Recent stuff ~ Sept. 23, 2016

• "Councilmen show cooperative spirit in EMTA fight" (Erie Times-News 9/24/2016)
• Mike Tann speaks on Erie Talk in the Morning. (9/21?)  Host Jim LeCorchik interviewed him and said it went well.  He gave no indication if it would be a regular appearance. 
• Just Toyin' Witchya "Handy Emojis for Erie Texting: Feeling Like..."  (Comic by B. Toy, 9/14/2016 Erie Reader)
• EMTA website still says Board meeting still September 26

 Photo: Deb Spilko

This crap-tastic week in Erie bus service

Well, quite the week.

First the good news, sort of. New schedules finally got posted in shelters (well some of them) just three weeks after schedules changed.Woo hoo!

Some other events, taken from local news media and Facebook:

• “There’s no excuse for EMTA debacle” (Editorial, Erie Times-News 9/16/2016)
• “Bus riders concerned about the future of EMTA” (YourErie 9/15/2016) Interviews with riders, commentary by County Councilman Jay Breneman.
• “PennDOT OK with lawsuit settling EMTA dispute” (Erie Times-News 9/16/2016). In this article, Kevin Flowers explains what PennDOT will and won’t be doing with this situation.
• Sinnott addresses the looming expiration of the EMTA charter, (Your Erie 9/14/2016) what comes next. Basically: I got it all under control, blah blah blah we got two months of emergency funds we’ll blow through and then deal with it blah blah blah lawsuit blah blah blah. Still no mention of where he plans to get the money to run EMTA.
• EMTA Charter lapsed that night.
• “State could bring in third party to run EMTA” (Erie Times-News   “if the city/county dispute over that charter is not resolved in roughly 60 days, EMTA’s future operations could be in jeopardy and the state could bring in a third party to run the region’s largest public transit agency” ~PennDOT
• Road construction in downtown area disrupts routes and service no communication with riders about changes, as per usual.
• MyStop app was down again. The current administration at EMTA has made widespread use of MyStop a goal, even though there are quite a few issues with that idea, not the least of which is that it doesn't work very well.  Don't take my word for it... On its own site as of 9/13, MyStop was ranked 1.8 out of 5. I posted about it here.

A couple dates of interest:

• October 7 City and County meet in court. Hopefully Judge Cunningham will insist that Sinnott has to finally disclose where he thinks he'll get the Mystery Money to run the EMTA.
  
• EMTA Board Meeting scheduled for Mon. Sept. 26. Public can speak before the board business...I don’t expect much from them, but there you go. They sometimes change the date so if you plan to go check the website a couple days before.  It’s on the EMTA “About Us” page. Meetings are 5:30pm in the Erie Intermodal Transportation Center, 2nd floor — 208 East Bayfront Parkway. 

MyStop Reviews

Nothing against apps. And the idea of having a functioning app that lets riders know what's going on in real time is a great idea.

Unfortunately the reality hasn't been so great. For now let's set aside the many riders who were left in the dust with the questionable decision to make it inconvenient to deal with paper schedules.

Let us instead look at what app users think. The user reviews speak for themselves. As of today (9/13/2016), we see that users give the app 1.8 out of 5. 

Paper schedules were replaced with the idea of moving "into the 21st century." In many cases, the app doesn't move at all. But don't take my word for it.

Read user comments here.

 Click image to enlarge