Around Chapel Hill there’s an infinite amount of apps that are popular within student life. What I’ve found in my few months here on campus is that NextBus is one of the most popular.
NextBus is an app that tells you when the next bus is coming. Creative right?
As a new user, it can get pretty confusing if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Here are a few tips to help you navigate your way through it.
Chapel Hill Transit
This might be a little self-explanatory, but the app can be confusing. For clarity, when you open the app, tap Chapel Hill transit. It will give you a list of buses that go through and around Chapel Hill to various places from Student Stores to Franklin Street.
Location, location, location
Make sure you know what direction the bus is going. If not, you can easily get on the wrong bus and get lost and getting lost on the bus is the worst for so many reasons. If you ask the bus drivers where are, they’ll probably just tell you to relax, and there’s a chance you’ll be late for the super important Netflix and chill session you were trying to go to.
Buttons that make you look cool
NextBus is a little more than just bus information. There are so many buttons that can help you keep up with all of your favorite buses so you never lose track of them. There are a multitude of buses that go around campus, and all you have to do to keep track of them is tap the bus you want to get on and tap the star on the far left. This favorites the bus so you can access it more easily. There are quite a few reasons to use this feature, but the main reason is to look super official and like you really know what you’re doing while using the app.
Not actually minutes
The numbers under each bus represent the amount of time before the next bus comes your way. These minutes aren’t actually real minutes, though — 10 minutes could easily turn into 25, and "three minutes" probably means the bus is already there and “now” probably means the bus is turning at the end of the street. So be mindful of “minutes” or suggested run times, because when you’re running late and minutes are varying, it just turns into a terrible situation.
Alternatives are cool too
If you’re not a big NextBus person, but you still want to know some information about buses and run times, there is an alternative app called Chapel Hill Transit. It works similarly to NextBus, and can definitely get you where you need to go efficiently.
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