. My walking speed is
| relevant to predictive alerting for transit, given the non-
| uniform distribution of US transit, so it makes sense that
| personalized fitness data is a thing. (I don't approve of doing
| so server-side -- that _particular_ function should be device-
| local.) I also assume, unverified as I'm not in their city,
| that their transit improvement option may also use it. (See
| below.)
|
| They explicitly do not use your data for marketing. It's a
| clearly written policy with full declarations in most respects.
| However --
|
| App authors, _please_ update your privacy policy to explicitly
| describe how and which fitness data is collected and used? I'm
| having to make inferences and that's understandable but will
| need to be corrected.
| areichert wrote:
| Shameless plug, but I just recently built my own little simple
| MTA app because I wanted to play around with Live Activities in
| Swift [0] to be able to display the next upcoming train on the
| lock screen of my phone: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mta-
| tracker/id6477849271?platf...
|
| (There are some annoying technical kinks with this that I'm still
| trying to iron out, but maybe someone will find it useful in the
| meantime!)
|
| [0] https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-
| guideline...
| mambodog wrote:
| the 'search box' is not good at finding stations so i can check
| when the next train is coming. i typed in '34th st' and it
| returned a bunch of addresses, none of which are in manhattan.
| this is probably because you require me to type '34 st' exactly
| (no 'th') instead. if you can't fuzzy match this, this search box
| is just unusable.
|
| i also tried looking at 'nearby stations' and while standing on
| the 34th st A platform it didn't list the 34th st subway station
| at all, just a bunch of bus stops.
|
| please let me just look at a station list instead.
| miquong wrote:
| Just want to send my thanks. I've been a regular user since the
| early testflights and it's been great seeing the iterations and
| improvements, particularly for me the scheduled-but-no-show ghost
| buses.
|
| Congrats to the team!
| 65 wrote:
| Great! I have been using KickMap because the MTA app used to
| suck. I will give this a try.
| cguess wrote:
| It shows me all the bus stops... but not the subway unless I
| click on a station? I can't even figure out how to have it show
| me subway times automatically? I rarely take the bus but I'm on
| the train every day. Can I just have it show me that?
| gaelenh wrote:
| It shows me 17 bus stops, but not the 3 subway stations/lines I
| am equidistant from. I already went through and favorited all
| my stations to make it useful again, but the main screen
| prioritizing every bus stop over any subway stations is not
| helpful. It takes several clicks to get to what I need now
| (times of trains at nearest stations). I used the previous app
| everyday day.
| nicwolff wrote:
| I'll never delete the Exit Strategy app, which is no longer in
| the App Store, for two features: 1. the "neighborhood map" for
| each station, showing the actual extent of the station
| underground, and 2. the app's main feature: diagrams showing
| which car to be in - and which door to use! - to exit right in
| front of the turnstiles at each station on each line.
| vinay427 wrote:
| If you mean the one linked below, it seems very much on the iOS
| App Store (US).
|
| https://apps.apple.com/us/app/exit-strategy-nyc-subway-map/i...
| tolidano wrote:
| Shameless (in-progress) plug: https://yamtam.nyc
|
| I find the NYC public transit system to be one of the most
| interesting in the world. Beyond the subways and LIRR and Metro
| North (which are covered by the MTA's app), there are literally
| dozens of other transit providers: Nassau bus, red bus, Suffolk
| bus, NJT, PATH, HBLR, Roosevelt Island Tram, and a shocking
| number of smaller targeted transit providers, as well as
| specialized transit modes like Citibike. No app, except maybe
| Citymapper, comes close to representing it all.
|
| But Citymapper was acquired, by Via. A company who makes money
| when you don't choose public/mass transit. So that doesn't make
| me feel too good. Also, Citymapper doesn't work well offline.
|
| Another important thing is that accessibility and alerts are
| regarded as very 2nd rate citizens on other apps, and for various
| reasons, I think these should be easier to see.
|
| Enter my little tool. It has a long way to go, it doesn't do
| navigation very well (it's my own implementation of a weak
| algorithm), and doesn't work across modalities. But it does tell
| you the upcoming trains at stations (using the real time data),
| along with all the accessibility info, and alerts for the station
| and line. And links to complex maps, neighborhood maps, and more.
| And it can map schedules for the entire network 30 minutes into
| the future (2 hours for LIRR and Metro North), meaning you can go
| into airplane mode and it will keep working. Additionally, I have
| found it updates faster than other apps, as it is continually
| polling the MTA APIs.
| memset wrote:
| I like the update! I'd opened the app a few weeks ago and noticed
| a huge change.
|
| I've been using it for trip planning and in some ways like it
| better than Google since it incorporates service alerts. On the
| flip side, sometimes the routes are a little bit non intuitive
| (like, you could do x, but I probably wouldn't make 3 transfers.)
| I'll try to see if I can find examples.
| jimmydoe wrote:
| Good work but I can't stop missing Citymapper, especially how
| good it was before the pandemic and acquisition.
|
| I love public transit and use MTA every day. A few personal
| projects mentioned here looks really promising. However, when I
| look at the fact that Citymapper is acquired for $100M and MTA is
| paying back $3B debt every year, I just wonder what was broken?
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-04-21 23:01 UTC)