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Build Your Own LCD Bus Schedule
MikeLRoy writes "An engineering student in Winnipeg, tired of missing his bus to school (and waiting in the cold) created an LCD bus stop. It displays the next bus times for several stops and routes, all from the heated comfort of his kitchen. And yes, there are pics and code on the site."
why, back in my day, we didnt have all these new fangled computer bus scheduler thingies. we had to work out the algorithm in our heads in the snow uphill going both ways....kids these days......
xao
xao
http://TheHillforum.hopto.org
I hope he doesn't have class tonight, or else his clock is going to be running a bit slow, thanks to the Slashdotting... :)
"Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
What I'd like to know is why an engineering student is still worried about missing a bus to school..
should be:
http://members.shaw.ca/rosensto/bus/bus.pl
I'm sure he needs more time to look at pr0n, so that's why he actually built the LCD.
Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
What happened to either 1) looking the routes online, or 2) grabbing the routes from the library? Was this guy just going out to bus stops at random, hoping he got there at the right time? What was so hard about viewing the paper schedule?
And how is he gonna use this thing he made when he's AWAY from home? Come home?
Can't this guy read a bus schedule?
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
And to think I would have just written down the schedule on a piece of paper (total cost < 1 cent)
I have to say... this is one of the more clever "Remote Screen" hacks I've seen. Unlike digitized foosball tables or automatic drink mixing machine, it doesn't require any large investments in hardware, just a simple text LCD. And it actually looks kinda useful. Unfortunetly, NJTransit only makes schedules available in PDF, but... it's a cute idea.
On another note, my school (Rutgers) has a site called www.whereismybus.com (appears to be down at the moment), which uses a java applet to track buses in real-time. Only problem-- none of the bus terminals are within range of access points, and it takes a year to load (major java-bloat, methinks), but an interesting idea nonetheless.
-- Is "Sig" copyrighted by www.sig.com?
[Singing loudly]
:)
EVERY MORNING I WOULD SEE HER WAITING AT THE STOP!
Sometimes she'd shop and she would show me what she bought!
[/Singing loudly]
AHEM. Sorry... got carried away there.
Transfer. Or better yet, just hang out nearby.
He didn't appear to have the script on his site, though.
Waddaya mean, "be a grad student my hole life"? He's an undergraduate freshman. And if you want to skip school and jump into the job market as a tester, that's all fine and good, but if you did it for the money (as your post indicates) it wasn't such a good move. Ten years from now, this guy's probably going to be making at least twice your salary.
Downmodding is the refuge of the weak. Don't downmod, make a better argument!
"my perl coding abalilities are far from perfect, so..."
Just yur purl coeding abalilities?
Nice idea, but since, as we all know, bus timetables are a major work of fiction, I'm unsure how much waiting in the snow this is actually going to save him. :-)
I dunno. Around my parts, the only time a bus is on schedule is when they leave the depot. They easily get ahead of or fall behind schedule due to traffic conditions and how many people want to get on/off at different stops. Not to mention how many old ladies need the bus to "kneel" for them so they can reach the step.
something tells me he's still gonna end up being in the cold for a few minutes.
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
Sorry but i'd rather stay on my own software testing track and have enough $ to buy my own car.
Sure i work for MSFT but at least i can afford to drive a car, take girls out to eat, and go to the casinoes.
Don't mean to be discrimenatorie but it's just how i feel. I'd rather spend time working towards a nice professional job that my kid will look up to than being a grad student (TA) my hole life.
Uh-huh. I can see it now...
"Geeez dad, please don't wear that Microsoft shirt when you pick me up from school. And I think I'll find somebody literate to help with my spelling...."
Never, ever lose a file again. Ever.
In England we have a lot of this technology already.
(Amazingly, too, English people seem convinced their country is heading backwards at full speed towards the ice age, but that's another story.)
In central London all the bus stops contain LED displays showihng how long you'll have to wait for each bus. Likewise, on the tube (underground, subway) their are simialr displays. Normally they say things like "Baker Street 3minutes; Chancery Lane you'll be lucky" but hey...
There are companies like Kizoom (sp?) that offer these same services over WAP so you can make sure that when you leave your home/office then you *will* make your bus, metro, etc.
--- My dad's political betting
Some observations:
Plans are afoot for the following: audio repeater, large Countdown signs at bus stations, hand-held Countdown terminals for operations staff and a central real-time travel information desk
Loads of info
Nice image - Nice image
blurb
http://milkshake.dexy.org
Sure i work for MSFT but at least i can afford to drive a car, take girls out to eat, and go to the casinoes.
