Stony Brook University students have been facing technical difficulties with DoubleMap, an application used by riders to see the exact location of buses operated by SBU Transit — the shuttle bus service provided by the University — in real time.
DoubleMap has been showing inaccurate information about the locations of buses, displaying incorrect arrival times at each stop.
George Volz, the director of transportation for Mobility and Parking Services (MAPS), sent an email on Friday, Sept. 20, assuring Stony Brook’s community that they were aware of the issue.
“We are aware of the intermittent service interruptions with our live bus tracker and are actively working with our provider to resolve them,” Volz wrote. “Be assured, all routes are running at this time and please refer to the SBU Transit schedules online for more information. We apologize for the inconvenience.”
In the email, Volz attached a link to the SBU Transit online schedule, showing the routes and providing information on when the buses start and stop running each day. However, there have been concerns among students that the schedule sent in the email isn’t specific enough.
Fahreen Fairooz, a sophomore majoring in computer science, said, “[SBU Transit’s online schedule] just shows when the bus starts operating and the last stop, but there’s nothing in between, so I don’t know when the bus is going to arrive.”
In a statement emailed to The Statesman, Volz wrote that the University has been in communication with TransLoc — the company that owns DoubleMap — to try and resolve the issues.
“While we are unsure of what is causing the issues, we communicate with their help desk daily to remediate them… We hope to onboard a new provider with updated technology and improved rider experience for Spring [2025],” Volz wrote.
Keira Ferretti, a junior majoring in journalism, said that the lack of accurate information about bus operations has been a significant issue for her.
“I clicked on that [link] … but it didn’t have any of the actual stop times, so it’s not really a schedule. They’re running at unknown times between these hours,” she said.
Ferretti lives in the West Apartments and boards SBU Transit buses at the West C stop, directly behind her building. But without the accurate information from the app, she is forced to make long treks across the University campus.
“I went to check the schedule and none of the buses that came by the stop were on the map … I didn’t wait, I ended up walking 20 minutes,” Ferretti said. “Some of [the buses] do show up and then they’re gone the next day and then they’re back after that. When I knew the buses were coming and going I would be able to go back to my dorm and drop stuff off … with the inconsistent scheduling and not being able to tell when the next bus is able to come, it’s impossible for me to go back,” she said.
Fairooz resides in Benedict Hall. She claims the issues with DoubleMap have inconvenienced her as she transitions from working her overnight shift at the Residential Safety Program to going to class in the morning.
“My class starts at 8:05 a.m. and right after I get off my shift I wait for the bus … [the apps] didn’t show any buses, and I ended up waiting there for 40 minutes or so … I have to really calculate where I go now, so if I leave early in the morning I have to walk to certain places … I can’t freely move like I could before,” Fairooz said.
She ended up walking from Benedict Hall to the new Computer Science Building — a 14-minute walk, according to Google Maps.
Mahjabin Choudhury, a junior majoring in biology, works as a receptionist in the Stony Brook Union at the Academic and Transfer Advising Services. She said the issues with SBU Transit have inconvenienced her and her work schedule.
“On SBU Transit it said it would come in three to five minutes but it ended up taking a little more than 10 minutes … I heavily rely on that bus to get to the Union,” Choudhury said.
After leaving her volunteer session at the Stony Brook Cancer Center, she waited for the Express East bus. Luckily, her volunteer session ended earlier, allowing her to be on time for work. If it wasn’t for her session ending early, she said she would have been late due to the bus.
A spokesperson for TransLoc did not respond to a request for comment.
