For the past seven years, the Information Technology Department at the Hillsborough Area Rapid Transit Authority has been able to pinpoint exact bus position thanks to G.P.S.

Earlier this year, that information was provided to an Open-Sharing Application called One Bus Away. As a result, HART has seen Customer Satisfaction skyrocket and app hits for Tampa Bay have far exceeded expectation.

Shannon Haney is the ITS Specialist for HART in charge of the application. Initially he'd hoped for about 12,000 hits a month to show success and public buy-in.  What's happened since has been nothing short of amazing.

"We're averaging about 350 hits per minute," he said. "Close to 210,000 at spikes during our peak times, and so it's overwhelmingly positive response."

Customer Satisfaction is up nearly 70 percent and participation in the app was at no cost to HART. The largest part of that increase, according to Haney, revolves around waiting for the bus to arrive.

"Because instead of... just standing there waiting for the bus, they can choose when to go to the bus," he said. "So perhaps they need to finish up an email at work or perhaps they want to go catch a cup of coffee before they go to the bus, now they can know a little bit more about when that bus is coming."

For more information on One Bus Away, visit the HART website.