So I guess that's what it's all about then...
... hehe... just watching the counter jumping in fits of 10s and 20s per second is amusing me for some reason... :)
How is this better than just putting the bus time table into a palm held computer which could sync just as frequently? The Brisbane City Council Bus Service trialed electronic signs at bus stops over five years ago. They were very cool because not only did they tell you when the next bus was meant to arrive for each route it also told you if the bus was running late. Not sure what the status is nowadays but I'm guessing they were too expensive to put on every bus stop.
Its not mindless promotion of anything. It just so happens that he used Linux, because he had an old computer and it was better suited for the task, especially since he would either have to pay for a copy of windows or be pirating it, all for a bus schedule.
And moderator, feel free to mod the parent down.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
that he put into the LCD and everything else in the project, he could have worked and bought a car. Sure, there's the geeky challenge of it all, but just as you don't win friends with salad, you don't get chicks by riding the bus.
quite, possibly, like my self, he has a car but chooses to take the bus becasue:
sure i don't get chicks while riding the bus, but who wants a chick that is that shallow?
remember, one person can't fix the world alone, but one can ruin it for all
A lot of replies are why does he need this not a written bus schedule. Well snow and winter tend to disrupt thing up here. The bus does not always run to the exact minute that they obviously do in New York Or London. At times in Ottawa (and Winnipeg) they may be as much as 5 minutes late. With the weather we have that's a hell of long time
Semper ubi sub ubi
Hmm. I don't really have spare phone lines, but I do run thin ethernet to the burglar alarm (Linux) PC in the front hall. Maybe I'll whip up one for that. Most of the time the 25 Don Mills is often enough that it doesn't matter, but the 25D to Markham doesn't run as often, and only during rush times. And there's a trade off with the 100.
Hmm. What I really need is an estimated trip time to x, and the text-to-speech card nagging me with a "You're going to be late!" alarm.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
It's Sunday in the North America.
--
the strongest word is still the word "free"
What I want to know is where I can get one of those large electronic destination signs that they have on the bus. Cheap of course. :-)
ust so you know, the original poster posts for exactly this kind of response. We'd all be better off if we just realized that he's a fucktard and ignored him.
;->
after following the full thread, ic what you mean.
I had actually read the article, and figured that he had too. Obviously, this was stupid of me to expect people to actually read the article before commenting. stupid me.
someone mod me down, i deserve it
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
My local bus stop, where I wait for the bus every morning also has a large LCD screen. On the screen you can see arrival times for every bus tha comes to that stop. Also on the sign, is a small antenna which communicates with the bus. Only only for figuring out where the bus are so it can calulate the time and delays, but also for controls for the traffic lights so the bus will encounter less red lights.
my sig
If he's using perl couldn't he just as easily use the LWP::UserAgent module (part of libwww-perl)?
use LWP::UserAgent;
my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new;
my $source = $ua->get("http://slashdot.org")->content;
Things you think are in the Constitution, but are not.
Its a nice article, but is the link to Winnipeg Transit really necessary?
So was this LCD display for a serial bus, or parellel?
With the way inflation is, I wouldn't be surprised.
[John]
Shit better not happen!
I find it very interesting that this guy accually created this thing. And, I Never knew that phone cables had four minicables. What I want to know is 1:Why did he create this thing as an attachment for LCDproc . Why not standalone? (unless he didn't know how too, In wich case I understand). and 2: Why only for Linux/BSD? Oh yeah. LCDproc only works on Linux and BSD. But why not write a windows version? But why not write a windows version? Anyways, good job to him.
A lot of bus companies nowadays have their schedule avaliable in this newfangled fomat called a paper brochure. Not only does it work anywhere, but you don't even need electricity. Additionally, these marvelous contraptions have a more verbose version of the scedule then the LCD bus schedule display.
The bus hub upstream from my house is here.
It tells whether a bus is on time, late, or already departed, refreshing once per minute.
This lets me read one more /. posting before heading to the bus stop.
No electrons were harmed creating this post, though some may have been subjected to electrical and/or magnetic fields.
Oh yeah - you used fucktard!! I'll assume you read jwz's rant a few weeks ago
I am not an electrician! Dont do this unless you know what you're doing! You can get electrocuted by phone lines!! Unless things are a lot different in Canada you cannot get electrocuted by a phone line. Electric line yes, but not a phone line.
why engineering students don't get laid...
-- Good judgement comes with experience. -- Experience comes with bad judgement.
