There’s nothing worse than waiting on a cold and lonely train platform not knowing when your train will come – or, not.
Back in 2006, Port native Joshua Crandall founded Clever Commute as a way for harried commuters to find out about delays and departures, in real time.
"I was just trying to get to my job," Crandall said, and "a handful of guys decided to help to each other out." That effort grew from word of mouth along with bragging rights about being the "first to know" about problems on the rails.
Clever Commute enables riders to use smartphones to share information about the day’s commute via email, text messages and Twitter. It's successful because it's quick, efficient and as Crandall said, "No one likes to be surprised."
“It’s always something with a commute and it dawned on me that this model was affordable,” Crandall said. "After my job was eliminated at Morgan Stanley, the timing was good. I started putting ads on the messages and took content that was being shared by commuters, turned it into a licensed data feed and sent it out to radio stations. When CBS talks about trouble on the railroad, Clever Commute is a source.”
Clever Commute has grown to a national organization that offers service in New York; Boston; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; Denver; Portland and Los Angeles. According to Crandall, the number of users doubled every year.
Rachel Kramer, who lives in Great Neck and travels on the Port Washington line, has used the service since 2007. She said, "It was very useful during last year’s blizzard when everything was shut down. The Long Island Railroad said there would be a train every hour but I only knew from Clever Commute that people were waiting at the station for three hours and there were no trains.”
Advertisers are also happy with Clever Commute.
“It’s a unique way to get our message across,” said Sharon Maier-Kennelly, executive director of Landmark on Main Street in Port Washington. “Commuters are very tuned-in to what’s happening on their train line. We have reached new patrons who have lived in Port Washington a long time."
Candide08
9:16 am on Thursday, October 6, 2011
There are more than 250,000 LIRR commuters - I don't know any that use Clever Commute.
Condutor Josh
9:48 am on Thursday, October 6, 2011
Hi Candide08...im the guy that started Clever. Admittedly...we have lots of room to grow...but with that said: this is your opportunity to lead by example. There are thousands of LIRR riders on our service...and we are literally growing every day. Its a network of your fellow commuters....where the participants provide the content. Why not join....and recruit those you know?
Michael
11:24 am on Friday, October 7, 2011
Well, count me down as 1. I moved back to Long Island about a year and a half ago and have been using it for over a year. I find it invaluable in dealing with commuting chaos. Additionally, it is a good thing to forward to my boss when I am going to be late because of commuting delays. In a way, it authenticates the tardiness (not that my boss is this petty, but it makes me feel better).
It takes less than a minute to sign up. Every once in a while there will be a barrage of e-mails about a delay, but generally, I think they do a good job limiting the e-mails coming through so that it doesn't get to be a nuisance.
Sam S
4:23 pm on Friday, October 7, 2011
I use this service and find it invaluable for the commute when they are problems (which seems to be happening more frequently.) It often beats out the LIRRs own annoucements in terms of timeliness and reliability.