Bostonians without smartphones can still avoid running late for the T with CooCoo, a company that teamed up with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to text commuters with real-time bus and train schedules.
Riders can text CooCoo with information about their bus or train stop and the company will send back a real-time schedule for that station, said Ryan Thompson, co-founder of the service, in an email interview.
Next to each stop time on the list, the company notes the actual time it will take for the bus or train to arrive.
“Every [Boston Unviversity] student has one thing in common – a mobile phone,” Thompson said. “They now have another thing in common – the ability to know when their MBTA bus or train is coming.”
The service is free, he said, and available for all of the MBTA’s trains and buses. Users can text one of two things to the number 266266 to receive information, according to the CooCoo website.
When a T rider texts the ID number of the station, CooCoo replies with a list of the scheduled stops.
“Using CooCoo will remove rider anxiety on when their bus will arrive,” Thompson said. “We believe this information helps riders make better decisions on getting around the city using mass transit.”
Since the service is not in app form, he said, Bostonians who do not have smartphones could use it. The MBTA already offers apps that offer similar services, but CooCoo is different, Thompson said.
It is available to any mobile phone user, he said, and uses a texting format.
“CooCoo is fast, easy, free,” Thompson said. “No need to sign up or download an app, just send a simple text to CooCoo.”
MBTA representatives said the transit system supports CooCoo.
“[There] is nothing easier than a text message,” said MBTA Director of Innovation Josh Robin. “We work very hard to make finding your bus ubiquitous. We want to make it available easily and we were excited to be a part of making that possible.”
In order to achieve that accessibility, he said, the MBTA publicly posts a data feed for real-time schedule prediction, allowing CooCoo and other companies to use the information.
CooCoo started in New York two years ago with the city’s subway system, Thompson said. Boston, however, is the first city to use CooCoo for real-time bus prediction.
“The T is leader nationwide in apps for transit riders,” Robin said. “We’re just excited that this kind of innovation has come to the T system and [we are] excited to have riders use it.
The MBTA will receive more from CooCoo than just customer satisfaction, Thompson said.
The service is free, but CooCoo includes advertisements at the bottom of all texts, Thompson said, adding that, “the MBTA receives a portion of the ad revenue generated.”
BU students said they would consider using the service.
Kyle Pellerin, a freshman in BU’s College of Arts and Sciences, said he takes the bus at least once a day, if not more. He used the TransLoc Transit Visualization app before it shut down, and he said he prefers the old app to the new CooCoo service.
“The app allowed you to select the BU Bus, as well as other bus systems around the city and suburbs, even [Boston College],” Pellerin said.
Janae Saffold, a CAS sophomore at BU, said she rides the bus at least three times a week. The bus is almost always late, she said, and an application such as CooCoo would be “incredibly helpful” because it would make her travels “less anxious.”
“It would help to determine if waiting for the bus was really worthwhile or if I should find another way to travel if it is going to be very late,” she said.
Thompson said the service should help Bostonians travel more efficiently.
“The best part about using CooCoo,” Thompson said, “is riders know what to expect and can make better use of their time.”