This is a great idea. Now if only you could get the bus drivers to be on time...
I swear Strathcona County [Rural Edmonton] Transit drivers make a point of being 3-5 minutes early, just to thwart people who adhere to schedules.
0110100100100000011000010110110100100000011000100
...the bus company hits him with a DMCA violation? I mean surely the timings of their buses are sensitive and copyrighted material!
"In mathematics, it's not enough to read the words -- you have to hear the music"
Because he wants to have more attention to his handheld/wearable?
Luke-Jr
Cool, but if he'd just clean off the crap from his 'fridge, he could have just posted a schedule saving himself the effort and from having to patch the wall when it was time to vacate the house! ;-)
They just started something like this at princeton for the grad students, the new bus route which goes between the grad students appartments has a system designed by an undergrad and his prof to transmit real time gps information inorder to generate up to the minute schedules. There's more information here: http://www.princeton.edu/pr/home/hmcap.html
--aiee
... and you also write long-winding prose. You also attending a law school? :-)
(Btw, I agree; bicycles are great, inexpensive and a fantastic solution to buses, cars, motorbikes and the ilk)
More than mere navel gazing.
part of the prob is i never saw the real FIRST post. i use the 'troll blacklist is my friend' and he is a foe of my friend, so -6 points trick.
/. where you can see all the -1 posts. scary to think that some of those people will breed.
it appears, it has its drawbacks. on MY screen, it looked the guy who i was answering was replying directly to the article, thus trashing the guy who did the schedule thingy in linux. the original wasnt just artificially modded down, it wasnt visible at all. i had to set it so all posts were visible to see it. confused yet? me too.
That, or it could be that I havn't been stoned in days. Oh, and I dont recommend viewing
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
... this device could actually make the buses stick to the schedule! =P
"Yeah, well, Dracula called and he's coming over tonight for you and I said okay."
...to tape the bus schedule to the refrigerator door?
I'd be more impressed if he built a robot that poked him with a sharp stick 5 minutes before the bus got there.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
in the real world the bus schedules are like project time lines. Some jackass in management came up with them, they're unrealisitic, and are never achived. Whats worse is RTA (here in Cleveland) half the time DOESN'T EVEN STOP! They run so late that they can't fit any more bodies on the bus and blow by stops!
when they ban enctryption only criminals wi$21*J *#JF$%!@#$':
Wouldnt it have been more accessable near his computer, instead of in the kitchen? I mean, that would actually require some walking ;)
Where I post game reviews, my PSP backgrounds, podca
You haven't ever been to winnipeg have you?
1) It's cold. Damn cold at this time of year. Being warm is cheaper than suffering frostbite.
2) Spring time the potholes or sinkholes will swallow you up and you'll never be seen again.
3) Summer time, the mosquitoes will carry you off and suck you dry
4) You spend the rest of the time in fear of nature... you want to dare it in fall?
I wonder if winnipeg is over-represented on slashdot, i am too from the peg and am also severely disappointed with late buses to/from univ. Like last Friday, for instance. Grrr...
Unless things are a lot different in Canada you cannot get electrocuted by a phone line. Electric line yes, but not a phone line.
I laughed at the electrocuted part myself. No, not even in Canada will the phone line kill you...
But, you can get one hell of a headache:
I was helping a friend wire a new jack up for his phone. Unfortunately the jack was located under his rather large, heavy desk. After I told him how to wire it up he decided that 'Oh, that's easy! I'll do it.' So, ok, yes, it is easy, go for it. But make sure you don't touch the bare wires. It won't really harm you, but if the phone should ring it can be a tad nasty.
Sure, no problem he says and climbes under the desk. Less then a minute later I suddenly hear a gasp followed by a loud BANG... the bang of his head smashing into the top of the desk.
Seems he touched the wires and was unlucky enough to be doing so when it rang. The sensation surprised him so badly he attemped to leap backwards - hard to do when crouched under a desk. I laughed so hard I could barely finish the job for him! (hey Fred, if you're reading "Hi!" :) )
"They do not preach that their god will rouse them, a little before the Nuts work loose." Kipling, 'The Sons of Martha'
Crap, would you believe Mozilla crashed on me twice while writing this reply?
I bike to university every day in Winnipeg when it's warm, but right now I need the bus. Take a look at Winnipeg's real time forecast. See that warning box? It means that with windchill, it's -37 C or F, doesn't matter which units at this close to the bottom of the scale.
