Running late for the T? Boston commuters with little time to waste can visit Howf—–isthet.com to view train locations and the average waiting time while also poking fun at the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority.
The Howf—–isthet website, created by professional web designer Joey Brunelle, uses live data to track when trains of a certain line last left each station, while giving each line ratings such as “probably f—–” or “isn’t very f—–.”
“There are a lot of things that I remember about the T. It’s certainly not my favorite public transit system,” Brunelle, a former resident of Davis Square and current San Francisco resident, said. “I vividly remember my time riding the Red Line.”
The site offers live data on all T lines, except for the green, including the average wait time for both directions at each stop and the number of trains the line uses. It also tells viewers when the last train arrived at certain stations.
The only information available on the green line page is that it “is probably f—–.”
Brunelle, a freelancer whose company is called Goose Rock Design, said that he used free data that the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority offers on train locations for the site. He spent one week making the site and launched it about two weeks ago.
“Someone from the MBTA called me last week just to express how they liked that their data was being used for something useful as well as humorous,” Brunelle said.
MBTA General Manager Richard Davey said in an email that while the MBTA may have preferred more family-friendly language, they are excited about any website that tells people the T’s location.
“The MBTA has decided to be as open as possible with its data to encourage innovative software developers to build great applications,” Davey said. “In our opinion, more choices for riders is better.”
Brunelle also made a less profane version of the site, Howsthet.com, which Davey said the MBTA is pleased with. The Howsthet website rates the the Green Line as “probably a mess.”
“The Green Line does not have as precise a tracking system as our heavy rail lines,” Davey said. “The Green Line tracking system only tells us roughly where a train is within large zones, not enough to provide accurate location or prediction info.”
The MBTA is in the process of designing a better tracking system for the Green Line, Davey said.
Brunelle isn’t the first to make MBTA data available to others. Developers have used real-time data to create more than 30 applications, websites and services, Davey said. The MBTA also has a “Developers Page” on their site, giving developers the tools they need to create any MBTA-related project.
Brunelle said that he is planning to create a similar website for the Washington D.C. public transit system.
“I make things that I hope will be useful to people,” Brunelle said.
Boston University students said that they liked the idea of the website, many saying that it helped them to have a better idea of when to expect the T.
“I really think [the site is] convenient. I like that there’s info about the Red Line, because we take that a lot,” said College of Arts and Sciences freshman Leona Al Sayah. “I wish there was more stuff about the Green Line, because that definitely is more geared toward BU students.”
“I like [the site],” said CAS freshman Ashley Worthington. “I use the Red Line to get the train station and the bus station and stuff so it’s really useful to know how much time I have to give myself to get there.”
She added that she thinks the T is easier to use than New York City’s subway.
“It’s an awesome website, I like the name the most. The T is so f—–,” said CAS freshman Brian Gambordella. “[The T is] definitely easier to use [than the New York City subway], easier to get around on, but it’s not as reliable and it’s not as quick, and I don’t like how it doesn’t run past 12 or 1 [in the morning]. In New York it’ll run all night so you can just keep going out and stay out as late as you want and here, if you’re out past one you gotta walk back.”
“It’s also helpful because now you know when it’s actually going to come,” Gambordella said about the site.
“Because if you go on Google maps and you plug in ‘use the T’ it gives you. . .wrong times. Because the list of times on the MBTA are wrong,” said Gambordella.
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