Over the past three months many Belize City commuters have given the e-bus a try - even as the regular "dalla" buses - by sheer volume still dominate public transport in the city.
And now, with the 501Transit app, you can better plan your trips. While the app has been operational for some time, it officially launched today. And if you haven't used it yet, it shows you where the bus is at all times, and when it will be passing your preferred bus stop.
Courtney Menzies was at the ceremony and has this story.
It's been 3 months since the electric buses hit the streets of Belize City and commuters have enjoyed the comfortable seating, AC on hot days, and the accessibility provided for the elderly and disabled.
And now they'll be able to better plan their trips with the launch of the 501 Transit app. The app has been in a pilot phase since the buses started running, but now it's fully operational and ready to make commuters' lives easier.
Leon Gentle, Chief Transport Officer
"The idea of the app we were talking earlier about is to try to make the lives of commuters easier. The objective of the app is to be able to see live time when the buses are approaching your area or your stop. The whole idea is that you should be able to plan your trip, if you want to leave at 10:00, you should be able to see where those buses are. From the Department of Transport standpoint, we want to do this app, we want to make sure this app is accessible to all and that's why it's available to both android and IOS as well as to provide some love of information and data collecting to the Department of Transport, to help us to plan route, to help us to plan areas that passengers are able to catch these buses."
Courtney Menzies:
"So the way it works, if I understand, you tap on the bus stop that you're planning to catch, and you'll see when the buses should pass you?"
Leon Gentle, Chief Transport Officer
"That's generally the idea, but real time you should be able to see on the app, the buses traveling on the map and so you will be able to see how far that bus is away from you, wherever your location is on the route."
And now that the app is up and running, when will the city see more of these buses? The Mayor said he's working on it.
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City
"I can't even explain the sort of embrace that the residents of the city, especially with elder people, with students. I had a meeting with some of the schools who want additional buses to run opposite to how it is running to bring students into the school zone. The elderly, the people with diverse abilities have really embraced it and it is so good to see that our youths, our children are being brought into this new era of transformation in the transportation industry. The kids of today will no longer be subjected to substandard transportation and that I something that I embrace and I stand by it and I know there's a better way ahead and that in the future our children, unlike us, will not be subjected to that sort of service."
"I am not sitting back, I have been making the calls, making the rounds. We know that there is the need for additional buses, you must have additional buses. In the event one of the buses have some sort of mishap and you're down to one bus, you will have that sort of pushback so it's important that we are able to leave no one behind. We have residents living in the Port Loyola area, we have resident living in the Belama area, who are agitating for this sort of transformation in their neck of the woods."
In the meantime though, the Department of Transport is also working on incorporating the inter-district buses onto the app:
Leon Gentle, Chief Transport Officer
"We have to be able to transition both from a scheduling standpoint, where you're able, on the national scene, be able to plan your trip countrywide and so we would have a national schedule that would eventually go on this app for persons to say, if I want to move from Belize City to Cayo, I know these are the buses, these are the operators that will be leaving from the bus terminal in Belize City and from areas that they should be, based on their road service permits. So each road service permit has a time that you should be at a particular location and that is where we intend to make that transition. Eventually we hope that operators will add the telematics which will give us the real time data to their existing buses."
But now, the city is waiting on the e-taxis:
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City
"Our e-taxis are set to launch this month coming, November. The hardest setback has been getting the drivers in place because we want to get the right drivers and so we are set for this month."
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