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If you ride NJ Transit trains…

If you ride NJ Transit trains…

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It’s time you try The Inside Track …our premium offering which goes WAY beyond the features you know
(actually, we have moved some features FROM our “free” service…and put them in the premium product)
So, why the urgency?

1. LAST NIGHT – It was a TERRIBLE commute for many of you. (e.g., NE Corridor)
Yes…the traditional “Clever Commute” service helped…BUT…”Inside Track” has a FANTASTIC feature which lets you browse the Clever Commute alerts on your smartphone (NOT in your inbox)!
  • YOU control “which train lines?” (yes…you can see not just your own line)
  • YOU control “how much history to see?” (1-24 hours)
  • YOU control whether or not you read the new alerts (yes…our technology “hides” messages you have already seen!)
2. Oct 14 – The NJT train schedule will change on that day.
We are putting the finishing touches on an INCREDIBLE NEW FEATURE
We will tell you “what changed?”
That’s right! It’s the end of the tedious process of YOU doing a side-by-side comparison between “old” and “new”.
YES – we do it for you…included in your subscription price.

 

And of course, there is a 30-day free trial…so you have NOTHING to lose.
We have extended the Fall promotion…so the monthly fee is less than a cup of coffee.

Something fun: the ability to vent about the commute

Something fun: the ability to vent about the commute

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Vent-ing lets a commuter share an otherwise-inappropriate message.
Any active user can send a vent (steps below).
However, viewing these messages is done exclusively via the app...and is a Premium Opt-In only feature.
Vents are not sent out as mails, texts, or push notifications.
We do post some of the best ones via a special Twitter account: @clevervent

One of the best features of the free Clever Commute app is the ability for commuters to
share real-time messages with fellow passengers  (e.g., to let them know about things that impact the current commute).

We usually encourage people to stay "on-topic" and keep the comments constructive and actionable.
Yes - we have filters which usually check for duplicates, profanity and other restricted keywords.

But...sometimes you simply gotta let it out. Now, when you use our free app, you can!
Here are the steps

To Send a VentTo View Vents
  1. Open our app
  2. Select Participate
  3. Set "(1) What do you want to do?" to
    I just want to vent
  4. You can skip app steps (2), (3) and (4)
  5. Use the "(5) Tell us a bit more" field to er, let it out
  1. Open our app
  2. Select Recent Alerts
  3. At the top of the page, select the box  for "Include I just want to vent"

 

Give it a try. You won't offend us.  We're all adults here. Go ahead...you can:

  • curse a blue streak
  • say what you really think about the transit provider's service
  • let off steam regarding conditions at your station
  • ...and generally vent about what's bugging you on the commute

The message will not be  subject to the filters and best practices...but then again: it will not be sent out (e.g., mail, text or push notification) to your fellow commuters.

Vent just gives you a place to let out "a digital scream".... because sometimes, it just feels better to get it off your chest.

Of course, if you really want to help your fellow commuter, then please install and use our free app.
Join the tens of thousands of people who who have made Clever Commute a part of the fabric of the daily commute.

Monday 9/10/12

Monday 9/10/12

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E-mail delivery of your Clever Commute messages may be delayed due a technical issue with one of our providers. You can still
Users of our Inside Track service are NOT impacted (they have web-based delivery of alert messages)
More info
See this article
If you did not read our KOTW mail about Twitter delivery of messages…this might be a good time for you to sign up.
NOTE: If there are delays in delivery of our messages to you, please reference the timestamp in the subject line of each mail [e.g., “(5:50 PM)”] to determine the “freshness” of the mail. That timestamp is _roughly_ the time that the commuter shared the info.

An amazing (yet limited-time) offer for NJ Transit riders

An amazing (yet limited-time) offer for NJ Transit riders

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The first 100 people to sign up for our premium service will receive a special back-to-school rate of $2.99 a month (before it returns to $3.99 a month).
(as always: a 30-day free trial…and two months free when you subscribe for the year)
Remember, from now on, you MUST be a member of our premium service to receive…
  • our Labor Day get-away tipsheet
  • advance notification about a BIG event this week which will impact your commute
  • A COOL new feature which means you no longer need to receive your Clever Commute alerts via e-mail
    Imagine: You ONLY see “fresh” alerts…and it faster than e-mail. No more inbox!
    And if that’s not cool enough: you can actually scan/monitor TWO train lines this way!
  • track number history for ALL trains…and advance notification at many other stations
Again – here is the link to sign-up

August 13, 2012 – The NJ Transit / Clever Commute story so far

August 13, 2012 – The NJ Transit / Clever Commute story so far

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What is the story…in a nutshell?

