Today something very strange happened. I was waiting for a BM3 express bus. The bus appeared to be coming according to BusTime (was supposedly two stops away), then disappeared and NEVER came though it was scheduled to come. If it did come then it had to come early before I arrived at the stop, even though I arrived before the bus was due. Anywho, that same bus reappeared, but only when it reached the last stop in Sheepshead Bay some time later. I decided to track that bus going back to Midtown since my commute was royally ****** by missing that bus just to see if any games were going on. Going back to Midtown, the exact same thing happened. Bus appeared on BusTime at the first few stops, then disappeared and never appeared. I've noticed that with some drivers, no matter what bus they have, their bus NEVER appears on BusTime, which I don't think is a coincidence. That leads me to wonder how "tamper proof" is BusTime? I know that for example, if a B/O doesn't put in the correct sign up code, they can be a ghost on BusTime, but surely there must be other ways that a bus can be a ghost (aside from the tracking device malfunctioning). I also wonder then if BusTime isn't that secure in terms of being tampered with, surely BusTrek can't be any better no? Speaking of BusTrek, did they ever finish with that program and implement it?
In dealing with the BusTime team when BusTime first debuted, it seems as if they have a way of seeing where the bus really was, even if it was missing on BusTime, or at least figuring out what happened (i.e. tracking device malfunctioned, vs someone tampering with the device).