When Chad Etzel downloaded the MARTA app to plan a trip to a Georgia Tech football game last fall, he mistakenly thought he’d downloaded the wrong app.
MARTA’s On the Go app looked outdated and was hard to use.
“It just felt sort of ancient,” the software designer said.
His frustration served as inspiration. Within a few weeks, Etzel had created a new app he dubbed “SMARTA” and published it to the Apple and Google app stores. Etzel’s app, like the official MARTA apps, track trains, buses and the Atlanta Streetcar.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
The “MARTA is SMARTA” slogan had stuck with him since he was growing up in metro Atlanta. Naming the app SMARTA felt like a cheeky nod to what he was trying to do: Create a better app for tracking arrivals and departures.
“I just wanted to improve the experience for everyone in Atlanta,” Etzel said. “MARTA has a gigantic ridership.”
MARTA actually encourages this type of third-party tinkering, a spokeswoman said. The transit agency makes its schedule and real-time arrival data available online for developers to use for their own projects.
MARTA spokeswoman Stephany Fisher said the agency knows there’s a need for a more modern official app. They’re currently in the process of soliciting bids from vendors.
MARTA has three apps currently. The On the Go app to track arrivals was created in 2010 for Apple and in 2016 for Android, and it has been updated incrementally since then. MARTA also has a See & Say app that riders can use to report safety concerns and the Breeze Mobile 2.0 app, which can be used to buy fares.
Fisher said MARTA wants to combine the features of all three apps into one. The new app would also allow multimodal trip planning and support the new on-demand rideshare service that the agency plans to introduce next year.
Until then, Etzel’s app is gaining downloads daily, and he said he hopes it gives MARTA ideas for what a new app could feature. Etzel said he’s gotten nice feedback from users who’ve told him they’ve switched from the official app to his.
Etzel and his family only recently moved back to the metro area after living in California the last 15 years. He said creating the app has given him a new appreciation of how extensive MARTA’s service is and also how difficult it is to keep buses and trains running on time.
Living in the northern suburbs, Etzel said he’s mostly car dependent these days, but he likes to take MARTA when its convenient. He relied on public transit more when he lived in San Francisco and said he’s a big fan of both systems.
“It’s nice to just hop on a bus and get where you need to go,” he said.
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