PennDOT implements nation’s first statewide real-time public service tracker system

Harrisburg, PA – The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) announced today that the Fixed Route Intelligent Transportation System (FRITS) has been fully implemented at 33 transit agencies across the state. FRITS provides real-time service information for passengers, and enhanced transit planning for agencies. Passengers are now able to see their bus and how far away it is from their location at nearly three dozen transit agencies spanning 41 counties across the Commonwealth. 

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Riders can access real time service information including the location of the bus and predicted stop arrival times via the “myStop” smartphone app. Customers can also easily navigate between transit agencies using myStop, which is especially useful for riders in rural areas. For example, a passenger in Lemont Furnace who needs to travel to Greensburg can use myStop and view information for both Fayette Area Coordinated Transit and Westmoreland County Transit to identify which routes to use, where the bus is currently located, and easily plan their route. Additionally, because all agencies have had their routes certified by Google Maps as part of the project, customers can use Google Maps to plan transit routes as well and rest assured that route information is accurate.

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I take the Presque Isle Express and visit Beach 8

I took EMTA's Presque Isle Express last Saturday. I visited Beach 8, which I can't ever remember ever spending any time at. I have never been into hanging out at the beach, and this is a really "beachy" area. But it was a gorgeous day and the lake was beautiful. I wanted to check out a few things, especially related to accessibility, here you go.

 Click on photos to enlarge 

Beach wheelchairs available at Beach 8 and Public Safety Building (Ranger Station), Free, first come first serve, ID required. Info: Ranger station 814-833-1495 or Park office at TREC 814-833-7424  https://www.discoverpi.com/projects/beach-wheelchairs  

Concrete ramp and deck at east end of Beach 8, near lifeguard chair. 

Soft ramp at east end of Beach 8. I don't know the story about the tent at the end, if the park put it there or if some less than considerate person set up camp there.

New solar panels in parking area provide electricity to the park and shade keeps vehicles cooler

Food Trucks They've had trouble with the concession stands since COVID, now they are allowing Food Trucks. Call Ranger Station for which trucks are where. 

Sign heading east toward Beach 7: cars etc. stay left, pedestrians & bikes stay right. 

Accessible beach area at Beach 7 (just east of Beach 8). Paved pathway (above) and accessible large shady deck area (below) 

Other areas on Park:

 Accessibility at Waterworks area at Presque Isle July 31, 2022 A couple years ago wrote about accessibility at the Waterworks/Cookhouse/Beach 7 area a couple years ago, if you want that sort of into:

Beach 11: Quick look at Accessibility  posted on Facebook June 2023. I checked this out because EMTA Presque Isle Express was running a bus shuttle to the Wednesday concerts at this beach. 

More Presque Isle info:

Presque Isle  info from DCNR

Accessible Erie: Presque Isle State Parke from Accessible Erie A project of Voices for Independence

EMTA County buses used to have fare zones

This photo is from the 2004 EMTA County route schedule. Note that some county routes had fare zones during this time. 

The only county route I can recall using when they had fare zones  then was North East, which had only two zones. The second zone started in Harborcreek borough, and the driver would pull over there and collect the second fare. Usually riders knew that was part of the ride, but I did once see a rider become belligerent with the driver because she thought the driver was pulling some sort of scam. The zone fare set-up was printed on the schedule, but she may not have actually seen a schedule.  I wondered at the time why the company didn't have kind of have a sign or info sheet available on the county buses to head off these confrontations, because it must have sometimes been unpleasant or scary for the driver if a rider went off on them like this.

The fare zones were eliminated I think about ten years ago.

Apartment hunting for transit users

Apartment hunters, here are a few words and tips about the Facebook marketplace features for walkers, bikers, and Transit users.

These are helpful but sometimes not exactly accurate IMHO

For example, I've chosen an address right by 8th and Cherry, (which I've highlighted in yellow.) I'm very familiar with the area so I'm also familiar with the transit situation. See screen capture below.

Transit Score™ (highlighted in green) offers a score that sometimes doesn't seem to be that accurate. I would actually rate this address pretty high in terms of transit availability, yet the score they give it is only 41 out of 100. For instance from 8th and Cherry address there are four bus routes: Routes 4 and 30 on West 10th and Route 31 and 32 on West 6th. These are each very close by at least for my purposes. It seems to be a very transit-friendly location (.2 mile/4 min on foot) and I would think deserves a higher rating than they gave it

Below the scores is a "Nearby Transit" feature (in red highlight).

This is very helpful and usually quite accurate in telling you what which routes are near an address. 

For this particular address, however, I was surprised because it tells readers that for that -- although both 31 and 32 stop at West 6th and Cherry, the feature tells them to go to the Gridley Park shelter corner (.4 mi/9 min)

The scores and the transit info come from a national organization so I guess they could miss things that a local concern wouldn't. For me it wasn't a biggie just be aware.. it's still pretty helpful. (click/tap to enlarge)

 

Map

Also if you want housing on a particular route, open up the map (next photo) and click on the addresses being offered on that route. Click on a listing for further info and photos

NORTH EAST (Rte 16) CHANGES

UPDATE !!!!!!!  CHECK YOUR SCHEDULE FOR MOST CURRENT ROUTE AND SCHEDULE 

~Bus Blog Erie November 25, 2024

Dated material, only kept posted for reference about evolution of this particular route. Current EMTA route info here   https://ride-the-e.com/routes-2/ 

RT 16 BUS SCHEDULE CHANGES

🚌🍇🚌🍇🚌🍇🚌🍇

Route 16 North East bus schedule changed on November 18, 2023.

