May is the Commuter Challenge in Ann Arbor. This annual program, run by the getDowntown program, encourages alternate transportation and also serves as the annual effort to measure how people get to work. (Think of it as "sweeps month" for commuting.)

I'm the designated point of contact for AnnArbor.com for this program, which means I'm going to figure out how to log my miles and encourage my coworkers to do the same. But first, I want to tip everyone off to a big secret: if you know how to do it, riding the bus in Ann Arbor is a good way to get from here to there, as long as here and there are on the same route and you have enough planning and intelligence to know when to expect the bus to arrive at your stop.

Ann Arbor Transportation Authority - "The Ride"

The AATA runs the bus system in Ann Arbor, with service to Ypsilanti, Ypsilanti Township, Pittsfield Township, Ann Arbor Township, and the far eastern edge of Scio Township.

The AATA web site has information for riders, with details of detours, service changes, route maps, fares, and notices and minutes of public meetings.

Fares just went up; they are now $1.50 full fare, $0.75 half fare for students and those whose income makes them eligible for a reduced fare. Transfers are free.

The best deal best AATA deals are for those with a go!pass, issued by participating businesses in the Ann Arbor DDA area, and University of Michigan students, faculty, and staff. Rides for those people are free, funded by programs designed to ease parking problems downtown.

Starting May 10, Washtenaw Community College students can leave the WCC campus by bus for free with ID, but they have to pay full fare to get there. This replaces a previous agreement between the community college and the bus system, which offered discounted system passes to students.

Eastern Michigan University pays the fares on Route 33 which runs seasonally to serve the Eastern campus.

The AATA system is designed as a "hub and spoke" system, with most Ann Arbor-based routes originating or terminating at the downtown Blake Transit Center and the Ypsilanti routes homed out of the downtown Ypsilanti Transit Center. This makes some trips easy, if you happen to be going where the bus goes along a route that has frequent service. It also makes some trips very difficult and slow if your origin and destination aren't on the same route and you have to detour through downtown to connect. The route system changes every season with minor modifications to routing but hasn't had a complete overhaul in recent memory.

University of Michigan bus system

The University of Michigan bus system is free. No ID is required, and there are no fares. Anyone can get on any bus, and buses board relatively fast because people get on and off on both the front and back doors, which are extra wide on most buses.

Unlike the AATA, which publishes a schedule with specific time points for specific stops, the U-M system runs its routes in continuous loop service. The published schedules say how many minutes you might expect to wait between buses but don't generally give specific times to expect them.

At peak times during the University of Michigan semester, there is a bus going between North Campus and Central Campus every few minutes. During the summertime, routes are less frequent, and some of the express routes like the Diag-to-Diag bus don't run at all.

University of Michigan bus service runs generally along a northeast to southwest corridor, connecting the University of Michigan East Medical campus in Ann Arbor Township, the new North Campus Research Center in the former Pfizer campus on the northeast side of town, North Campus, the Medical Campus, Central Campus, and the Athletic Campus.

There is work under way to build a new Central Campus Transit Center, located between the C. C. Little building and the Exhibit Museum on North University at Geddes. That $4.5 million project, approved by the Regents in February, will open this fall. Half the funds will come from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and federal transportation funds.

Route planning

The secret to riding the bus is knowing where the bus is and where it's going.

Google Transit has data for AATA route system, with a current set of its routes available for trip planning. On Google Maps, plug in your location and destination, and it will tell you when the bus is scheduled to go from here to there.

The service would be a lot more useful if the data set also included the University of Michigan buses. Often the best route around the campus area is in a big blue bus and not an AATA bus, but though there are several places where the systems interconnect, there is no systematic way to plan routes that incorporate both systems.

Google Transit knows when the buses are scheduled to go from place to place, but it doesn't know if they are running late. Sometimes it overestimates how long it takes to do a transfer, and you can take an earlier bus. Even with those limits, it's an essential part of understanding how to get around town.

Real time transit information

Both the AATA and the University of Michigan bus systems have real time transit information, which tell you where the buses are.

The AATA's bus tracking system tells you for each route where the bus is relative to its schedule. The real time tracking for the Route 5, for instance, currently shows that bus 456 to Ann Arbor has left its scheduled stop at Ellsworth & Braeburn and is 3 minutes behind schedule; it is scheduled next to be at Stone School & Eisenhower at 10:25. You have to do a little math in your head to know that it's going to be at Stone School & Eisenhower at 10:28 if it stays off-schedule as much as it is now, but buses can and do pick up and lose time between stops.

The University of Michigan's Magic Bus system tells you where all of the buses are, and when they are expected to be at all of the spots on their routes. In the line view, it tells me that the Commuter Northbound will be at Kipke and Greene (near Crisler Arena) in 5 minutes.

Shepherd Intelligent Systems, a company which is commercializing the Magic Bus system, conducted a trial of the Magic Bus technology on the AATA Route 6; that trial is complete. The AATA has announced plans to procure a real time tracking system through a competitive bid.

Who rides the bus?

Some routes are empty, and some routes are crammed full. I rode one of the Route 2 buses mid-day on a snowy day last semester, and at various points along the way I was the only person on the bus. On the other hand, my usual Route 5 bus home is full every day, with a very regular set of commuters who know each other all talking to each other genially on the way home.

It's OK for passengers to listen to music, send text messages, or even pull out their laptops or Kindles or iPads, and some do. Bus drivers are expressly prohibited from texting by a Jan. 26, 2010, ruling by U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, and truck and bus drivers who text while driving commercial vehicles may be subject to civil or criminal penalties of up to $2,750.

Edward Vielmetti rides the bus for AnnArbor.com .