Bloomington Transit launches bus tracking program

Bus travelers, wait no more.

Bloomington Transit has launched its first-ever bus tracking  program, which allows riders to see where buses are in real time — online or through a smartphone app.

The program, called DoubleMap, is available at www.bt.doublemap.com or in the
DoubleMap app that can be downloaded using iOS and Android devices.

It’s the same app used by the IU Campus Bus system. In the next month, the two maps will be combined to create one cohesive bus tracking system for students and community members.

“We’re taking the guesswork out of whether the bus is going to come late or early,” said Peter SerVaas, an IU graduate, of DoubleMap. “That’s really a misuse of students’ and riders’ time.”

The program allows riders to locate buses along individual routes or all at once. After the app’s first month in service, it will also give riders the ability to click on a specific bus stop and see the estimated times the next few buses will arrive.

Bloomington Transit General Manager Lew May said the $200,000 project was started in 2012 when the city recognized the need for a bus tracking app similar to what is available on campus.

The cost included the creation of the tracking system for mobile and online, as well as digital signs that will display the bus locations. The signs will be installed at the downtown bus station currently being built at the corner of 3rd and Walnut Streets.

Upkeep of the DoubleMap system will cost $25,000 per year and will come out of both federal and state funding.

May said he hopes the new system will incentivize more community members, especially young students, to travel with Bloomington Transit.

“For those people who maybe weren’t quite sure how public transit works, this makes it very easy,” May said. “You can see all the bus routes, color-coded, where they go from and where they go to. All of the basic information is at your fingertips.”

DoubleMap was founded at IU in 2009, when IUSA was looking for an affordable bus tracking app for students. SerVaas, then-IUSA student body president, partnered with Ilya Rekhter, another IUSA member, to create the app themselves.

Although the founders claimed they never intended to turn the app into a full-fledged company, controversy arose when IUSA paid more than $18,000 in student fees to
SerVaas and Rekhter. Neither were fired, and after the pair graduated, DoubleMap
continued to grow. All 12 of the Indianapolis-based company’s current employees are
IU and IUPUI graduates.

The company now operates bus tracking systems for more than 25 entities, including Butler University, the University of Notre Dame, Georgetown University, the Indianapolis Airport and Walt Disney Studios.

Follow reporter Jessica Contrera @mjcontrera.