Big red warning = you'll freeze your ass off. And that's why I'm not biking right now.http://sf.net/projects/tri-met-tools
stay frosty and alert
... what is the purpose of a phone jack in this project?
This could be awesome if someone turned it into a consumer product, maybe add a barcode scanner and have the bus companies hand out barcodes that can be translated to a code from the company's website, thus downloading them.... i see the possibilities now.
Next Bus based in Emeryville do something cooler, they strap GPS boxes to busses and then using that data beam the info to busstops so you the time to next bus is based on where the bus actually is as opposed to where the scedule says it should be. Very cool. You can see a live map of the SF busses here
You'll save ~ $30 per month by not taking the bus.
Ah, but there are maintanance costs and capital costs associated with commutting by bike. In addition, you can read on the bus.
Or have you ever tried to ride a bike on a snow covered road? Enough said.
They literally have artic winters that rival polar cities in the northern hemisphere due to their geography. The reason why the prairies of Canada are so cold is because its flat all the way to the north pole. There is nothing to stop artic air from sliding down south during the winter. The temperatures in Winnipeg are literally colder then Ankerage Alaska and vary only a few degree's of extreme northern canada. No shit. At least in the northeast and northwest there are mountains and ocean influences but not in that part of Canada.
How the early settlers survived? I have no idea. But its so cold that car owners remove their batteries out of their cars at night since they will be dead by morning.
Would you want to ride a bike in this? I think not.
http://saveie6.com/
To-Do:
[next release] show when the next bus leaves for "way the fuck out of Winnipeg"
When I lived in Boston there was a pizza parlor right next to a stop that had the brilliant idea of installing a camera focused on the track a few blocks away. Paying customers could stay inside, warm and dry, and see when the next train was about to arrive. On a cold, wet day it was worth a few bucks to be waiting inside eating pizza.
Long live the Speaker Bracelet
Rolo D. Monkey
But its so cold that car owners remove their batteries out of their cars at night since they will be dead by morning.
in Grand Forks, North Dakota (100 miles south of Winnepeg, give or take) we just plugged in our cars, but to each his own.
If you are considering building this yourself,
I know several people who have bought from EIO.com (his LCD supplier) and its ran by one guy, and it takes forever for him to ship.
Consider a company called "timeline" instead, a simple google will turn them up.
Buy a car!!! =P
J/K I know how much a pain it can be in cities...
For everyone out there saying this guy should take a bike, it's no big deal waiting for a bus, etc...
Let me just tell you what it's like up here in Winnipeg.
Tonight, for example, it's going down to -35C. That's damn near -35F for you yank types (ie: DAMN COLD). Cycling to work here is almost impossible, because in addition to the cold we have almost no bicycle lanes, and driving on the road is a joke - ice and snow cover the roads for 4-6 months a year.
In short, busses are absolutely essential, and seeing as how our schedules change every couple of months, staying on top of it is one big pain. Kudos to this guy for coming up with something clever!
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
Here in San Luis Obispo, California, which is basically a university town of 45,000 people, the University splits the bill with the city and corporate donors for all Cal Poly students to ride the buses for free.
;)
Now, granted, the price difference between free bus fare and maintaining a bike is very small, the buses are FREE...
I would be very surprised if this arrangement were unique to S.L.O. - any other college/university towns have the same type of deal?
"This is Zombo Com, and welcome to you who have come to Zombo Com" - www.zombo.com
i guess i have to explicitly put in a tag just so people can understand humor *sigh*
"I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
One problem. Every bus company uses a different thing. No standards exist. Currently, my local bus company allows you to view the schedules on the web, but the labels at the top are JPEGS which mean I can't parse them into a smaller table suitable for my Pocket PC. That also renders the schedules unreadable for the blind. They don't even have a alt tag or a alternate text version. PDF schedules are unsuitable because PDF on a small device sucks. I would rather just like to be able to look at the schedule on my PDA and forget the display in my kitchen.
Gorkman
Being a bus driver, I have to comment that this is a meaningless invention, displaying again the ignorance of bus riders. Bus schedules are clearly posted in almost all cases, and if you're too lazy to read you can usually just ask the bus driver what their schedule is. 95% of people who ride my bus do it between two stops, to work or class in the morning, and then back home at night. This requires the memorizing of a grand total of 2 times. If this is so difficult that you have have a need for the LCD bus schedule, maybe you should just stay home.
----
Striving to put right what once went wrong, and hoping each time that his next leap, will be the leap ho
It is Winnipeg we are talking about.
:(
:) Forgive me again!
I was trolling.
