Bus riders, you know the dance. The posted arrival time (if there is one) says your bus should have arrived three minutes ago. Did you just miss it or is it running late? Is it worth the time to wait for the express or should you grab whatever comes next?

OneBusAway.org takes the guess work out of riding Seattle's transit system, with reliable real-time arrival information and multiple platforms (voice, SMS or web), that King County Metro doesn't come close to matching. I began using the SMS and mobile-web options last week (the day after the snow) and arrival information has been accurate within one minute.

My bus journeys always begin with a quarter mile hike uphill from my my house to the 75 bus stop. The line between me running late and the bus running early is too often blurred.

So I saved shortcode 41411 to my contacts as well as the stop number I use most frequently -- 9720 for the 75 to University District. (Find your unique stop number here.)  Now, instead of relying on the bus to arrive when Metro Transit's site says it will, I text onebus 9720 to 41411 and receive the next two to three arrival times for my stop -- in real, accurate time.

The SMS option is handy if you're at a stop with multiple routes. If many busses go, ultimately, where you desire, you can make the best decision based on timing -- because the next route that arrives won't always get there soonest.

Developed by University of Washington doctoral students Brian Ferris and Kari Watkins, the team has grown in the past few weeks to include a faculty sponsorship from Alan Borning, professor in the department of computer science and engineering.

The OneBusAway team has applied for a grant to pay for some of the development work with the ultimate goal of giving away the software "as close to free as possible."

"We're working on building a complete open-source transit traveler information system that would combine route maps/timetables, trip-planning, real-time tracking, and real-time service alerts ... into a user-friendly package that would be accessible across the web, phone, Twitter, whatever. Basically, (OneBusAway) to the next level," said Ferris.

One new feature would let users search for nearby establishments and their corresponding bus routes.

Even with the additional help recent press has provided, Ferris also notes there's still a ton of work to be done on the open-source platform and welcomes collaboration.

Roni Ayalla -- a student in the University of Washington's Master of Communication in Digital Media program-- is a contributor to TechFlash.