Author Archive
Saturday, November 10th, 2007
Idea: More memorable route names
Steve Offut over at CommuterPageBlog posted about how transit systems could benefit from more memorable route names:
I’ll bet you there isn’t a single rider who can explain why those buses are called #2, why there are 6 different ones, why those particular letters of the alphabet are used, and why the 2W and 2T are [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Ideas, Signage by Joe Hughes
Saturday, November 10th, 2007
Vancouver
Last week I embarked on a whirlwind tour of Vancouver to help announce the the addition of TransLink routing to Google Maps. It was fun to get a chance to see the town for the first time (on Halloween night no less—the apparent Canadian tradition of setting off small fireworks on that night made [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Events, Google Transit, Vancouver by Joe Hughes
Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007
Google Maps now provides transit directions
Big news today: transit routing is now available side-by-side with driving directions on Google Maps! Here’s how it works: whenever you do a driving directions search on Google Maps in an area where Google has transit routing information, a “Take Public Transit” link appears at the top:
Clicking on that link allows you to see [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Google Transit, Maps by Joe Hughes
Wednesday, August 1st, 2007
TriMet’s Transit Developer Resources
Last month, Portland, Oregon’s TriMet agency became one of the first transit agencies to open a dedicated site for third-party users of their data. This site (along with BART’s GTFS page) marks a milestone for the transit field, demonstrating that agencies are starting to understand the benefits of sharing their data with outside developers.
To [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in Data Sharing, Google Transit Feed Spec, Portland, Realtime by Joe Hughes
Monday, July 30th, 2007
Art in Transit
I’ve been meaning to interview my friend Anukul (the voice of buskarma these days) about his involvement in Pittsburgh’s Art in Transit program, but it seems that WQED has saved me the trouble:
Art in Transit is a program that turns Port Authority transit vehicles into mobile galleries by filling unused ad placard space inside buses [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Pittsburgh, Signage, Surroundings by Joe Hughes
Sunday, July 29th, 2007
Visualizing Walkability
When I first read Jane Jacobs’s seminal book The Death and Life of Great American Cities, this passage resonated with me:
Being a structural system in its own right, a city can best be understood straightforwardly in its own terms, rather than in terms of some other kinds of organisms or objects. However, if the [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Maps, Metrics, San Francisco by Joe Hughes
Monday, July 16th, 2007
Guerrilla Signage
Since we’ve been chatting about the iPhone enough recently, let’s look at some low-tech solutions. How about plain old paper?
A new site called SeptaMadeBetter.org is encouraging riders to print out their own signage and post it on bus stops and rail stations.
This is a great idea: if you can adopt a highway, why not [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Activism, Maps, Signage by Joe Hughes
Sunday, July 15th, 2007
Realtime Muni information for the iPhone
It’s been a couple weeks since my last post about transit and the iPhone, and we’re starting to see some iPhone-optimized transit information.
Turncolor, a software startup, has created MuniTime, a pretty iPhone widget that counts down the time to the next bus or train arrival at a particular stop. MuniTime currently supports San Francisco [...]
8 Comments » - Posted in Mobile, Portland, Realtime, San Francisco by Joe Hughes
Sunday, July 1st, 2007
The iPhone is good for transit
The topic du jour in the geek press is the iPhone, and I can confirm that it is indeed the bees’ knees. I found it interesting that two different online commentators saw fit to point out today that the iPhone is a great way to pass time on public transportation. First, here’s author [...]
3 Comments » - Posted in Mobile by Joe Hughes
Monday, June 25th, 2007
Better Service vs. Better Information
The Sick Transit Chicago blog asks: can good realtime information trump short headways? I suspect that there’s a tipping point for headways—if the bus or train comes every 10-15 minutes (or better), riders can feel comfortable just showing up at the station, confident that they won’t have to wait too long. If the [...]