Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings
Posted: January 22nd, 2016, 5:40 pm
So am I crazy, or should a bus that is 4 minutes early wait? Had to chase one downtown that I thought I'd easily make.
Architecture, Development, and Infrastructure of the Twin Cities
https://urbanmsp.com/
I've seen these along white bear avenue, and they're nice. Especially compared to the "this is a bus stop" signs that preceded them.Efforts to build bus ridership will continue in 2016. Initiatives include new the opening of the region’s first arterial Bus Rapid Transit Line, the A Line, new bus stop signs with more information, more waiting shelters and a new mobile app.
Don't think so. At least I haven't gotten any emails from them with an announcement.Have they revealed the opening date for the A Line yet? Or even the opening month?
Since Metro Transit already has a mobile website that works well, what does an app gain them besides doubling or tripling their mobile technology maintenance workload? If it was going to allow NFC payments, that would be one thing, but as I understand it, the Go-To readers use a nonstandard NFC implementation that won't allow for that.Metro Transit is developing an app to enhance trip planning capabilities and getting real-time departure information for those on mobile devices.
I would say the June service change is a good bet. In the Work Plan posted above, there are 2 items listed in May:Have they revealed the opening date for the A Line yet? Or even the opening month?
It gains them the same thing that 90% of app providers gain from their app over a web site: the ability to say, "we have an app". I'm always surprised how eager people are to install an app, which takes up storage, memory, and CPU on your phone and can potentially expose all sorts of private information about you, for tasks that can be done within a browser. Thank Apple, whose "there's an app for that" ad series convinced people that having an app is somehow better. I'm sure Metro Transit is doing what some highly-paid consultants suggested, and to be fair, what much of their clientele demanded.Since Metro Transit already has a mobile website that works well, what does an app gain them besides doubling or tripling their mobile technology maintenance workload? If it was going to allow NFC payments, that would be one thing, but as I understand it, the Go-To readers use a nonstandard NFC implementation that won't allow for that.Metro Transit is developing an app to enhance trip planning capabilities and getting real-time departure information for those on mobile devices.
It depends. HTML/CSS is not a particularly efficient way to transmit information. With an app they could potentially reduce their server bandwidth requirements quite a bit.[Sorry, that was ranty. It's a peeve of mine because the proliferation of apps has forced our phones to do ever more work to accomplish the same tasks they did seven years ago.
It's called Tapatalk.When are we getting an app for this forum?
I use Google Map's transit interface most of the time as well. I also enjoy this app too though:I feel like Google Map's transit interface has gotten better and better, to the point that using any other app or mobile website simply doesn't make any sense.
I use this one as well, for the same reasons.I use Google Map's transit interface most of the time as well. I also enjoy this app as well though:I feel like Google Map's transit interface has gotten better and better, to the point that using any other app or mobile website simply doesn't make any sense.
http://transitapp.com
It has a few features Goodle Maps doesn't:
I had thought for the longest time that the bus icon was based on buses transmitting their GPS coordinates, but lately it's been nowhere close to accurate so I'm thinking maybe the bus icon is based on the published time schedule. Or, perhaps the published scheduled is used when GPS isn't available on the bus for whatever reason and I've been getting buses with issues. In any case, it's still a nice feature.
- Reminders/Notifications
Per-route departure times for entire day
Access to all route maps in the system
A little bus icon on map indicating where the bus is
This to me would be the best feature of any transit application. The closer to downtown you hop onto an inbound bus, the less accurate the published time schedule becomes. Accurate real-time bus GPS data would allow minimum time standing out in the cold.......
I had thought for the longest time that the bus icon was based on buses transmitting their GPS coordinates, but lately it's been nowhere close to accurate so I'm thinking maybe the bus icon is based on the published time schedule. Or, perhaps the published scheduled is used when GPS isn't available on the bus for whatever reason and I've been getting buses with issues. In any case, it's still a nice feature.
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I have no idea what the map bus icon is based on. I don't use it that much.
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The real-time information is also listed on the "list of routes at this station" page. I just don't use the actual map much.This to me would be the best feature of any transit application. The closer to downtown you hop onto an inbound bus, the less accurate the published time schedule becomes. Accurate real-time bus GPS data would allow minimum time standing out in the cold.......
I had thought for the longest time that the bus icon was based on buses transmitting their GPS coordinates, but lately it's been nowhere close to accurate so I'm thinking maybe the bus icon is based on the published time schedule. Or, perhaps the published scheduled is used when GPS isn't available on the bus for whatever reason and I've been getting buses with issues. In any case, it's still a nice feature.
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I have no idea what the map bus icon is based on. I don't use it that much.
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