TIMES AFFECTED 

Most trip times are affected, so if you use the service you'll definitely want to check it out (see link below)

TRIP INTO ERIE STREAMLINED 

The good news for people on the trip heading toward Erie, is that the won't go to Winland Foods. In other words: trip to Erie starts from Janet Miller Building, goes *straight* on 89 then straight over Rte 20 and into Erie. 

TRIP INTO NORTH EAST

On the trip TO North East the bus *will* still go to Winland Foods 

WHAT'S UP WITH SERVICE TO NORTH EAST 

The bus company actually is committed to service to the North East area, but I think they have been a little wobbly since the campus left. The Winland rigamarole really confused some riders, and I think EMTA could have done a better job explaining how it worked. Kudos to them for making an attempt to try to make a workplace-oriented schedule though.

WALMART: NO MORE LONG STOPS

Re WalMart: Looks like no more 20 minute waits at WalMart Harborcreek.

LINKS

New schedule here https://ride-the-e.com/routes-2/

MyStop app for real time tracker and alerts

A month's worth of EMTA email rider alerts

I have been trying out the EMTA email rider alerts that you can sign up for in MyStop. 

The alerts are the same as those posted on the MyStop site, except they come to your email.

There is a text option but it was not working in the three times I signed up. I'm not sure what the problem is, but if it is available, EMTA needs to activate it, since a lot of riders would find it more useful than the emails.

I tried it out in three different email accounts. The screenshot below was from an account I signed up for January 26, 2023, and I stopped it at February 26. As far as I can I received them all, though it seemed like there was a curious gap for a couple weeks, maybe everything was running smoothly. 

Delivery issues

Alerts coming to each of the three email accounts had delivery issues. Outlook and Gmail sometimes delivered the alerts to another file. Yahoo Mail is still posting every single alert at 12:00 AM. ... every single one. None of them ended up in Spam so far. Again, having the text alert option might eliminate this goofiness.

Another advantage to alerts delivered to your device

Having an alert delivered to your device gives you a record of an issue that might have caused you a problem with getting somewhere. Your employer, instructor, doctor, etc., might accept your excuse a little more readily if you show them the alert that made you late. The alerts on the MyStop page disappear as soon as they are over, but you have the alert as a record. 

Click here for instructions on how to sign up for alerts

Click to enlarge  

EMTA email alerts

So apparently the MyStop tracking system can does actually give you email alerts. 

I tried when it was first set up five (?) years ago  and had issues with it, then tried it again a few years later and had a different issue. I got the impression it was a dud, so I gave up. 

On a hunch, I tried it again recently with a couple less-used email accounts. 

They both sent me email alerts, but with an odd difference. 

The Yahoo email only posted them at exactly 12AM.

The Outlook email seems to post them in real time. Now, I just signed up for the Outlook email, but if it actually works, that would be great. 

I originally signed up in Google, but never received anything using that email . 

Is it possible there is an issue with which email service you use? 

The email alerts are the same as the ones that are posted on MyStop. 

I have tried out about 20 different email alerts and this isn't my favorite, but at least it is an alert system.

