MTA Bus Time is coming to Brooklyn

 Real-time bus tracking will soon be available to Brooklyn commuters via their smartphones, computers and text message, announced the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) on Monday, February 24.

The tracking service will be available starting March 9 on the following bus routes: B1, B100, B103, B11, B12, B13, B14, B15, B16, B17, B2, B20, B24, B25, B26, B3, B31, B32, B35, B36, B38, B39, B4, B41, B42, B43, B44, B44-SBS, B45, B46, B47, B48, B49, B52, B54, B57, B6, B60, B62, B64, B65, B67, B68, B69, B7, B70, B74, B8, B82, B83, B84, B9, BM1, BM2, BM3, BM4, BM5.

More than 9,000 bus stops across Brooklyn and Queens are affected. The GPS hardware has already been installed in buses serving Staten Island, the Bronx, and Manhattan as part of a pilot program that began in January 2012.

Funding for the program expansion comes from this year’s city capital funds budget.

Elected officials, transportation officials and advocates alike cheered the announcement, agreeing that the popular service will help New Yorkers of all backgrounds reach their destinations more easily and with more ease.

“I take the bus every day after work to get my errands done. I look up the street and don’t see the bus coming, so I ask myself: should I tough it out and take the train? Should I give up and try another time,” asked said Bob Nelson, a member of the grassroot advocacy group Riders Alliance who lives in Cobble Hill.

“As I enter geezerhood, buses are increasingly a better option for me, but I don’t have a smart phone to check when the bus is coming,” he added. “Bus countdown clocks at my stop would help an older person like me plan my day.”

To track your bus, visit http://bustime.mta.info, text an intersection or street address or bus stop code to 511123, or scan the QR Code posted on the bus stop schedule pole.

There are also several alternate bus time phone apps available that were not made by the MTA.