I hate DDOT

[DetroitPole]

Ugh. In my search to find holiday/Sunday times I came across this gem:

http://www.detroitmi.gov/ddot/index.html

Seriously, I know they're strapped but how long does it take to update a website? 2008? Come on, fuckers. Get an intern for the love of G-d.

Anyway, you're all smarter than them so my question to you is: Is tonight a regular Friday in DDOTworld or is it a Sunday/holiday time day?

I want to take the bus tonight so I don't have to get behind the wheel or spend $500~ on a cabbie who's going to try to take me on a scenic tour of the city. So thus I need to know if its regularly scheduled DDOT fun or if the hours are going to be reduced.

Have a Happy and Safe New Year, everyone.

[ASR89]

Try this, comrade:
http://www.detroitmi.gov/Departments...0/Default.aspx

From what I could see, New Years Day is holiday / Sunday hours. It didn't say anything about NYE so I imagine tonight is regular hours. My guess would be that the page you linked to is the old page, Detroit's website layout changed and they forgot to delete the old page. Update your bookmarks / favourites list.

[Russix]

Funny, I came here looking for the exact same answers. SMART is running Saturday schedule on NYE. I can't find any info on DDOT. I'll check the schedules and see for which one the next bus crusies by.

[Russix]

Funny, I came here looking for the exact same answers. SMART is running Saturday schedule on NYE. I can't find any info on DDOT. I'll check the schedules and see for which one the next bus crusies by.

Well that plan backfired greatly! Both Weekday and Saturday bus stops outside my window are 7:25PM! Doh!

[bc_n_dtown]

Friday, New Year's Eve, is a regular weekday schedule for all DDOT lines. Because of union contract agreements DDOT can only run a different schedule on the six major holidays only, where a Sunday schedule is followed. So as a result, there will be a Sunday schedule both Sat 1/1 and Sun 1/2, but regular service on NYE 12/31.

[evergreen]

What's there to hate about D-DOT? It just barely exists.

Good luck with trying to use it to get around town tonite; you'll definitely have some stories to entertain your bar mates with.

Oh, and have a happy New Year.

[bc_n_dtown]

My guess would be that the page you linked to is the old page, Detroit's website layout changed and they forgot to delete the old page. Update your bookmarks / favourites list.

Yeah, ljbad89 is correct. After the Bing administration came in all city websites were redesigned but for some reason the old pages were never deleted. Unfortunately, the old pages still show up in search engines.

It's ironic that the old link DetroitPole posted was the first page that came up after I did a Yahoo! search on "Detroit DDOT." The Wikipedia page was listed second, while the current active DDOT site was listed third.

[laphoque]

I like how DDOT has all their schedules up as PDF: http://www.detroitmi.gov/Default.aspx?tabid=1151 I put them on my iPod so I can lookup when a bus is coming. I wish SMART had that. Their PDF schedules are text of the times of one direction only instead of the schedules they print out with maps and exceptions.

I wish DDOT would just install all their bike racks already though.

[Russix]

I like how DDOT has all their schedules up as PDF: http://www.detroitmi.gov/Default.aspx?tabid=1151 I put them on my iPod so I can lookup when a bus is coming. I wish SMART had that. Their PDF schedules are text of the times of one direction only instead of the schedules they print out with maps and exceptions.

I wish DDOT would just install all their bike racks already though.

I use to copy the SMART schedules off the web into Excel files for mobile use. Of course all this was before the era of Google Maps mobile app. Gotta love a gps enabled handheld transit routing device!

[Zacha341]

I loathe the idea of getting on any bus, but have used then when car down... I saw very few busses NYE.... and I was out between 11:00 and 11:35 and saw a few folks at bus stops. That had to be fun when the reign of bullets started! ------

What's there to hate about D-DOT? It just barely exists.

Good luck with trying to use it to get around town tonite; you'll definitely have some stories to entertain your bar mates with.

Oh, and have a happy New Year.

[DetroitPole]

I wish DDOT would just install all their bike racks already though.

I second that. If they'd just do that, I could utilize them all the time. Given that I live within a 1 minute walk of a Crosstown stop, I could then bike from Warren/Woodward to downtown.

Thanks for all the info everyone. I ended up just ditching the car once I got downtown and grabbing a cab home. Sorry, DDOT.

[canuck]

The system we have in Montreal is that each bus stop has a 5 digit number. With this number you can get the next three passages at that particular stop. You phone A.U.T.O.B.U.S. which means BUS in french, and then dial that 5digit number to get the info. It is pretty neat in that every bus stop has the number screenprinted on the panel.

[wolverine]

I'm surprised DDot doesn't have something on their website like this:

http://www.transitchicago.com/developers/

Being able to view bus locations on a map or precise arrival times can greatly improve rider experience. I use it to inform me when I should leave a bar to catch the bus or train. That way I avoid waiting at a bus stop and can get there just as the bus is arriving.

[Russix]

I'm surprised DDot doesn't have something on their website like this:

http://www.transitchicago.com/developers/

Being able to view bus locations on a map or precise arrival times can greatly improve rider experience. I use it to inform me when I should leave a bar to catch the bus or train. That way I avoid waiting at a bus stop and can get there just as the bus is arriving.

I wrote to both DDOT and SMART 5 years ago with a free offer to develop a web-based api to their transit data. Unfortunately I think it fell on deaf ears[[you have to remember that 7 years ago neither of them even had a website). Google Maps[[which uses their GTFS data over at Transit Chicago) does a pretty awesome job of routing you anywhere around the DDOT/SMART system. Unfortunately it doesn't tell you exactly where the bus is, but I've been very satisfied with the results.

[Tig3rzhark]

I wrote to both DDOT and SMART 5 years ago with a free offer to develop a web-based api to their transit data. Unfortunately I think it fell on deaf ears[[you have to remember that 7 years ago neither of them even had a website). Google Maps[[which uses their GTFS data over at Transit Chicago) does a pretty awesome job of routing you anywhere around the DDOT/SMART system. Unfortunately it doesn't tell you exactly where the bus is, but I've been very satisfied with the results.

The people that work for DDOT keep telling me that their real-time scheduling is only available at the Rosa Parks Transit Center. They just have the departure times for the buses that arrive there, and sometimes, they don't leave on time.

That's not going to be enough. Having the buses tracked by GPS would have to be implemented.

I've been on buses that every now and then, the bus driver would get off the bus and stop at a restaurant, gas station, whatever to get a snack....on duty. Which is why I have a good idea why they aren't doing it.

Anyone that rides a DDOT bus, even the SMART buses, should be able to know exactly where that bus is at that time. No bus is going to be on schedule all the time which everyone knows...but it would make the transit system more efficient.

[[Optional) We should also know in real time if the incoming bus has a bike rack on it or not.

Rosa Parks Transit Center should have all their doors opened. It doesn't make sense to me that only one location of doors would be open at the center. There are transit cops there, so why aren't all the doors open? I'm also sure that someone could be hired to keep the place clean. The last time I went there, there were cigarette butts everywhere outside.

[Augustiner]

Having the buses tracked by GPS would have to be implemented.

They already are tracked. That's how you get those fancy electronic voices that announce the transfer points and such. Of course, the system is very often out of whack and announces the wrong transfer points in the wrong places, but I can't think of a technical reason why the tracking data, such as it is, couldn't be made publicly available in real time.

[Tig3rzhark]

What I meant was, have the real-time location of each bus to be displayed on the Internet to be accessible by computer or mobile device.

http://www.cleverdevices.com/bus_arr...y_BUSTIME.html