Sunday, December 04, 2005

NextBus

In my marketing class at University of Nevada, Reno, a group of students has been doing a project on transportation information systems. One of the cool things they found was a new service called NextBus (http://www.nextbus.com).

What this service provides is real-time bus arrival time information to passengers through a variety of media (Web, PDA, Cell Phone, etc.). Thus, if you commute by bus or other public transportation, you can determine when the bus you take will arrive at the stop, and you can plan your departure appropriately.

This is a great example of the Vision component of coproduction experiences. This service clearly sets customer (rider) expectations as when their bus will arrive, making the experience of taking public transportation that much more satisfying. Gone are the days when you ask yourself, "When will that darn bus be arriving!"