Boston City Councilors ordered up a hearing today at which to press Boston school officials to explain how the new BPS Zum (pronounced "zoom," but for obvious reasons not spelled that way) app that was supposed to make BPS buses run as softly as a cloud instead led to some buses not showing up in the morning for an hour or more - and some kids riding buses home for up to three hours as their poor, befuddled drivers tried to navigate Boston's dropped-bowl-of-spaghetti roads. Read more.
Not sure what this sensationalist headline is about. Zum has been pretty damned good in my experience since last Thursday. There were tons of kinks that needed to be ironed out and clearly there were situations where bus drivers screwed up bad. But honestly, I’ve been impressed with the app and IMO the kinks will be ironed out. It has brought the BPS bussing system to a whole new level of transparency. I can tell down the SECOND where my child and my child’s bus are. Before, you’d get a phone call saying the bus is running late or they couldn’t find a bus driver.