An App That Uses Frustrated Riders’ Phones To Tell You That The Bus Will Be Late

By crowdsourcing data on speed, arrival times, cleaniness, and crowdedness, the app Moovit gives a clear picture of what’s happening in a city’s public transit system. Transit apps like Google Maps let drivers know when the freeways are jammed with traffic. So shouldn’t they also tell you when buses and trains are crowded? That’s the goal of Moovit, a new app by a team of Israeli developers that crowdsources data from riders to provide a more complete image of what a trip is like. "When the app recognizes that the [Moovit] user boarded a bus, it may open a pop-up to ask questions about the ride," explains Moovit CEO Nir Erez. For example, how crowded is the bus? Is it clean? Is there Wi-Fi? "It takes one click to provide the data. Over 90% of our users gladly cooperate."Read Full Story