Robin Glynn – General Assignment Reporter –
For students who take the shuttle, there will be no more guessing where on campus the shuttle is and when it will be at your location; now students can see where the shuttle is located right on your phone.
StreetEagle, a new app with information about the location of shuttles, is available to be downloaded. Joseph Dooley, chief of police, said that the new technology being used for the shuttle service, including the app, is cutting edge. While word is getting around about the app, it is not a new app.
“The app has been out there for several years,” said Dooley. “One of the issues over the years is that we would get phone calls asking ‘where is the shuttle?’ and ‘can you tell me what time its here?”
Dooley said the shuttles were designed to be in a loop.
“It certainly makes a difference for the people who ride the shuttles and use the shuttles,” said Dooley. “Having the technology, primarily having someone with a smart-phone can get the app, open it up and see exactly where the shuttle is. It makes it much easier.”
Dooley said an official announcement about the app should be made by the end of the month, but word of this app has spread.
When using the app, the information about where shuttles are is updated every few seconds.
“By having the StreetEagle,” said Dooley, “Our routes will be up on the screen. Not only will they see the route, they will see where the shuttles are at that point. It is pretty much real time.”
StreetEagle Transit is an app that allows users to view specific shuttle routes, as well as shuttle that are currently on the route. When using the app, users can see the bus routes on campus, as well as the route going to Union Station.
“People are attached to their smart-phones. It will diminish phone calls to dispatch.”
StreetEagle provides users with information, such as bus number, the speed, the direction it is headed, if it is at a stop, where it last stopped on the route and if it is a full-campus or if it is the Lots 8 and 9 shuttle. Dooley said that the information is power to people.
Samantha Vitello, a media studies major, has not heard about the new app.
“I think it is useful,” said Vitello. “I don’t know where else to get that information.”
Sarah Sahib agrees that the new app is useful.
“It is useful, especially for students living in the dorms,” said Sahib. “It would help to know where and when the shuttles should come.”
Dooley said before the app, people would call dispatch about the location of a shuttle and dispatch would have to get in contact with the driver; but now people will be able to have the information at their finger tips.
“Society in general, certainly students on campuses today, are attached to their laptop, tablet, smart-phone, whatever the case may be,” said Dooley.
According to Gregory Towers, general manager of First Transit which operates the shuttles. the app is free.
“First Transit absorbs the cost,” said Towers.
Currently the shuttles’ web page is being renovated. Once completed, the app can also be viewed on computers.
“It is empowering for the passengers,” said Towers.
Towers said what is good about the app is that it is mobile.
“There is no more guess work. It is quick, easy and user friendly.”
