INVESTIGATION - Mobile Website For Transit Agencies in the Bay Area?

If you have attempted to get accurate information from anywhere in the Bay Area near the "city by the bay", chances are that the website that you may be trying to access on your mobile device may not be as mobile as you think. Instead, your transit agency may be showing the full website while you are on your mobile device. Only in my blog tells why some transit agencies have their website still not capable for your mobile device.

So what is the deal? Some transit agencies in the Bay Area have not yet developed a mobile version of their website, but on some transit agencies, when I asked the tough question about the use of the transit agencies' mobile website, they often said that it is in the process of creating their mobile website. When I went to several transit agencies' website in early 2014, not all of them were "mobile-friendly". The transit agencies that were not mobile friendly prior to my checkup in August 2014 are described as follows...

For the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit) I asked them about the lack of a mobile website in early 2014 at the same time that I also wrote an inquiry within the same letter about the future of line 801 in regards to the BART extension to Santa Clara County. AC Transit sent me an e-mail on March 5 that AC Transit is in "the development of a mobile version of our website". AC Transit has since launched it's mobile version of their website only a couple of months after my inquiry.

The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) was also one of the major transit agencies that were not mobile prior to this checkup. I have asked twice on the time frame of when the VTA will have a mobile website of their own, but did not give a specific time frame. However, VTA did launch their mobile website in a surprising announcement July 29 and has encouraged mobile users, including those on iPads and other tablets, to send some feedback of what users thought of VTA's mobile site, four days ahead of the Levi's Stadium grand opening soccer match between the San Jose Earthquakes and Seattle Sounders.

SamTrans, which also administrates for Caltrain, has yet to develop a mobile site, which my findings have included years of development, but no mention of a mobile website on both SamTrans and Caltrain until I asked the tough questions directly to SamTrans on social media, including of an estimated time (ETA) of when the mobile websites on both SamTrans and Caltrain will be running. My findings began on the heels of a report that SamTrans has been under scrutiny for various possible violations when NBC Bay Area's Investigative Unit interviewed former SamTrans employees of possible miscalculations. When I tried to visit the SamTrans and Caltrain websites on my mobile device, it was still running on the normal website instead of the mobile site, which seemed to me that the mobile site did not exist in the first place.

Golden Gate Transit and Ferry services and Marin Transit also may be having some difficulty for mobile users, despite one link from Golden Gate Transit claiming that mobile users can go mobile. Golden Gate Transit does have a mobile section under the link called "Go Mobile", but I discovered that it can be difficult to access the actual version of the Golden Gate Transit's webpage. There is no direct re-link to the actual mobile website when attempting to type the website. Marin Transit, however, has a problem of going mobile, and attempting to use the mobile website is difficult, as there has been no estimated time of when Marin Transit will have a mobile website.

So when will SamTrans, Caltrain, and Marin Transit will actually go mobile? SamTrans says that their ETA for SamTrans going mobile will be up in October, with Caltrain to follow, including a redesign of the Caltrain website. It is unknown whether SamTrans website will be using the same design as what VTA has as both SamTrans and VTA have the same voice over for approaching stops on buses. Marin Transit has not yet disclosed whether their website is undergoing a redesign or if a mobile version is in progress. Meanwhile, Golden Gate Transit has yet to fix the redirect on mobile devices when typing the agency's website so that regular users will see the actual site and mobile users actually is properly redirected to the mobile site. 

Most transit agencies that was not mentioned herein such as San Fransicco Municipal Transit Agency (SFMTA), Sonoma County Transit, and  Livermore-Almador Valley Transit Authority (LAVTA, or more commonly called WHEELS) already have a mobile site of their own. While the Clipper Card is continuing to expand to the far East Bay and Sonoma County, I will continue to watch Bay Area transit agencies grow, including both Clipper card and mobile site development, hoping that transit agencies will get the message.