Frustration and Praise as Bus Arrival Time System Rolls Out

Jazelle Hunt had just left the passport office at 19th and L streets NW in the District, arriving at her usual bus stop in front of the Capital Hilton ahead of schedule. It was 11:43 a.m.

She knew she wouldn't have to wait long for the S2 but decided anyway to try out the new NextBus system Metro relaunched yesterday.

"Repeat," the 20-year-old Adams Morgan resident said into her cellphone after a few moments. "Repeat," she said again a few seconds later.

Apparently, the new high-tech system Metro initiated to offer riders real-time schedule information at all 12,000 of its Metrobus stops in the District, Maryland and Virginia couldn't quite make out Hunt's command.

This experience wasn't supposed to happen on the first day Metro brought back NextBus, after major communication problems sidelined the project two years ago. The updated system is supposed to be stronger, faster and more reassuring to busy riders.

"This is a high-tech service that is going to revolutionize what customers do when it comes to their bus services," Metrobus operations chief Milo Victoria said at a news conference yesterday in front of the Pentagon transit station.

NextBus uses satellite technology to beam the location of a bus to an advanced computer that can tell you through the Web or a cellphone whether your bus is just down the street or whether you should stay at the office a little longer and surf the Web before going home.

Taking into account the position of the buses and the typical traffic flow along a route, NextBus can in theory predict the next bus arrival with a high degree of accuracy. But two years ago, when Metro first tried the system, internal communication and dispatch problems made it only 80 percent accurate.

Now, for the most part, it works, Metro officials said.

"The route is predictable. The schedule is predictable," said Suzanne Peck, Metro's chief technology officer. "What isn't predictable are certain traffic patterns. It's very hard to predict the weather. It's very hard to predict detouring on holidays."

But with NextBus, travelers get updated times based on conditions, officials said.

All of the more than 1,500 buses in the Metro fleet have been outfitted with the NextBus technology, and signs at each bus stop tell riders how they can find the real-time information. In addition, electronic signs similar to those at Metrorail stations have been installed at the Pentagon, Anacostia and Friendship Heights bus terminals, which have some of the highest volumes of riders.

In more than a dozen interviews at several popular bus stops, most riders said they were happy to see the new system. Some said anything was better than not knowing.

"Now, with the GPS, they can track where all the buses are, so it should be better," said Dusti Ridge, 57, of Mount Pleasant, who said she once waited for a bus for more than an hour. "Before, it was just pie in the sky."

But other riders weren't that moved by the new technology. For riders such as Loise Alexander, 60, who takes the 16A every day from the Pentagon transit station to her tailoring shop in Old Town Alexandria, the most predictable system is their memory.

"I have it down in my head," Alexander said of the bus schedule.

As for Hunt, she didn't have to wait long before her bus arrived. But by the time the automated NextBus system gave her the bus's scheduled arrival time, she was already two blocks down the street -- on the S2.

"I was kind of hoping for it to say the bus is stopping right in front of you," Hunt said. "But I think it is promising at the very least."