Kitsap Transit switching to new rider alert platform starting March 5
A rider reads an alert sent from Kitsap Transit’s new Rider Alert platform, SimplifyTransit.
Early next month, Kitsap Transit will start sending Rider Alerts through a new platform called SimplifyTransit, a big step toward improving our information infrastructure and communication with the public.
Kitsap Transit will start sending alerts through SimplifyTransit on Wednesday, March 5. We’ll stop sending alerts from GovDelivery, our current platform, on Tuesday, March 4. With the change, KT customers will be able to access a new Rider Alerts webpage, which will display service alerts for our buses and ferries, detours, and service change information. While alerts won’t be sent through the new system until March 5, you can start signing up for alerts today in preparation for the switchover.
Personalize your rider alert experience
SimplifyTransit offers a slew of upgrades over our previous system. Subscriptions are now more personalized: Riders will be able to sign up to receive alerts for only the days of the week that they ride, and only for the services or stops that they use. A few examples:
If you’re an early-morning fast ferry commuter traveling from Kingston to Seattle three days a week, you can set your Rider Alert preferences to ignore any late-night ferry cancelations.
A customer who boards Route 332 at the same stop every day can choose to receive alerts for just that stop. They will be notified when a trip is canceled that affects that stop.
If a bus needs to detour due to construction, but the route change doesn’t affect your stops, you won’t be bothered with an alert.
Riders can set up multiple subscriptions that cover different travel patterns, stops, or days of the week; these subscriptions can be individually paused with a simple toggle switch if you don’t want to receive alerts for a certain period, such as while you’re on vacation.
You can also receive alerts in Spanish or Tagalog! When you sign up, you can select your preferred language, and alerts will be automatically translated. Similarly, the new Rider Alerts webpage allows you to change the language of the alerts to Spanish or Tagalog with one click.
For those of you who enjoy diving deep into transit-related projects and board meetings – or just want to receive our Headways newsletter – SimplifyTransit offers a simple way to subscribe to topics that matter to you. Just select any “Other Topics” for which you’d like to receive alerts on the Manage Subscriptions page.
Future improvements: Live bus tracker and text for updates
Since the beginning of the year, one of our most-heard complaints has been the lack of a way for riders to track their bus in real-time. This was especially apparent during our most recent snow event.
We don’t have a release date yet for our new live tracker, but it is coming soon. The map will coincide with the addition of a Google Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) real-time feed, which will allow riders to track buses not only on the Kitsap Transit website but Google Maps, Apple Maps, the Transit app, and other third-party apps. We are also working to update signage at our bus stops later this year with a phone number that customers will be able to text to receive information on the next bus arrival.
We hope you’ll be patient with us as we work toward these upgrades, which we think will become the backbone of a more robust, easy-to-understand real-time passenger information system.