Of'course it is a nice and ripe 64 degrees Fahrenheit here in California, while Whinipeg is way down there.
Hurts to be in Winnipeg right now. Enjoy the comfort and ease a Bus offers! I've rode in busses before and they have desirable features for people who can't or simply choose not to ride a bicycle in the cold. I've always rode bikes no matter what wheather; use chains (i'm trolling again), wear comfy layered clothing (in a blizzard too), bring a thermos of hot chocolate milk (ha, I'm dreaming).
Please forgive me of my obvious troll. I suppose Canadians can't recognise humor when they see it!
*ducks and runs for cover from the yellow snowballs*
But I'm sure you already Gnu that.
shows how much I know. Then again, I ride the bus. :-)
So you live in Winnipeg, eh?
Still want to defend Winnipeg, eh?
Well Guffah! Look at this! These people in the Winnipeg Bicycle Cafe sure as cold hell aren't complaining about the cold!
But I'm sure you already Gnu that.
because it is often -20C or colder in Winnipeg.
"(and waiting in the cold)"
--
"Karma can only be portioned out by the cosmos." - Homer Simpson [1F10]
Fact:
Territories/Countries in the colder climates of North America and other cold areas, often their commercial businesses/markets sell batteries rated at more cranking amps. Reason being is it is more difficult to "start" a car in cold weather, so they just sell better batteries. This is one good reason to live in Winnipeg; I bet they sell GREAT! car batteries.
*just trying to recover some happy faces that didn't agree with my troll*
But I'm sure you already Gnu that.
I've never removed my car battery to leep it from dying. I plug my car in.
Yes, thats right, you plug the car into 110V to power a heater which keeps the oil from turning into molassis. Thats so the engine car actually start the next day.
And yes, some people do have battery warmers.
Unless you also have a battery blanket in your car.
And, Billy, I have never heard of someone pulling the battery from their vehicle on a daily basis to take it inside. To thaw it out after it's been frozen, sure. But if a battery has been frozen your next trip had better be to the parts store to get a new one.
Hmmm.. looks like it's going down to -33C tonight. Better make sure the truck is plugged in.
---
"I can't complain, but sometimes still do..." Joe Walsh
Wow, you could imagine making the LCD smaller and portable. You could even carry it in your pocket and put all sorts of useful information on it. Using a computer you could even synch to get the latest information.
... ?
One could call it a PDA.
Sure the hardware part of making one of these LCD devices probably is fun, but it's not like this was new and there wasn't dozen of people doing similar things out there. What's next, email notification on a LCD, calendar, reminders, movie schedules, temperature, mp3 player status,
I really though the bar for 'novelty' was higher than that on Slashdot.
Dumky
Sorry if my english is somewhat incorrect.
I'm in Edmonton, and i ride most of the winter. As long as your dressed nice and have STUDS, your ok. The biggest problem is the CAGERS... They'll take you out faster than you can give them the finger after a fresh snowfall. Its bloddy well dangerous out there.
As for yellow snowballs... LOL ... My Pee freezes before it hits the ground at -37
Being called a dork on Slashdot must be like being called the retard in special ed.
LOL.. I've observed bus driver behaviour from both behind their seat and in a car, and I know why they're on time. First and foremost, they're big and they know it. That helps them cut in and out of traffic. Secondly, heavy feet are common, and almost a requirement for Ontario bus drivers, it seems. Third, they work together. Ever had to make a hard left turn into a heavy stream of traffic? Imagine having something the size of a house blocking traffic flow for you. Now just ease around that corner like the road's empty.
Long and short of it, these guys drive full-sized busses like Paul Tracy drives an Indycar. I just can't imagine moving somewhere and having to deal with a bus service that, like, didn't run on time. If ever the bus was late, there was a real good reason (and no, a mere 12-18 inches of snow is seldom a good enough reason!)
The fewer cigarettes remaining in the pack, the sooner the bus arrives. :)
BD Phone Home!
Shameless plug. Like you weren't expecting it.
Wow -- has it really changed that much on the banks of the old Raritan? I guess the days of waiting for hours out on the barren tundra of Busch to catch Sunday's rare "EE" to meet your girlfriend over on Douglas are gone.
Man, you kids these days are so spoiled. When I was your age, we didn't have no new-fangled bus-trackers -- we would have to build a bus ourselves if we needed to go to a class on Cook. And we built em' outta rocks! And lint! And we'd power them with wild badgers! And we LIKED it!
Hehe, and he'll have 4 times the debt because he had to pay back all of those loans.
