Transit is the new “official” bus-tracking system on the University of Kentucky’s campus and for Lexington, Kentucky, offering new features and improvements.
UK Transportation Services announced on Sept. 10 that Transit will replace the Transloc app as the new official bus tracking app after over 1.5 million people used campus routes last academic year.
“It (Transit) works really well with Lextran and the myStop app, so you don’t need to switch,” Associate Director of Transportation James Hutchins said. “I know some students in the past, especially most recently last spring and fall semester, instead of using the Transloc app, they were using the myStop app, which is Lextran bus tracking.”
Transit will feature “Royale,” a premium version of Transit. It is a paid subscription subsidized for all University students and employees.
It has a trip planning feature and full access to bus routes across Lexington, according to Hutchins.
Additional features of Royale include ride-sharing, the ability to pin frequent routes, favorite destinations and GO, which provides step-by-step transit directions and notifications, according to Transit Support.
“We are basically doing that for the campus community, so that they have access to all of those additional features,” Communications Officer for UK Transportation Lisa Cleveland said. “Transportation Department decided to go ahead and sort of upgrade Transit so that it would have even more features for users.”
Service alerts are one of the Transit’s new features. It provides real-time notifications about delays and detours.
Bus departures are classified as “real-time,” “scheduled,” “canceled” or “likely canceled.” Waves on the top right of the time or strikethrough will indicate the status of the bus.
A purple route was also added. It’s an expedited shuttle from the College Way East and West lots to the Kroger Field, according to Hutchins.
La’Shelle Snorden, a UK sports communication senior, said that the app is difficult for her to navigate because she only found out about it last week and is not familiar with it. She said she thinks it will be “an adjustment.”
“Our department is always looking for ways to improve transportation,” Hutchins said. “We definitely feel like Transit adds a lot of value to our riders and to the bus routes, and for our employees, students, everyone and it helps us be more efficient.”
