Mybus SMS System Map

Posted on by Adam Bejan Parast

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

Over the last few days I have been working on creating this map for my independent study. What I tried to do is combine a simplified system map with the Mybus SMS service.

Test Map

I realized through my studies that transit information consist of spatial and temporal information. Thus you have a route map to show where the bus goes and you have a table to show when the bus will be there. Subway systems essentially eliminate the need to know temporal information because they come so often. This allows them to simply focus on the spatial aspect of the transit system which is much easier to understand. That is why everyone loves subway maps. Using Mybus SMS I’m able to do the same thing.

This map only covers downtown, capitol hill and the u district but if I get a good reaction I will make a city wide map. Please let me know what you think.

Crosscut is Confused (again)

Posted on by Andrew Smith
Cool photo, photographer unknown.

So here, Lisa Albers at Crosscut is accusing Sound Transit of “push-polling” with the survey they are asking people to take. Mrs Albers is way off-base. It’s just a survey, not a poll, and they are not likely to use the information for anything but getting an idea of what sort of proposals to put on the ballot and when.

I think it’s odd that when it when Sound Transit seeks public feedback about it’s proposals, they are accused of push-polling, while King County can sneak in $1.1 billion for foot ferries with nary a public comment?

I appreciate agencies seeking public outreach. What do you think?

Bus Tracker On The Fritz?

Posted on by Andrew Smith


STB reader Brian brought to our attention problems that have surfaced with KC Metro’s bus tracker:

Ever since the MetroKC Bus Service Revisions on Feb. 9, the online Bus Location Tracker service has been on the fritz. Specifically, the route names that tell you the destination of a bus are no longer listed. At busy stops, this makes it tricky if not impossible to tell which direction a bus is headed. For example, for the UW Hub stop, the destination for all buses is listed as North Seattle, regardless of whether they are headed for Ballard, Lake City, or the U-District. This is a recurring bug that seems to happen with every service revision and is a major hassle for those of us who rely on the otherwise indispensable location tracker. Nobody likes waiting in the rain for a bus that’s running late; the tracker solves that problem and removes one more barrier to taking mass transit.

Wow, yikes, with no way to tell whether the bus is going toward or away from your destination, that tool becomes pretty much useless. The problem seems to be with the NextBus system KCM is using, so it surfaces not just with KCM’s own tracker, but with third party trackers like MyBus as well.

I’ve put in some calls to people in KCM, hopefully we’ll hear back good news about this.

On a small break

Posted on by Brian Bundridge

Those curious, been really busy with work and haven’t had time to respond to e-mail or phone calls. thanks for all of the notes though and I’ll be back on Sunday with a bunch of news.

In the meantime, visit some of the blogs located to the Right of my blog.

Have a great weekend!