Most of the people I know that stayed in it for the long haul are ear deep in debt for 5 years after they are out of school. They have a fancy degree with a B in front of it and they live like the impoverished.
Chicks don't like guys with cars, they like guys with confidence.
The monitors on the Portland bus mall just display the published bus schedule... they are not updated to reflect the correct time if the bus is running late. On the other hand, what this guys seems to have done is the same thing, since it just gets the bus schedule from the local transit company's website... doubt they update it in real time. I wonder if any transit authority actually posts real time info.
I always thought those monitors were kind of silly... though I guess it saves you the trouble of looking through the whole schedule: it updates itself after each bus goes by and only shows the next couple buses.
Hey -- if I can buy a car that will get me chicks for the price of an LCD display (with backlight) and some spare phone wire and some Perl... Can I get a less petty chick for an old mouse, some burned-out RAM, and a wireless keyboard?
I'll even throw in some 8" floppies -- for the discriminating retro-tech pimp.
Keep your packets off my GNU/Girlfriend!
I rely on the bus (in addition to my feet and bike- no car) to get everywhere around town. Carrying around paper schedules was a pain, and sometimes they'd go out of date without you knowing.
Luckily, my city has all the bus schedules on line. For me, it was a simple matter of downloading the PDFs of the schedules and putting them on my PDA, which is usually a Newton 2100, but also a Jornada 720 (for research).
I've been meaning to write a small app in Squeak for Dynapad that does something similar to this hardware solution. It has all the data for the all the bus routes in town (as well as the Greyhound route I take to my parents house), and gives you available bus times out of a given location. Creating a multi-route iternerary would be pretty easy as well.
Unfortunately, I've not gotten around to this yet. The code side of it would be pretty straightforward and IMO fun to write. But the Duluth Transit Authority has opted to only have the schedules online in paper form or as PDF- which would mean I'd have to do some serious PIA data entry. It would be a pain to maintain, looking over a lot of numbers to find a couple of minor changes in bus schedule.
So, I figured I could dick aroudn with pdf2txt or pdf2html converters, parsing from there. But parsing never is fun to me, in any language, so I've kind of not bothered, just dealing with the plain old PDFs for now.
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
believe me, I work for such a stupid company . . . prints out a report so that it can be scanned as a pdf file. However, gocr is coming along . . .
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
nt
Cover your eyes and click this link!
At the end of the day, it is a real waste of time for the computer to be looking up timetables which is really where your problem originates - missing the bus is not just about being at the stop at the scheduled time. In my experience, buses can be anywhere from 5-10 minutes early or late, with little way of predicting either way.
... simply by using existing wireless data networks. Here in Sydney, Australia, all major bus routes have almost perfect access to three GSM/GPRS networks, with Vodafone at least offering a locating system on top ....
What would be useful is real-time tracking of buses and their respective positions
Now if you could access all this information via WAP/GPRS on your cell phone, you would have an inexpensive and accurate way to know whether there actually is time for another beer without missing the bus. It could also mean that you would waste less time sitting around at a bus stop with your fingers crossed.
I'm sorry if this is a bit off-topic but maybe we shouldn't cry revolution every time someone homebrews an LCD with Linux to display something.
I've never done this before, granted--but I think in Soviet Russia, the joke's:
the bus schedules you!
Yeah, that seems right. That's a keeper.
For me, it was a simple matter of downloading the PDFs of the schedules and putting them on my PDA, which is usually a Newton 2100, but also a Jornada 720 (for research).
.pdf files on the Newton?
What do you use to read
0 1 - just my two bits
In Boston, you might end up waiting at a stop for an hour, and then you'll see 3 buses coming up to the stop at the same time.
Your signature reads:
Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
Don't make fun of edlin. It's probably the last program that they released that did not present a huge security risk.
In christchurch, New Zealand, the bus stops themselves have LCD displays. And they do not display when the bus will arrive according to the schedule. The buses have GPS units to track their current location and the bus stops display the actual time the next bus will arrive based on its current location.
e alTimeInformationAtBusStopsPilotThisWeek.asp
http://www.ccc.govt.nz/MediaReleases/2002/April/R
We are not so lucky in Winnipeg as we have a 'post secondary' bus fare so $40+/month is far from free. :)
Our gas prices are not all that hot either... 76.2 cents per litre. I expect a frozen Mad Max scenario is on the horizon.
