OTR Line collects, posts wait times at popular downtown restaurants

Scott Miller doesn’t like waiting in lines. Not for his driver’s license. Not at the doctor’s office. And not for a meal at one of his favorite restaurants in Over the Rhine. So Miller and fellow software geek Scott Avera designed a new mobile app to leverage the power of crowd-sourcing and help diners get a real-time sense of the minutes they could spend waiting for tables in the city’s popular urban restaurant scene. After calling OTR restaurants hourly for weeks to gather preliminary wait-time data, OTR Line launced last Friday to the public in both Apple and Android versions. It's a simple, streamlined app that offers information and a process for gathering in put in clear, easy-to-follow formats. “The app calculates average wait times based upon history,” explains Miller, who grew up in Anderson Township and now lives in Blue Ash. “But we really want people to report. As people report wait times, the app gets better. The more input you get, the better predictability.” Avera, a Springboro native who now lives in Hyde Park, brings his experience as former owner of Ascent Solutions to the new business venture.  “We have been software entrepreneurs all of our lives,” says Miller, 52.  The key to OTR Line’s success lies in users’ willingness to log wait times, he says.  The app allows users to scroll through a list of eateries and compare wait times, and it also offers space for restaurants to place ads. “The restaurant will get to play the game as well,” he says. Miller and Avera plan to approach restaurateurs with OTR Line window stickers later this week; the free app is available for download now. By Elissa Yancey Follow Elissa on Twitter.