On Feb. 7, Cal State East Bay’s Information and Technology Services launched a transit module on the CSUEB mobile app, where students can view shuttle, BART and AC Transit line 60’s stop times.  

The app gives students a time estimate for the shuttle’s arrival and a full schedule of departure and arrival times. The app tracks the AC Transit 60 bus’ current location through a live stream the AC transit website, which was integrated into the app.

There are currently four Hayward shuttles and one Castro Valley shuttle that runs Monday to Thursday, two Hayward shuttles and one Castro Valley on Friday and one Hayward shuttle that runs on weekends.

Hayward shuttles run seven days a week while the Castro Valley shuttle only runs during the week. Each shuttle drops and picks up students around campus while doing a round-trip to the Bart and campus.

ITS noticed that on the CSUEB website, the Parking and Transportation services page was the second most-viewed page after Student Housing, which ranked number one during the 2016-2017 school year, according to alternative transportation lead, Brenda Amaral.

In January 2017, ITS offered the Parking and Transportation services an opportunity to have a section on the CSUEB mobile app, according to Derrick Lobo, parking and transportation manager at CSUEB.

The transit module took one month for ITS to develop at no cost. Students are able to download it for free, according to Amaral and CSUEB web developer, Avi Fhima.

There are currently three shuttles that have GPS, but are not currently advertised due to the GPS being too slow at tracking them. The GPSes were installed in 2014 through a contract with Fleetmattics, a Verizon company that provides mobile workplace solutions for businesses.

In the future, parking services plans to sign a contract with a new vendor that will provide a faster service.

The contract is set to end on Dec. 31, 2017. Although shuttles are not tracked on the app, Lobo and Amaral are looking for new vendors and hope to have a new GPS installed and integrated into the transit module by fall 2018.