{"id":1826560,"date":"2024-02-02T11:09:21","date_gmt":"2024-02-02T16:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1826560"},"modified":"2024-02-02T15:48:45","modified_gmt":"2024-02-02T20:48:45","slug":"the-nj-transit-app-is-apparently-terrible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2024\/02\/the-nj-transit-app-is-apparently-terrible\/","title":{"rendered":"The NJ Transit App Is Apparently Terrible"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Verge<\/em>\u2019s Victoria Song moved from New York City to New Jersey and discovered the awfulness of the NJ Transit app<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Many of my friends who\u2019d migrated to Jersey warned me about the NJ Transit app. It\u2019s not good, they said. I didn\u2019t take them too seriously. I was forged in the fires of the Metropolitan Transit Authority\u2019s continually broken website circa 2001. After a seven-year stint in Tokyo navigating the labyrinthian Tokyo subway and bus system, what public transit app could ever befuddle me?<\/p>\n

Hubris is a bitch.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(It\u2019s reportedly okay for trains; the bus\u2014which is what she\u2019s taking\u2014seems to be Another Matter.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Verge\u2019s Victoria Song moved from New York City to New Jersey and discovered the awfulness of the NJ Transit app. Many of my friends who\u2019d migrated to Jersey warned me about the NJ Transit… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,94],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-1826560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-mobile","category-transit","tag-new-jersey","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1844894,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/08\/using-emoji-to-depict-train-delays\/","url_meta":{"origin":1826560,"position":0},"title":"Using Emoji to Depict Train Delays","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"25 August 2025","format":"link","excerpt":"Bloomberg (screenshot) It\u2019s a single animated map in a larger, infographic-rich Bloomberg CityLab article about how NJ Transit is the least reliable New York City area commuter rail service, but you can\u2019t help but pay attention to a map that uses emoji to indicate how late a train is. Surprisingly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Transit"","block_context":{"text":"Transit","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/transit\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/bloomberg-emoji-nj-transit.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/bloomberg-emoji-nj-transit.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/bloomberg-emoji-nj-transit.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/bloomberg-emoji-nj-transit.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/bloomberg-emoji-nj-transit.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/bloomberg-emoji-nj-transit.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3261,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/11\/how-the-transit-app-got-its-curves\/","url_meta":{"origin":1826560,"position":1},"title":"How the Transit App Got Its Curves","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"2 November 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"The makers of the Transit app (iPhone, Android)\u00a0like to point out that whereas\u00a0Apple's transit maps are beautiful\u00a0but basically hand-drawn and\u00a0added manually and slowly, and Google's maps are algorithmically generated but look terrible, their maps are algorithmically generated but look smooth and neat. A technical post by their backend developer explains\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mobile"","block_context":{"text":"Mobile","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/mobile\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"transit-app","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/transit-app-150x150.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1808349,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/08\/rmtransit-on-navigating-transit-on-your-phone\/","url_meta":{"origin":1826560,"position":2},"title":"RMTransit on Navigating Transit on Your Phone","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"2 August 2022","format":"link","excerpt":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ytJK75DKG1g Transit is an entirely different paradigm, and transit systems and their data are more complex and less standardized: these are among the reasons, Reece argues in today\u2019s RMTransit video, why using your phone\u2019s mapping app to navigate while using transit is a less satisfying experience than it is when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mobile"","block_context":{"text":"Mobile","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/mobile\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/ytJK75DKG1g\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1791474,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2021\/07\/google-maps-android-my-maps-discontinued-transit-crowdedness-feature-expanded\/","url_meta":{"origin":1826560,"position":3},"title":"Google Maps: Android My Maps Discontinued, Transit Crowdedness Feature Expanded","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"26 July 2021","format":"link","excerpt":"The Google My Maps Android app is being closed down in October. You may remember that My Maps is a feature allowing users to create custom maps on the Google Maps platform relatively easily. To be honest I wasn\u2019t aware that it had its own Android app; once that\u2019s closed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mobile"","block_context":{"text":"Mobile","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/mobile\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":265,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/01\/transit-explorer\/","url_meta":{"origin":1826560,"position":4},"title":"Transit Explorer","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"13 January 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"Yonah Freemark's Transit Explorer\u00a0is an online map of\u00a0existing, planned and under-construction transit projects in cities across North America\u2014\u201cfixed-guideway transit,\u201d which means bus rapid transit, light rail and commuter rail.\u00a0I've spotted a couple of\u00a0omissions\u00a0(Montreal's commuter rail and Winnipeg's busway don't appear) but that might\u00a0be a problem with the\u00a0underlying OpenStreetMap data. [via]","rel":"","context":"In "Transit"","block_context":{"text":"Transit","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/transit\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"transit-explorer","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/transit-explorer.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/transit-explorer.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/transit-explorer.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/transit-explorer.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/transit-explorer.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1791054,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2021\/05\/san-marino-transit-map\/","url_meta":{"origin":1826560,"position":5},"title":"San Marino Transit Map","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"18 May 2021","format":"link","excerpt":"San Marino is the fifth smallest country in the world, but it\u2019s large enough to have a bus network, for which Jug Cerovic has created a map. It\u2019s a network diagram that includes not only San Marino\u2019s domestic bus routes, but its connecting bus line to Rimini, Italy (where you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Transit"","block_context":{"text":"Transit","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/transit\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"San Marino Transit Map (Jug Cerovic)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/cerovic-san-marino-724x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/cerovic-san-marino-724x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/cerovic-san-marino-724x1024.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/cerovic-san-marino-724x1024.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1826560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1826560"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1826560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1826591,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1826560\/revisions\/1826591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1826560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1826560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1826560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}