"Survival of the fittest Max, and we've got the fucking gun!" - Pi
Few more tech details here:m l
http://www.lgnz.co.nz/news/pr1024465783.ht
--It was better than TWENTY SEVEN THOUSAND, a few minutes ago.
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== WolfriderV6 == I'm willing to admit that *I just might* be wrong... Are you??
you don't get chicks by riding the bus
;)
Actually, you don't get chicks by being troll.
I hate to burst your bubble, but money doesn't make you better than anyone else. I'm 24 years old. I don't have a car. I wasn't even licensed to drive until about two months ago. During the last year, I met not one, but two very hot "chicks" while riding the bus. Course... I was (and am) already dating someone else, so they're friends.
unless you have a heated garage in North Dakota (which I confess I had) your car is not that toasty warm come morningtime. It sure cuts down on the random snow and ice, though.
Does the bus actually run to schedule? That would be the most impressive part of the whole exercise.
I dunno what kind of phone lines they have up in Winnipeg, but 'round these parts you should only see +5 VDC on your line. Now if a certain prankster wanted to CALL you while you were stipping wire for that last jack.. yeow! But It's still far from electrocution. Still common sense says uplug the wire before you do anything.. (some people are lazy) ;-)
In Christchurch New Zealand, they use a GPS system to provide realtime automated estimation of the bus arrival times at stops.
/ Re alTimeInformationAtBusStopsPilotThisWeek.asp
After a quick google i found this press release
http://www.ccc.govt.nz/MediaReleases/2002/April
But they are alawys wrong. It'll say "7 minutes" and the bus will pull up, or it'll sit there with "?? minutes" on the display. Wow, helpful. I wonder how much the whole system cost -- it looks pretty expensive!
stuff |
Rubbish. A bus will take many more passengers than 1 bus load over the full route! People get on and off all the time so your bus could carry many 100s of passengers on just 1 journey in a city.
In debt for only 5 years after they are out of school??? HAH! I should be so lucky, I owe in student loans what my parents paid for there house and I will probably be paying for the rest of my life. Middle Class Kids get the shaft when it comes to tuition costs!!
--Im an oven mitt, not an engineer! (SLArbys Radio Commercial)
(1) Looking at the routes online would take more time. Go to the computer. Boot computer if it's not already running. Call up the browser. Select the bookmark for Winnipeg transit. Wait for page to load. [versus] go to the display and push a button.
(2) Printed rountes are the planned schedule. When there is a heavy snowfall or traffic jams or an accident, printed schedules become a fantasy. The online schedule (also obtainable by phoning, but during rush hour, it can become problematic getting through.) reflects any unplanned delays and is therefore more accurate.
(3) When it is -35 degrees Centigrade, knowing the exact time the bus is coming by is a Very Important Piece of Info. (When I was in the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada, and used to go on the New Year's Day Levees in number one dress - Dress coattee and kilt - I would have given my eye teeth for a device like this.)
(4) Sure he can't use it when he's away from home. He can't use his land line phone or his computer either. And your point is???
Boy, you're so technologically sophisticated, you wimps. In my city, we don't have anything as complicated as a bus algorithm (they grow 'em smart in Winnipeg); we just have little paper thingies called "schedules."
I'm not a geek, I'm just a clever script.
Obviously not in London, ON. In London, it's practically impossible to say when the bus will get to any particular stop, save for the terminal stops on either end of the route. I've personally observed as much as a 15-minute variance on the routes I take most often, not counting delays for weather. You can be fairly sure the bus will be late during any kind of inclement weather, and early enough days otherwise to completely bollix you. London bus drivers also like to blast through three quarters of their route so they can sit at a convenient Tim Horton's for ten minutes. The general niceness scarcity in the LTC is yet another reason why I desperately want to move back to Toronto.
I'm not a geek, I'm just a clever script.
From another part of this guy's website:
It was made first in java, then i realized how useless java is after you actually write the code
5 minutes late? Try 35 minutes late. Or maybe even 60 minutes late, given the appropriate amount of snowstorm. I remember trying to get to work (London, ON) during a snowstorm, and catching a bus that I thought I would have missed, only to be informed by the driver that he was actually driving the bus that was supposed to have come through there an hour ago, and there were four more busses somewhere on the route behind him.
I could use something like that screen. Then I wouldn't always be shuffling through my 50 bus schedules, looking for the one I need (which is always the one that's gone missing).
I'm not a geek, I'm just a clever script.
Cripes!
Driving in to work this morning was like riding a cinder block...
And that was with the block heater and interior car warmer running for two and a half hours beforehand.
