New App Allows Silver Line Riders to Rate Service QualiT Pilot Program Between MBTA and MIT
Silver Line passengers are now be able to share feedback on their riding experience by rating their bus trips using a new smartphone app from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the MBTA.
The app allows individuals to anonymously share feedback with the T. The service is similar to ones provided on Uber and Lyft transportation systems, and provides crowd-sourced data to help improve service.
"This innovative app is the result of a terrific collaboration between the MBTA and MIT," said MBTA General Manager Frank DePaola.
"We are working hard to enhance our channels of communicating information to our customers," said DePaola. "And with this new app, we want to let our customers know they can contribute to translate their everyday riding experience into the kind of real-time information that can help us improve service."
The app was developed by an interdisciplinary team at MIT and SMART - Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology, which was established in 2007 and is MIT's first research center outside of Cambridge, and its largest international research center.
Silver Line riders will also be able to see their own travels displayed on a map in the app - visible only to the individual. The app will automatically prompt users to rate their Silver Line trips onboard or immediately after exiting a bus.
"We have recently seen many innovations in urban transportation in the private market," said Corinna Li, a dual-degree master's student in city planning and transportation who worked on developing the app. "And we are inspired to help public transit systems leverage emerging technologies to better serve their riders."
For every trip a rider gives feedback on through the app, he/she will automatically earn one entry to a monthly sweepstake to win a monthly pass. Participants in the sweepstakes must be legal U.S. residents and at least 13 years of age or older. The pilot program will operate for three months.
Riders can sign up for and download the FMSensing app online from the AppStore (iPhone) or Google Play (Android).
Over the past year the MBTA has provide riders systemwide more information about arrival times and status updates. Fifty-eight new countdown clocks have been activated on the Green Line at stops that include Kenmore, Copley, Prudential, Arlington, Boylston, Park Street and North Station, while eight clocks have been activated on the Silver Line. And last March, the MBTA unveiled its Dashboard, which for the first time allows the public to track the daily reliability levels of the four subway lines and all 170 bus routes. It also marks the first time that performance data for all four branches of the Green Line is publically available. It features monthly updates on ridership and budget information.
