BART upgrades mobile website

Oakland, Calif.-based Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) riders can now find improved real-time departure information and location-based walking and bicycling directions on BART’s redesigned mobile website — m.bart.gov.

The new version of the site, which was “soft launched” one month ago, will better accommodate the growing number of riders seeking BART information on the go.

"Last year we saw our mobile website traffic double to more than two million visits," Website Manager Timothy Moore said. "Add the additional 1.8 million visits to our regular website using mobile devices and we saw a great opportunity to improve BART services for a huge number of people."

Now on BART’s mobile website, riders with GPS-enabled phones can find the closest station to their current location and use the BART QuickPlanner to plan a trip based on their current location. The QuickPlanner also features new maps with walking, bicycling or driving directions.

BART’s mobile website also offers:

•    Expanded real-time departure information including bike blackouts, car length, line color and Muni ETDs for shared stations in San Francisco.

•    Information about parking, bicycles, connecting transit and other neighborhood details for each of the BART system's 44 stations.

•    BART service advisories, elevator advisories and other BART news.

•    A carbon calculator on the BART QuickPlanner that tells you how much CO2 you will save by taking transit on your trip instead of driving.

Since 2004, BART has offered a mobile website optimized for traditional phones, and that site will continue to be available at www.bart.gov/wireless. BART also offers email and SMS alerts or on-demand SMS updates for riders not on the mobile web.