I mentioned this earlier but perhaps the comment got buried but NextBus does just that, straps GPS to the bus and uses that to predict when it arrives based on where the bus is and not just when the schedule says it is. Here is a realtime map of San Francisco
Good point. I hadn't thought about it quite that way. I have, however, given some thought to the risk-mitigation aspect of public transportation more from the perspective of the risk for an individual rider, rather than the total accident risk in the grand scheme of things. If the risk per mile of a bus being involved in an accident is the same as for a private automobile, then the odds of me being involved in an accident on he bus is the same as it would be if I drove my van. But for the bus, the cost of an accident is spread much thinner, and already covered by the fares and subsidies that fund the transit system. If I am in a minor non-injury accident while driving to work in my van, it will likely screw up a sizeable portion of my work day, and cost me lots of money. Of course insurance may cover most of it, but that is still a cost that I bear in the form of premiums. If I am in a minor non-injury accident while riding a bus, I can just walk away and wait for another bus. The only ill consequence for me personally is that I will be a little late for work that day. My cost for that day is the same $2 fare that I pay every day.
To me, this is one of the strongest incentives to use public transportation. Risk is one of the biggest costs of using an automobile. And it's one that people often fail to properly account for when comparing the relative cost of private vs. public transportation.
There is no direct PDF reader for the Newton. I have a PyObjC script on my Mac (which should be converted to ObjC or Squeak) that converts from PDFs to JPEGs. The Newton asks the Mac for a conversion, gets a web page filled with the images, which is savable by Newt's Cape as an ebook for later zooming and annotation.
I was doing this on the J720 as well (but from within Squeak) and still do, depending. But now I have the PocketPC Acrobat on the Jornada, thanks to some handy PPC compat libs.
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
You ... have ... no ... brain ...
BoD
Because busses in your city are never late or early, right?
If this is actually the case, please tell me which city you live in so that I may consider moving there *g*
your lucky dad.
By the time I retire we'll be out of fossil fuels and food. I'll have to sit in SUNLIGHT for DAYS just to get enough electricity to run my graphing calculator! There will be NO COFFEE!!!!
Damn old farts, don't know how good they have it.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
Most of the people I know that stayed in it for the long haul are ear deep in debt for 5 years after they are out of school. They have a fancy degree with a B in front of it and they live like the impoverished.
You may be too young to realize it now, but believe it or not, there's life beyond (end-of-school + 5 years). Do you want to spend the second half of your life living well, or just getting by? Do you want to be able to send your kids to a good school, or will they have to go to State? (Of course, in some states, this isn't necessarily so bad, but...)
And a Bachelor's degree is not "the long haul"; just ask any PhD student.
Downmodding is the refuge of the weak. Don't downmod, make a better argument!
we knew how to focus the camera!
There is no direct PDF reader for the Newton. I have a PyObjC script on my Mac (which should be converted to ObjC or Squeak) that converts from PDFs to JPEGs. The Newton asks the Mac for a conversion, gets a web page filled with the images, which is savable by Newt's Cape as an ebook for later zooming and annotation.
Eeek! That's way more work than I was going to put into this. I was hoping you just had a script that used something like pdf2txt to turn the PDF into a NewtonWorks document. Saving pictures of text seems like a roundabout way to do things.
0 1 - just my two bits
(5) Print and take with him, so as to always have a handy reference.
And your point is???
If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
I was hoping you just had a script that used something like pdf2txt to turn the PDF into a NewtonWorks document. Saving pictures of text seems like a roundabout way to do things.
: // some.com/doc.pdf
There are other ways to do it, including converting pdf2html or txt; there may be a pdf2rtf as well- all of which NewtonWorks, Notes, or Newt's Cape can read . I started with this initially, but it wasn't good. I guess it depends on the kinds of PDFs you need to read- in my case, it's a lot of journal articles scanned in by my lib and put on deserve. They're done in a hurry (up the same day the prof asks for them to be done), and they don't do OCR. In my case, I just want a big picture, an exact representation of the article I need to read.
It's roundabout, but not much work. In fact, probably less work than doing something manually with pdf2txt. I had to write the Python script yes, but past that, it's just a matter of telling my iBook where the PDF is, via apache:
http://192.168.0.1/cgi-bin/pdf2html.py?url=http
Then save in Newt's Cape, which saves as a NewtonBook. It is viewable in NetHopper and others too, but NetHopper doesn't save as an ebook.
I don't deal with the images manually- I don't have to view them manually or transfer them manually. It's pretty slick, actually.
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad