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We have lots of great events coming up

CITIES, RACE AND GUN VIOLENCE | BOOK CLUB 

June 16, 6-7pm via Zoom

A discussion with award-winning New York Times bestselling author Alex Kotlowitz, whose latest book, An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago, chronicles one summer on the turbulent streets of The Windy City. “A powerful indictment of a city and a nation that have failed to protect their most vulnerable residents, or to register the depth of their pain,” wrote the New York Times.

Register here

 

JUNE 22: HOW TO BE WHERE YOUR FEET ARE | BOOK CLUB 

Tuesday, June 22, 6pm at Fitler Club Ballroom, 24 S. 24th Street

In his new book, Be Where Your Feet Are: Seven Principles to Keep You Present, Grounded, and Thriving, Scott O’Neil, one of the nation’s premier sports executives and CEO of the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils, offers his own story of grief and healing, and a roadmap for personal success in business and in life. In conversation with Larry Platt.

RSVP link coming soon

Check out our other events in the works.

Mystery Shopper: How user-friendly is SEPTA’s schedule app?

In the latest installment of our Mystery Shopper column, a local student test-drove how easy, or not, it is to navigate the city via SEPTA’s app

Mystery Shopper: How user-friendly is SEPTA’s schedule app?

In the latest installment of our Mystery Shopper column, a local student test-drove how easy, or not, it is to navigate the city via SEPTA’s app

Everyone knows that mass transit is an environmentally-friendly and cost-conscious way to get around. But it only works for people if it’s easy to navigate and get where you actually need to go. Of course, SEPTA has an app for that. But how well does it work?

We tested it to find out.

 


MORE FROM OUR MYSTERY SHOPPER ARCHIVES



Steps taken to use the SEPTA app:

  1. First, I downloaded the SEPTA app from the app store. 
  2. Upon opening it, I clicked “next- to-arrive” on the bottom of the screen. 
  3. I selected “bus” under the “next- to-arrive” header. 
  4. I entered the route I wanted to take which was “4: to Fern Rock Transportation Center.”
  5. Next, I selected the starting destination which I made “Broad St & Arch St.” 
  6. Lastly, I selected the end destination which I made “11th St & Somerville Av-FS.” 
  7. Once I had filled out all of the required information, I pressed “next to arrive,” which showed me the different buses I could take, their block numbers, and their scheduled times. The app even showed me the route I would be taking on a map, so I could visually picture where I’d be going.

Takeaways: If you have a smartphone and a basic level of app-savviness, the SEPTA app makes the process of finding a bus route super easy. Overall I spent 5 minutes (and zero dollars) filling out the information and finding a bus that would come at a time that worked for me.

Lightning Bolt Rating: ⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️

Special thanks to the students of Meg Cohen Ragas’ and Anne Gerbner’s high school journalism class at Germantown Friends School.

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