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Show HN: I made a website to find best bus seat to avoid the sun while traveling

sitinshade.com

51–60 of 221 posts

Re: Show HN: I made a website to find best bus seat to avoid the sun while traveling

#51
post #6

This is amazing! My kids get sick on train rides and I think a lot has to do with the sun strobing through the trees. I’ll try this next time to at least not be on the sunny side.

Strobing lights can trigger migraines, which can cause nausea.

Re: Show HN: I made a website to find best bus seat to avoid the sun while traveling

#52

It's not working for me :( I'm trying a trip from the north of France (Paris) to the south (Lyon) in the morning while the sun rises. So the sun is mainly on the East (so left of the bus) and the app tells me to sit on the left side of the bus.

At this time of year, during daylight, the sun is mostly in the south in France. The journey is south-easterly and takes 5 hours, so the right side is sunny for most of the journey!

Re: Show HN: I made a website to find best bus seat to avoid the sun while traveling

#53
post #39

Shady side is comfy but remember that 120 min of daily indirect or direct exposure to UVB can protect your eyesight health. Just 120 min a day under a tree during childhood. Dolgin, Elie. 2015. The myopia boom. Nature 519: 276. Williams, Katie M., & al. 2017. Association Between Myopia, Ultraviolet B Radiation Exposure, Serum Vitamin D Concentrations, and Genetic Polymorphisms in Vitamin D Metabolic Pathways in a Mul…

Does the glass block lots of UV?

Glass blocks 100% of UVB and 25% of UVA. So while you wont burn, light through glass will still cause skin damage.

Re: Show HN: I made a website to find best bus seat to avoid the sun while traveling

#54

I tested with London to Paris — if it's easy with your routing system, you should add the Channel Tunnel as a fake road. I'm not sure why it chose a ferry so far off the shortest route.

Both sides are pretty good for being well shaded from the sun, in the Channel Tunnel, in my experience.

Re: Show HN: I made a website to find best bus seat to avoid the sun while traveling

#55
Oh man, I had this idea a long time ago when I was still commuting to work during sweltering hot summers in trams with no AC. Glad to see someone implemented it.

If you want to take it to the next level, use GIS information to account for building shadows and waiting times in stations and at traffic lights.

I just started using the metro instead :)

Re: Show HN: I made a website to find best bus seat to avoid the sun while traveling

#56

Oh man, I had this idea a long time ago when I was still commuting to work during sweltering hot summers in trams with no AC. Glad to see someone implemented it. If you want to take it to the next level, use GIS information to account for building shadows and waiting times in stations and at traffic lights. I just started using the metro instead :)

I never got the idea because our busses had a sort of plastic bar tied to some plastic fabric that you could pull down over the windows. Worked pretty well for blocking the sun. Ofcourse this was way before internet became popular so I guess the ancient knowledge has been lost to humanity by now. The long distance busses also had some sort of air cooling function that they sometimes started up if it was a very warm day.

Todays busses don't even have heating in the winter. If I can't bike, I'm taking the car nowadays. Can't sit in a bus when it's -20 C outdoors and -18 indoors.

:-)

Re: Show HN: I made a website to find best bus seat to avoid the sun while traveling

#57
post #53
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does the glass block lots of UV?

Glass blocks 100% of UVB and 25% of UVA. So while you wont burn, light through glass will still cause skin damage.

Thanks - I learned something today.

Looks like some bus companies treat their windows to block the UVA as well. Eg https://www.valleymetro.org/blog/2022/07/how-valley-metro-ke...

Re: Show HN: I made a website to find best bus seat to avoid the sun while traveling

#58
post #8

I recently took a bus over the Andes and was congratulating myself on choosing a seat on the shady side. Then I realized that in the southern hemisphere the sun is in the north and I had outsmarted myself.

It is funny in my language as we have the same word for both noon and south.

Re: Show HN: I made a website to find best bus seat to avoid the sun while traveling

#60

That would have seem to be something trivial to think about for anyone with a modicum of sense of orientation. I guess most people don't have that.

Your comment comes across as arrogant and (embarrassingly for you) you’re wrong. There are more variables - the direction the roads go in. The changing position of the sun during the journey. The date and time. It’s nothing like as clear cut as you make out.

Try “London to Edinburgh” at this time of year and you’ll see what I mean - there’s only 10% difference in sun exposure between the two sides of the bus.

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