Comments on: MBTA Google Maps Experiment

By: Joe

Joe — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 16:58:35 +0000

Miran, my MBTA mashup takes its information directly from the MBTA’s “Service Around a Location” feature. I use geocoder.us for the geocoding of addresses.

By: Miran Badzak

Miran Badzak — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 14:26:10 +0000

Very nice work on the map. How did you get access to the MBTA info? I’ve looked at their trip planner and “closest stops,” but couldn’t find anything useful. I’m trying to do something very similar to what you’re doing, but just for specific addresses.

By: Joe

Joe — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 00:25:26 +0000

Thanks for the comments, eeka. Good idea about the differently-colored markers. As far as the low number of buses leaving from Dudley, I’ll look into it…

By: eeka

eeka — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 21:36:00 +0000

Hey, this is fun! Nice work.

I wonder if you might make a different-colored BWOORP pop up depending whether the stop is bus/subway/commuter? That way I don't have to click on all of them to see if a location is near a train (train stations are also better landmarks).

Also, it seems to miss a LOT of routes. Like, it seems to only show about 6 buses leaving from Dudley. It also doesn't seem to show the orange line at North Station.

By: Joe

Joe — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 18:45:30 +0000

Chaz, the app still seems to work in my tests–could you tell me a little more about what problems you’re experiencing?

By: chaz

chaz — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 14:28:18 +0000

Oh no! I loved this thing, but it appears to no longer work. Anyone found another similar tool?

By: regis

regis — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 13:23:48 +0000

this is great. i've used it occasionally and i've just used it again today and thought i'd leave a thank you. thanks!

afaik, the mbta has no real-time information available online. heck, for busses i'm not sure if they've got real-time information available to themselves.

one thing that could be even cooler, if you ever make an updated version, would be if the description of the bus stop contained a link to the mbta page for that route.

By: Abby

Abby — Sun, 17 Jul 2005 16:12:15 +0000

Best Saturday afternoon experiment EVER!

By: Joe Hughes

Joe Hughes — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 16:55:31 +0000

Yeah, it’s always nice when the transit system has invested in the infrastructure to make real-time info available. Unfortunately, neither Pittsburgh nor Boston has done that, as far as I know. Thanks for the pointer, Alison–that’s a really nice route display. Hopefully I’ll have time to do more experiments in that direction when I get back from France…

By: theasianmenace

theasianmenace — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 06:30:49 +0000

When I used to live in SF, I used NextBus a lot to see when the next MUNI was coming. It also plots public transportation real-time.