PSA: The MARTA app trick for saving 20 minutes on your commute

I was stuck at the Five Points station last Tuesday waiting for a train that was delayed by 15 minutes. I tried using the MARTA app to check real-time arrivals but it kept showing the scheduled times instead. Then I noticed if you tap the little "Next Train" icon twice, it pulls up the actual GPS tracking instead of the schedule. Now I check that before I even leave my apartment near Inman Park and I haven't waited more than 3 minutes since. Has anyone else found this workaround helpful or am I late to the game?

3 comments

3 Comments

lee.drew1d ago

oh man, you're close but i gotta jump in here because that's actually not exactly how it works lol. the double tap thing doesn't pull the GPS tracking, it just refreshes the schedule data from the same system. what actually happens is the app has two different modes - one for the static schedule and one for live data. you have to swipe over on the bottom tab to see the real time tracker. i found this out the hard way after telling like 5 friends about the double tap trick and then looking like an idiot when it failed. but the app is definitely useful once you figure out the right method, no doubt about that. the live tracking usually loads pretty fast at Inman Park station in my experience, better than some of the other stops.

davis.ruby1d ago

That double tap thing is exactly what tripped up my friend Sarah last week lol. She was standing at Five Points station telling me she had it all figured out, double tapping like crazy and the train was supposedly coming in 2 minutes. Then she looks up and sees it pulling away from the platform across the track. I felt so bad, but yeah @lee.drew is totally right about the swipe method. She finally got the live tracker loaded after I showed her, but by then she had already missed her train and had to wait 20 more minutes for the next one. That bottom tab thing is a game changer once you know about it though.

emmag2210h ago

That double tap versus swipe thing is actually such a perfect example of how apps these days hide features in plain sight. It reminds me of how people will stand at a crosswalk pushing the button over and over thinking it makes the light change faster, but really it just confirms the signal already knows you're there. Same energy as shaking your phone for undo, half the people don't even know that exists. We're all just out here mashing buttons hoping something happens when the real trick is usually something way simpler.