4 ms·

Show HN: Visualizing transit delays in real time for SF MUNI

58 points by bdon 13y ago

Groxx 13y ago
Neat - I'll have to read on how you did this, I'd love to incorporate it in a transit site/app somehow :) There are some oddities, though - what does this mean? http://cl.ly/image/2p0b2c1H2l1X http://cl.ly/image/2p0b2c1H2l1X
- bdon 13y ago
  The direction (inbound/outbound) comes from NextBus data and is frequently erroneous, so in that case a train traveling outbound is shown with the inbound vehicles. The position above the last stop is because MUNI vehicles have significant extra track beyond the 4th/King stop that they use to wait and turn around.
  - Groxx 13y ago
    Oh, of course - I forgot I didn't click the outbound box. After seeing that it's pretty clear :)
toki5 13y ago
Oh my gosh that logo is unbelievably distracting! Especially when opening a page that "does ____ in real time" -- I spent way longer than I should have thinking "what is this logo doing and what does it have to do with the rest of the page ..." Once I got over that, very cool site :)
- bdon 13y ago
  Haha, point taken. I should really disable that on all sub-pages...
- Groxx 13y ago
  I couldn't figure out what you were talking about until I tried the site in Chrome xD fwiw it's just a solid gray in the latest Firefox nightly. No idea if that's by design / site bug / FF bug.
stereo 13y ago
Have you tried using different colours to make it easier to distinguish inbound and outbound, like this? http://www.opentrack.ch/opentrack/downloads/otTrainGraph.pdf http://www.opentrack.ch/opentrack/downloads/otTrainGraph.pdf I suppose you could even set the colour dynamically along the track, and set the hue based on how late the train is.
annymsMthd 13y ago
It looks alot like something I did for my last job. Comparing schedules to actual transit bus performance. It's really neat stuff when you start digging into distance/time. http://imgur.com/gmN3EfS http://imgur.com/gmN3EfS
drewblaisdell 13y ago
Very nice. This uses the same type of visualization as the train schedule in Edward Tufte's Envisioning Information: http://www.c82.net/images/java-railroad-lg.jpg http://www.c82.net/images/java-railroad-lg.jpg
- bdon 13y ago
  I haven't seen that one before, neat! The one featured in the first Tufte book is E.J. Marey's schedule: http://mbostock.github.io/protovis/ex/marey-train-schedule.jpg http://mbostock.github.io/protovis/ex/marey-train-schedule.j... (as linked from http://mbostock.github.io/protovis/ex/caltrain.html http://mbostock.github.io/protovis/ex/caltrain.html)
gojomo 13y ago
Very cool! I live a couple blocks from the N, take it downtown all the time. Random look/interface ideas to consider if you continue to tweak, no particular order: • different colors for inbound/outbound • different colors or line thicknesses for when the slope is/is-not on 'ideal' schedule • suppress interior (scroll-wheel) scroll-event capturing: slow and unintuitive on its scaling/shifting effect • always show +/- 3 stops slopes extending from current vehicle positions ('prediction'/vs-ideal) • allow selection of stop; decorate arriving vehicles with estimated arrival times (either as numbers or line-extrapolations) • suppress refresh countdown - distracting, uncancellable, so doesn't add much • when selecting (or even hovering) over one path/vehicle/stop, and thus showing more info for it, dim all others

58 points by bdon 13y ago

Groxx 13y ago

Neat - I'll have to read on how you did this, I'd love to incorporate it in a transit site/app somehow :) There are some oddities, though - what does this mean? http://cl.ly/image/2p0b2c1H2l1X http://cl.ly/image/2p0b2c1H2l1X

bdon 13y ago
The direction (inbound/outbound) comes from NextBus data and is frequently erroneous, so in that case a train traveling outbound is shown with the inbound vehicles. The position above the last stop is because MUNI vehicles have significant extra track beyond the 4th/King stop that they use to wait and turn around.
- Groxx 13y ago
  Oh, of course - I forgot I didn't click the outbound box. After seeing that it's pretty clear :)

toki5 13y ago

Oh my gosh that logo is unbelievably distracting! Especially when opening a page that "does ____ in real time" -- I spent way longer than I should have thinking "what is this logo doing and what does it have to do with the rest of the page ..." Once I got over that, very cool site :)

bdon 13y ago
Haha, point taken. I should really disable that on all sub-pages...
Groxx 13y ago
I couldn't figure out what you were talking about until I tried the site in Chrome xD fwiw it's just a solid gray in the latest Firefox nightly. No idea if that's by design / site bug / FF bug.

stereo 13y ago

Have you tried using different colours to make it easier to distinguish inbound and outbound, like this? http://www.opentrack.ch/opentrack/downloads/otTrainGraph.pdf http://www.opentrack.ch/opentrack/downloads/otTrainGraph.pdf I suppose you could even set the colour dynamically along the track, and set the hue based on how late the train is.

annymsMthd 13y ago

It looks alot like something I did for my last job. Comparing schedules to actual transit bus performance. It's really neat stuff when you start digging into distance/time. http://imgur.com/gmN3EfS http://imgur.com/gmN3EfS

drewblaisdell 13y ago

Very nice. This uses the same type of visualization as the train schedule in Edward Tufte's Envisioning Information: http://www.c82.net/images/java-railroad-lg.jpg http://www.c82.net/images/java-railroad-lg.jpg

bdon 13y ago
I haven't seen that one before, neat! The one featured in the first Tufte book is E.J. Marey's schedule: http://mbostock.github.io/protovis/ex/marey-train-schedule.jpg http://mbostock.github.io/protovis/ex/marey-train-schedule.j... (as linked from http://mbostock.github.io/protovis/ex/caltrain.html http://mbostock.github.io/protovis/ex/caltrain.html)

gojomo 13y ago

Very cool! I live a couple blocks from the N, take it downtown all the time. Random look/interface ideas to consider if you continue to tweak, no particular order: • different colors for inbound/outbound • different colors or line thicknesses for when the slope is/is-not on 'ideal' schedule • suppress interior (scroll-wheel) scroll-event capturing: slow and unintuitive on its scaling/shifting effect • always show +/- 3 stops slopes extending from current vehicle positions ('prediction'/vs-ideal) • allow selection of stop; decorate arriving vehicles with estimated arrival times (either as numbers or line-extrapolations) • suppress refresh countdown - distracting, uncancellable, so doesn't add much • when selecting (or even hovering) over one path/vehicle/stop, and thus showing more info for it, dim all others