Show HN: I built a transit travel time map

#1

Post by ng-henry » Mon, Jul 24, 2023, 1:49 PM UTC

This was something I built while trying to look for housing in Toronto that was decently transit-accessible to my office while still cheap.

The backend is written in Rust. It parses public GTFS data from transit agencies and performs a simple heuristics-based BFS on the bus lines to calculate how long to reach all points in a city.

The frontend uses React and Mapbox GL to render each individual road segment based on how long it takes to reach.

This project was a great excuse to learn Rust, deployments, and mapping. The source code is here if you are interested: http://github.com/econaxis/time2reach

Show HN: I built a transit travel time map
map.henryn.xyz

Re: Show HN: I built a transit travel time map

#2

Post by femboy » Mon, Jul 24, 2023, 2:14 PM UTC

Tried some EU countries but did not work. What country is supported?

Re: Show HN: I built a transit travel time map

#3

Post by TheBigRoomXXL » Mon, Jul 24, 2023, 2:15 PM UTC

I open it on mobile and got an entirely white page

Re: Show HN: I built a transit travel time map

#4

Post by j_leboulanger » Mon, Jul 24, 2023, 2:19 PM UTC

femboy wrote: post #2

Tried some EU countries but did not work. What country is supported?

Works with Paris at least

Re: Show HN: I built a transit travel time map

#5

Post by ComputerGuru » Mon, Jul 24, 2023, 2:22 PM UTC

It’s only the five cities listed at the top, right?

(I initially thought they were just bookmarks/shortcuts to some good demos then I realized they influenced the traffic sources checkbox at the bottom so they had to determine what the map showed rather than merely index it.)

Re: Show HN: I built a transit travel time map

#6

Post by martopix » Mon, Jul 24, 2023, 2:23 PM UTC

The idea is very nice, useful for example when looking for a flat that isn't too far away from work. However it doesn't really work. My computer is powerful, and yet it lags so badly I can't really get to use it. I also did not manage to change the starting point.

Re: Show HN: I built a transit travel time map

#7

Post by ng-henry » Mon, Jul 24, 2023, 2:23 PM UTC

femboy wrote: post #2

Tried some EU countries but did not work. What country is supported?

Yep the only cities that are supported are on the list at the top: Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, New York, and Paris.

Adding support for other cities is a pain in the butt to find the corresponding GTFS, upload the vector tiles to postgis, etc.

Re: Show HN: I built a transit travel time map

#8

Post by ng-henry » Mon, Jul 24, 2023, 2:25 PM UTC

TheBigRoomXXL wrote: post #3

I open it on mobile and got an entirely white page

Oops! I was only able to test it on my iphone and the devices in the Chrome browser simulator :(. If you're willing, what phone/browser are you using?

Re: Show HN: I built a transit travel time map

#9

Post by ng-henry » Mon, Jul 24, 2023, 2:27 PM UTC

ComputerGuru wrote: post #5

It’s only the five cities listed at the top, right? (I initially thought they were just bookmarks/shortcuts to some good demos then I realized they influenced the traffic sources checkbox at the bottom so they had to determine what the map showed rather than merely index it.)

Yes that's right. I do plan on adding other cities in the future, but these are the ones I've chosen because I've lived in them or I think they have a cool transit story.

Re: Show HN: I built a transit travel time map

#10

Post by o10449366 » Mon, Jul 24, 2023, 2:32 PM UTC

This is a great idea. I can only speak to NYC, but the data sources don't give good recommendations. Optimal routing for time in NYC is tricky though and relying on only mapping services and not a combination of walking, biking, buses, and subways leads to longer travel times than necessary.

For example, there are many parts of Brooklyn where no transit lines are directly connected and you have to go into Manhattan first, meaning if you took the train it would take 1+ hours, versus bus (30 minutes) or biking (15 minutes).