Mass Transit Made Simple

We recently reported on parking updates, and now we’ll look at mass transit. Most of us have experienced a late or no-show bus, some even deciding that $20 of parking is worth 40 minutes of wasted time.  However, new technology could now change your mind.  AND, if mass transit access is a factor in your real estate purchase, we’ve come across a link for that as well.  Click on the titles below for these websites:

ONE BUS AWAY – is an online bus tracking system, using data feed supplied by transponders of its various transit companies.  There’s even an “Explore” tool which allows you to search for restaurants, businesses, parks and other amenities “One Bus Away”!   

Get real-time arrival information, on the stop of your choice, for the following transit companies:

• Metro Transit
• Washington State Ferries
• King County Marine Division (Water Taxi)
• Sound Transit
• Community Transit
• Pierce Transit

 And, you’re able to access this in a number of ways:

• Web Interface
• Touch-Tone Phone
• SMS Text

Plus, there are native OneBusAway client setups for:

• iPhone
• Android
• Windows Phone 7

Finally, OneBusAway is a local business!  It was developed at the University of Washington by grad students Brian Ferris and Kari Watkins, with additional funding by Nokia Research and the National Science Foundation. It’s an open-source system and the group is working towards offering the service to other cities nationwide.  OneBusAway was also a 2010 winner at the Washington Technology Industry Association’s Industry Achievement Awards.  

RIDER ALERT – Sign up for your bus route and Metro’s “rider alert” tool delivers text or e-mail alerts about your bus in case of construction, special event re-routing, or snow emergencies.  It’ll also zap you an email with schedule changes and holiday information.  

METRO APP CENTER –  There are a number of apps and mobile tools which developers have built using Metro Transit data, and they’re free for you to download at this site, including OneBusAway.

REAL ESTATE — For those who want to buy in an area with mass transit options, there’s a local link in the Metro App Center for estately.com.   Click on Options. The right hand column has a “choose” link under Mass Transit where you can type in a Metro route number, and properties either along or close to that bus line appear.  You can check out neighborhood walkability scores and yes, parking too. Run in conjunction with NWMLS, it provides a lot of information and can be confusing to wander through.  Just contact us at this Stroupe Group link and we’ll help you find what you’re looking for, in fewer steps.

There’s still some glitches with OneBusAway and Rider Alert, most recently when buses changed to snow routes during the recent Thanksgiving week storms. In 2011, these should run smoother when Metro buses are equipped with GPS systems.  Technology comes at a price, though– fare increases for most passenger groups go up in January.  However, mass transit is easiest on the environment, your wallet and your driving sanity.  For most of us, mass transit is the only way to fly.

View StroupeCondoBlog on Your iPhone!

Technology is great isn’t it?  Especially for you iPhoners who get a kick out of telling everybody about all the cool things you can do that we Blackberry and Trio users cannot.  In spirit of all you can-doers, we’ve installed a new program that allows you to stay on top of the downtown Seattle real estate market using your iPhone.  In this circumstance, we would love for you to talk about how cool your iPhone is.

iPhone Guy:

“Hey man!  Check out all the cool things I can do with my iPhone!  Not only can I pretend to use this Star Wars light saber, but I can even stay current with downtown condos at StroupeCondoBlog.com”

Blackberry/Trio Guy:

“Yeah, cool man.  Anyway…”

Just a couple of features…

• Full search is built-in, allowing you to easily find what you’re looking for.
• Loads more posts inline using Ajax, into an iPhone application-like experience.
• Post images and other content are scaled and handled automatically on touch mobile devices.
• Users can easily send native e-mail with the title and a link to the post they’re reading.

Now You Can View Pricing History on StroupeCondoBlog.com!

One of the things that makes being a Realtor exciting is the service and education we get to provide our clients and the general public with the tools we have been able to integrate into our blog.  Many of the tools we’ve integrated into this site is through a 3rd party provider who has been great when it comes to helping us enhance the way properties are displayed on the site.  Yesterday, we made a call to check in on some functionality we’d like to use on another site (as well as poke some fun at a video he posted on facebook) we were told not only is that the function in question is already available, but there’s another bell and whistle we can have added if we like.

If it provides more information for people to educate themeselves, of course we want it!  As of today, you can now see a listing’s pricing history!  As a buyer, this can sometimes prove to be a valuable tool when looking to familiarize yourself with what to offer on a particular property that has caught your eye.  To see it action, use the search located above in the navigation of our site, or view our condo profiles in our sidebar located to the right.

Don’t forget, some of our newer condo profiles (identified with an asterisk) also include up to 3-years of sold history…