You can now see how crowded your bus is before you board thanks to a new feature in the Transit app. In our latest effort to help keep our community safe during the COVID-19 pandemic, this feature will help riders make informed decisions about trip planning and social distancing.

So how does it work? When you tap your route line in the Transit app, you will see a map showing the live locations of transit vehicles along their route. The vehicle icon displays the last update of the vehicle’s location as well as its current crowding level, listed as “many seats,” “some seats,” or “very limited seats.”

Crowding levels are calculated using our current onboard capacity restrictions for COVID-19, providing riders with access to an accurate indication of crowding on a given bus. When a vehicle’s occupancy is below 50 percent of the COVID-19 capacity, it is classified in the app as “many seats.” Vehicles that are occupied between 50 and 90 percent of the COVID-19 capacity appear as having “some seats,” and buses occupied above 90 percent of the COVID-19 capacity are shown as “very limited seats.”

You can also help us know how crowded you perceive a bus to be by using Transit’s “GO” step-by-step navigator. These crowdsourced reports, when compared against crowding data from the RTC, provide important insights into how you are feeling about crowding levels onboard.

The Transit app is free to download on iPhones and Androids, and remember, you can purchase bus passes directly from the Transit app, or via the rideRTC app.

For the latest COVID-19 safety efforts and information, visit rtcsnv.com/coronavirus.