It's the details of transit apps that matter to users, so the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro) just made a change of technology provider that will help make it easier to accurately predict bus arrival times.
Rachel Kurzius reports on a technology change that will fundamentally change bus service in Washington, D.C.: "busETA has now officially replaced NextBus, after a month of beta testing. All of the third-party apps that relied on information from NextBus now use the new app, which is also available through a website."
The busETA technology uses "an open-source arrival-prediction algorithm that is quickly becoming a standard in the transit industry," according to a Metro press release announcing the change. busETA relies on data from OneBusAway, which Kurzius describes as "an open source project comprised of public sector transit agencies, commercial firms, academic research representatives, and others."
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