Next time you need to know when your bus will arrive, you can look to some LinkNYC kiosks.
City Council Member Brad Lander, who represents Brooklyn’s 39th District (covering Carroll Gardens, Gowanus, Park Slope and more) announced on Wednesday the launch of a bus time arrival pilot program for 29 Links within those areas.
LinkNYC’s 55-inch screens in those Brooklyn neighborhoods will now show arrival info for buses that are a short walk away from a particular kiosk.
In the coming weeks, the same bus arrival time feature will launch on Links throughout all five boroughs.
The pilot is a collaboration between LinkNYC, the New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications and Lander.
“The ‘real-time passenger information’ bus clocks we’ve installed in our district and across the city prove that knowing when the next bus is coming is a real quality-of-life improvement for NYC’s bus riders,” Lander said in a statement. “Now, thanks to LinkNYC and DoITT, riders will have access to that information on thousands of LinkNYC consoles along bus routes citywide, within just a couple of weeks.”
There are more than 1,700 LinkNYC kiosks across the city, which already show subway status updates, weather, sports scores, information about community meetings, street closures and more.
To city leaders, incorporating real-time data on buses is a logical next step and also a necessity for residents.
“City buses need deep interventions before they will function adequately, and part of the path to turning around our failing bus service is to get more information into the hands of bus riders, in as many ways as possible,” said John Raskin, executive director of the Riders Alliance, in a statement. “Adding bus arrival times to LinkNYC kiosks is a smart and creative way to help bus riders save time, and it will help make the bus a more modern, convenient option for New Yorkers to choose.”