You can sign up from the MyStop page (upper right-hand corner). In the photos I am attempting a walk-through of sign up from a desktop. I'll attempt one from the phne app please have at it!  

~~~~~

If anyone wants details about the issues I experienced, email me.  I avoided getting into details to make this more readable.

DESKTOP SIGN-UP:

Click on photos to enlarge

Go to MyStop page. Up in the right hand corner where it says Log In, that's where you register

If you have never registered, click where it says "Sign up here" (lower right). DON'T use the same password you use for your email.

Here is where you sign up. I think the reason they ask you for your name is because email without a name sometimes ends up in spam. Since I had already used my real name on the Yahoo email sign up, I gave myself a false name with the Outlook test sign up. If it causes problems,, I can go back and put in my real name. 

This is supposed to help you fine tune which alerts you get, but I couldn't get it to work. I will play around with it later, but I want to get this posted. i assume if you don't specify anything here you will get all alerts, and there aren't that many total alerts, so at this point it's not a big deal. 

POSSIBLE DELIVERY ISSUES

Spam

To avoid having your alert dumped into the spam folder, you can put it on a whitelist that instructs your email account to always accept emails from that address. 

Delivery time

Alerts should arrive in real time, like the ones I received today in my Outlook account:

If you are receiving them late like in my Yahoo email (midnight deliveries, see photo below) I'd like to hear your experiences, or if you have a fix that would be good to know as well.   

New shelter schedules easier to read

 The printing on the new shelter schedules is a lot clearer.

Routes that were out of order have been corrected as well.

These schedules are helpful, especially for people who might not be familiar with how the buses run, so making them easier to use is very important. 

A city and county schedules from 2004.

 A city and county schedule from 2004.

The city schedule had city routes in one schedule and the county schedule had all the county routes together. 

You will notice that the city schedule used red ink. For a few years they would change the ink color when the schedule had changed, so that passengers would know to pick up a new one and discard the old. Schedules were mainly distributed through the racks behind the driver. Riders would see the change of color and know to pick up a new schedule. 

EMTA Bus schedule from 1986

Here is an EMTA bus schedule from 1986. 

Hope you can read it, I had a problem scanning the images. 

Click on each image to enlarge. 

For as far back as I can remember, EMTA had put all the city routes together in a foldable 20x24 thing. Then in 2005/2006, when they overhauled the routes, they gave each route a separate schedule, and took some of the route details off. The Executive Director at the time said this is how they do it in big cities, which he seemed to think was a good thing. 

Anyway, regardless, this is how they were doing it in 1986, and I thought it was interesting. 

A couple things worth noting. 

The fares shown are in 1986 dollars obviously. According to a dollar converter I used, the 75 cents fare people were paying back then is equal to $2.03 on the day I compared it (8/8/2022). So if that's correct, it means the fare really hasn't actually gone up. 

 

Also, it looks like there were more trips back then. But then, our population has gone down and we've lost some workplaces. 

I noticed that an ad says "Compliments of Mellon Bank." So I guess they paid for the printing in exchange for the ad.

I made a point of captioning each one "SCHEDULE FROM 1986" just to avoid possible confusion.

SCHEDULE FROM 1986 - All city routes put together on one foldable map-size sheet. 

SCHEDULE FROM 1986

SCHEDULE FROM 1986

SCHEDULE FROM 1986

SCHEDULE FROM 1986

SCHEDULE FROM 1986

SCHEDULE FROM 1986

SCHEDULE FROM 1986

SCHEDULE FROM 1986

SCHEDULE FROM 1986

SCHEDULE FROM 1986

Fares - FROM 1986

How to get to upcoming Erie events using EMTA

EMTA routes to upcoming outdoor events

Aug 14 - 814 Day Music Fest - 3-9pm. Bayview Park #31, Griswold Park and Perry Square (all buses but #15), Rodger Young #16 #25, Washington Park #29 

Aug 27-29 Zabawa Polish Festival 2220 Reed #16 #24 #25 #26 no Sunday route.

Sep 4 - German Heritage Festival St Nick's Grove #27

Sep 5 - Hispanic Heritage Festival Perry Square All but #15

Sep 24-26 -Erie's Blues & Jazz Festival Frontier Park #30, #31 no Sun. route.

DOWNTOWN events - All Erie buses except #15 go to State Street.
Events subject to change due to COVID and other concerns
CORRECTIONS welcomed
CELEBRATE SAFELY

Millcreek Mall 1 & 3 changes

There is some confusion about what is going on with the weekday changes of Routes 1 and 3. I was one of those confused people.

I had two people patiently explain the changes to me, and I couldn't quite follow it. I looked over the new schedule and still was not clear on what was going on. So when Ed Torres said it's basically like the old Route 9, I dug out an old 2005 schedule and checked out the old Route 9 schedule.

It shows that Route 9 was basically alternating Peach and Cherry, and they marked each trip with a P or a C (I don't know what the other letter stood for, so let's not get sidetracked).

So, back in the present, it looks like for Route 3, one trip goes via Peach, next trip Cherry, next trip Peach, next trip Cherry... etc. Also, the trip between Mall and Summit looks like it's pretty much the same.

As for Saturdays...If you need to make the trip on Saturday, consult both the 1 and the 3 to find out what is going on with that. There is a separate schedule for Route 1 service (It is for Saturday only).

I like the old  format better for this kind of schedule, and I'm going to ask Ed to consider using it if they plan on keeping this alternating Peach and Cherry thing going for any length of time. I think that is easier to follow that than having Cherry in red ink, which is going to be lost on the paper schedules since they print those in black and white.

Anyway, I hope this is the correct understanding of what is going on with the 1 & 3 changes. If incorrect, please let me know and I will clear it up.

New Route 3 schedule  

New Route 1 schedule 

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGES 

Old Route 9 schedule (from 2005) shows how the trips alternate between Peach and Cherry

Current (3/28/2020) Route 3 schedule. Cherry Street is shown in red

Current (8/28/2020) Route 1.

North East route adds two trips

EMTA's North East run will add back two weekday trips, leaving Erie at  7:20am 11:20am  2:30 pm 6:20pm and leaving North East   8:20am 12:20pm 3:30pm 7:20pm

Also looks like Janet Miller Building (police academy) and South Lake cut from the route, but they will accommodate by request (call Dispatch 814-452-3515)

Saturday is same. Schedule takes effect August 29, 2020

Check schedule here 

Mall routes and other changes

If you use the Mall buses check out the upcoming changes. (effective Aug 29, 2020)

Route 1

https://ride-the-e.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Route-1_August-2020.pdf 

Route 3

https://ride-the-e.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Route-3_August-2020.pdf  

Check other changes here https://ride-the-e.com/routes-2/