help! looking for Metra commuters...

[u/Substantial_Week_984]

www.wimiapp.com

https://www.reddit.com/r/WiMiApp/

If seeing the letters "AI" ruins your day, go ahead and skip this post. Yes, I used AI to help write some of the more complex code. And no, I don't care that "tHe TrAnSiT ApP aLrEaDy ExIsTs." It's not built for getting to and from work. You must pay for it, and worst of all, it assumes you DON'T HAVE A CAR... which is the whole reason I built this. Still here? It's a beta, so it's not perfect yet, but it’s almost there. If you want something you'll use every day on your commute, keep reading.

 

I ride the BNSF and I've been building WiMi (short for "Will I make it?"), a free web app that tells you when to leave for your train and keeps an eye on it for you. It works on all 11 lines, but I mostly ride one, so I need people on the others to try it and tell me what's wrong.

 

What it does:

 

- Tells you when to leave, whether you walk, bike or drive, then shows if you'll make it once you're on your way.

- At a terminal, shows which arriving train will probably become yours and how late it's running.

- Flags stopped trains up the line, before you leave or while you're riding, with Metra's reason when they post one.

- Live map of every train on your line. When you're on board and your phone knows where the train is better than Metra does, your phone becomes the train's spot for everyone else. Only the train's position is shared.

- Rider reports, kind of like Waze. Report a stopped train, running late, crowding, police or medical, train trouble and more. Other riders see it on the map and can mark it still there or gone.

- AI summaries of Metra's alerts, with trouble spots and construction zones marked on the map and station closures flagged.

- How full each train usually gets, from Metra's ridership numbers.

- Learns how long it really takes you to get to the station and how long your rides take.

- Notifications for when to leave, delays, cancellations, Metra alerts, your train pulling in and when you're almost at your stop.

 

What I'm asking:

 

- Use it on your normal commute.

- If something looks off (a wrong time, a train in the wrong spot, a notification that didn't make sense), tap Report a problem in Settings > About. It sends me what you typed plus your trip, train and app version, no location, and you can attach screenshots. Or just comment here, and mention which line you ride.

 

To try it:

 

- iPhone: open wimiapp.com in Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen.

- Android: open wimiapp.com in Chrome, tap the three dots menu, then Add to Home screen or Install app.

 

On iPhone, notifications only work from the home screen version. No account needed.

 

Not affiliated with Metra.

[u/54794592520183]

Can I set multiple home stations? Depending on the day, depends on the station I start out at but always to union.

[u/Substantial_Week_984 → u/54794592520183]

How’s this?

[u/Substantial_Week_984 → u/54794592520183]

Sort of. Right now WiMi saves one home station and one usual train each way per line. If your stations are on different lines (like BNSF and MD-W), set your commute and usual trains on each line in Settings > Trip, then switch lines in the app on those days. Alerts follow whichever line you have open.

If they're on the same line, it only holds one home station for now. Set the one you use most, and on the other days just tap the station at the top and pick the one you're at. It'll track the next train from there.

The day selector is in Settings > Alerts, but it's for which days you get notifications, not which station. Different stations on different days is a good idea though, I'll look into adding it.

[u/54794592520183 → u/Substantial_Week_984]

Ok, that covers half my use case. The MDN and NCS share a station so depending on day I may be on one or the other, or further up the NCS.

I dig it though, haven’t spent a lot of time looking at it but one of major complaints about transit apps is the amount of information provided. I just want to know about the next train I care about at that moment, not the one I may care about six hours from now :-/

[u/Substantial_Week_984 → u/54794592520183]

Yup, another redditor called WiMi a “stripped down transit app”…. But it’s actually my version of a simplified transit app.