Why did I start BetterTrolley?
I was waiting for a train one day at Old Town, just as the new Green Line opened. There were about three or four people, clearly tourists, crowded around the system map that is posted at every station. They were using their finger to follow the lines to different places, but when it came to some stops in Mission Valley, they were suddenly unclear about whether the train actually stopped there.
I'm a graphic designer by trade. I see problems like this every day, and come up with visual ways to solve them. In this case, there was a visual problem (the system map) that needed a visual solution. In a typical snobbish attitude, I thought to myself "I could do it better." And then another voice in my head (there are several, I'm sure you can imagine) said "oh yeah? Prove it." So I did. I built this site.
This goes for tourists and for locals. For people like me who ride every day, I wanted to build a resource that kept them up-to-date with the Rider Alerts system. There are times when I'd like to know in the morning if I should drive or take the train, for instance. If the power is out to the Green Line, then I know I should drive. But MTS doesn't have a rider alert system that they maintain on a minute-by-minute basis. This website tries to fill that gap.
Why use BetterTrolley instead of the MTS's own website? Don't they have the best information?
Truthfully, they do. They are the agency that creates the schedules and runs the trains every day. The way they choose to present this information, however, is unnecessarily complex (and, in some cases, incomplete or poorly designed).
Here's an example. At my Trolley station, Rio Vista, there's a timetable posted. That timetable, though, doesn't actually have Rio Vista listed anywhere on it. They have Qualcomm Stadium, which is two or three minutes east, and Mission Valley Center, which is two or three minutes west. But Rio Vista (and Fenton Parkway, for that matter) are nowhere to be found.
The MTS has all the information in the world. They just display it poorly. That's what BetterTrolley aims to do: Present you with the same information, but in a more understandable way.
Why am I paying to run this site?
Well, some of the costs are offset by Google Ads. Hopefully, if the site becomes popular enough, those ad revenues will be high enough to cover the costs of keeping the site hosted. Of course, the second edge to that sword is that if the site becomes popular enough to do that, chances are I'll need a more expensive hosting plan. But I'll cross that bridge when I get there, I guess.
But that really doesn't answer the question. The reason I started the site was so I could genuinely help other passengers who clearly were confused by a Trolley system that — seriously — isn't that complex.
Why haven't I answered some other important question?
That's a good question. If you have other good questions, email them to me.