  1. NJ Transit (NJT) created a datafeed for use by app developers.
  2. Clever Commute built and marketed an app for commuters…using that data.
  3. When NJT found out about the app, they altered the feed…purposefully hiding one of the most valuable pieces of data.

What does Clever Commute do?
Clever Commute is an on-line service with a primary audience of suburban rail commuters (e.g., NJ Transit, LIRR, Metro North…even Amtrak). We also service riders on other modes (e.g., buses, light rail, ferries). We pioneered the concept of free crowdsourcing of transit information. We have since expanded to provide premium services for commuters as well as news organizations.
Here is a link to our About Us page.

Tell me more about Clever Commute’s premium service for commuters
The Inside Track is a suite of roughly 13 tools for commuters. To be clear: the feature which NJT pulled is just one of the many amazing things Inside Track does.

Tell me more about NJT’s change to their datafeed
First of all, it’s key that you know that at NY Penn Station, during the evening rush, commuters need to wait for their track number to be announced (via loudspeakers and TV monitors). When that track number is communicated, hundreds of people jostle and push as they fight their way down the stairs in an attempt to get a seat on their train home.
Remember that datafeed mentioned above? It contained the track number…before it was announced by NJT.
Therefore, customers of Clever Commute’s Inside Track had the opportunity to board as soon as NJT knew the track number (without waiting for  NJT to announce it).
Remember: it was NJT who gave us this data for use in our app. However, once they learned about our app, they eliminated that data from the feed.

So, there are times when NJT knows the track number…but still wants people to stand around in the waiting area?
 Yes.

How does Clever Commute know that this is the case?
The commuters used our service…and they raved about it.
The Founder of Clever Commute had a personal experience with it.

Was this (early-track-number) data that NJT shared 100% accurate?
 No. (more below)

Did Clever Commute spend money to build the app?
Yes. We put a lot of time, effort and money into designing, building, marketing and supporting the app.

NJT says Clever Commute “manipulated [NJT’s] data“. Is that true?
NJT says you used the data to create some kind of “forecast“. Is that true?
Neither is true. All we did was publish the data they gave us…as-is.

As an app developer, did Clever Commute follow all of NJT’s rules?

Yes. All we did was take the data they gave us…and used technology to make it available to the commuters.

What is the current status of Clever Commute’s premium service – The Inside Track?
Commuters continue to sign up for The Inside Track…since it has many other features which commuters love.
As we said from the start, we continue to invest in The Inside Track.
We just launched the 13th feature for NJ Transit commuters.

NJT says the early-track-number data was not accurate. Is that true?
There were times when NJT’s data was wrong or arguably missing (for example, it appears that NJT used a default value of “track 3” when the actual early-track-number was not available).
However, Clever Commute fully disclaimed the data…and advised people to confirm their track before boarding.

NJT says the data was only correct 22% of the time. How can there be such a big disconnect between what NJT says and what Clever Commute says?
Based on what we know about NJT’s calculation, we don’t agree with their approach…and we therefore disagree with that metric.
The commuters and Clever Commute agree: this was an amazing feature.
Also, please remember that people pay for this premium service…so it’s irrational to think that they’d pay for data which is as bad as NJT claims.
It’s also irrational to think that people would upset about losing access to the data if it really were that bad.

Can you share more information?
Sure!
About Clever Commute
The premium product (includes links to screenshots, and list of features)
Summary of events between NJT and Clever Commute

If you want to know more, please send a note to feedback -at- clevercommute /dot/ com or use the Contact Us feature of our home page

 

Baker’s dozen – the game-changing new feature from the Inside Track

Baker’s dozen – the game-changing new feature from the Inside Track

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The Inside Track now has a way to let you know if there are new commuter-generated alerts on YOUR line. You can also monitor a secondary line!
The best part: You can do this without checking your e-mail!  

Here is how it works: (illustrations of all of this can be found below. Click on images to expand)

  • We added two new fields to The Inside Track: the words Primary and Secondary
    (Be sure you have set up a Primary and Secondary line. Use the Profile feature in the app)
  • When a commuter shares an alert on your Primary or Secondary line, the corresponding word on the page change to red
  • When you click-through, you will see the actual alert!
  • We also share the e-mail address you would use to share information on that line.

Other cool stuff:

  • The alerts will show up here before they show up in your inbox
  • We’re still experimenting with new ways to show you this data…so we may tweek the web page a bit
  • We only show you alerts only from the previous 6 hours (if you think you need more, then let us know)
  • In the future, we will give commuters the option to request that their account stop receiving alerts as e-mails (some people may decide that all they need is to browse them in the app)