Any college student will tell you their time is precious and it's frustrating having to wait for a bus. Now the wait is over at Virginia Tech, thanks to some software developed by Virginia Tech students.
It's called VT Bus Tracker. Some computer science majors have developed software that provides real time information for Blacksburg Transit buses.
The students take information that Blacksburg Transit already collects through GPS and delivers it to people's phones, through the web, and by text. The service is free and open to anyone who uses Blacksburg Transit, including town residents.
VT Bus Tracker shows you exactly where a bus is, how fast it is going, and how many are on the bus. The software also can give you an estimated arrival time for certain buses, but that feature is still being fine tuned.
VT Bus Tracker started off as a class project. Alex Obenauer, a Virginia Tech junior, told News 7 "one student said pretty much point blank you know what sucks, I can't make the bus usable."
The students then approached the Student Government Association. SGA agreed to pay for the upfront costs which were about $37,000. It doesn't cost much to run VT Bus Tracker because the students use google's servers which are free.
VT Bus Tracker launched on the first day of school. It averages 2 to 5 requests per second for a total of 40,000 hits per day. Trevor Gardner, a Virginia Tech sophomore, told News 7 "Actually I like it, I use it a lot, it's been quite helpful."
The students are getting national attention for the software. It has won awards and the city of Arlington as well as Arizona State University have shown interest in the software.
The students are working to enhance VT Bus Tracker. Mike Dillon, a Virginia Tech senior, told News 7 "On a scale of 1 to 10 I think it is a 7 or 8 and I rank it like that because there's so much room to grow."
The students are creating a new feature that should shown launch in the next two months. It will send you a notification when certain buses are coming to certain stops. For example, an alert will tell you two minutes before a bus gets to your stop.
