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Realtime BART Arrival Display

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Re: Realtime BART Arrival Display

#41

Post by logifail »

zkmon wrote: post #11

Cool project and very nicely done!! claps. You know what, I used to plan my leaving from home based on the timings at the station, but soon I realized that it is not worth it. It is not because trains are not sticking to the time table. Just randomly starting at your own comfort eliminates the anxiety that comes with planning. Your average wait time might increase to half of the interval between the trains, but that…

> You know what, I used to plan my leaving from home based on the timings at the station, but soon I realized that it is not worth it.

I would be interested to know how the service frequency affects this approach.

A nearby regional train line I sometimes use has a service every 30 minutes, and - for me at least - that (in)frequency makes it definitely worth timing your arrival at the station.

Re: Realtime BART Arrival Display

#43

Post by mlmonkey »

ProllyInfamous wrote: post #38
sschueller wrote: post #35

Very cool, I built a colored one for Swiss transit ( https://sschueller.github.io/posts/turning-a-project-into-a-... ) and turned it into a product: https://www.stationdisplay.com It runs on an ESP32-S3 using the government provided open data. https://opentransportdata.swiss

Is my conversion ratio incorrect: ~1449CHF == $1800USD?

I knew Switzerland was expensive, but not _THAT_ expensive!! :-D

https://www.google.com/search?q=CHF+1%2C449.00+in+USD

Re: Realtime BART Arrival Display

#45

Post by don_neufeld »

rsynnott wrote: post #30
stevekemp wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I built a small hardware device to show the departure time of the tram next to my house, because here in Finland it gets cold in winter. Mostly the winter isn't super-cold, something like -10°C/14°F, but there are weeks where it will be -20°C/-4°F and then there's a big difference between waiting at the tram stop for 1 minute or 7 minutes.

Here, if it's -10 degrees, then the tram probably won't be working anyway; Ireland tends to take that sort of extreme temperature as a license to shut down _absolutely everything_. (It hasn't been -20 degrees here since records began.)

It’s funny how different countries handle this differently.

Growing up in the middle of Canada, I heard about schools closing due to weather, but ours only closed if it was below -40C.

Re: Realtime BART Arrival Display

#46

Post by stevekemp »

don_neufeld wrote: post #45
rsynnott wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here, if it's -10 degrees, then the tram probably won't be working anyway; Ireland tends to take that sort of extreme temperature as a license to shut down _absolutely everything_. (It hasn't been -20 degrees here since records began.)

It’s funny how different countries handle this differently. Growing up in the middle of Canada, I heard about schools closing due to weather, but ours only closed if it was below -40C.

I think it's largely a matter of how regular these events are. Finnish winters are universally cold, with lots of snow. So car-owners switch to winter-tyres in advance of snow/ice, trams always work, and suchlike.

In the UK, either in Scotland where I lived as an adult, or Yorkshire where I grew up snow was something that lasted for a few hours most of the time, and so people weren't used to it. If it snowed enough that the roads were covered busses would be cancelled, trains wouldn't run, and schools would be closed.

Re: Realtime BART Arrival Display

#48

Post by paradox460 »

zkmon wrote: post #11

Cool project and very nicely done!! claps. You know what, I used to plan my leaving from home based on the timings at the station, but soon I realized that it is not worth it. It is not because trains are not sticking to the time table. Just randomly starting at your own comfort eliminates the anxiety that comes with planning. Your average wait time might increase to half of the interval between the trains, but that…

I discovered the same. I found that I actually preferred mornings where I just missed the BART train, and had a few minutes to sit down, relax, do some SSR flashcards on my phone, read a bit of a book, or just center myself.

Some of the older BART stations are hauntingly beautiful. South San Francisco has a near cathedral like atmosphere, with extremely high ceilings, and if you sit there quietly you can hear the pigeons softly cooing to each other

Re: Realtime BART Arrival Display

#49

Post by bluGill »

stevekemp wrote: post #46
don_neufeld wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s funny how different countries handle this differently. Growing up in the middle of Canada, I heard about schools closing due to weather, but ours only closed if it was below -40C.

I think it's largely a matter of how regular these events are. Finnish winters are universally cold, with lots of snow. So car-owners switch to winter-tyres in advance of snow/ice, trams always work, and suchlike. In the UK, either in Scotland where I lived as an adult, or Yorkshire where I grew up snow was something that lasted for a few hours most of the time, and so people weren't used to it. If it snowed enough t…

That is my conclusion too. When something is rare it isn't worth preparing for it when you can shut down. When something is common you have to prepare for it.

If it ever drops below 0C close to the equator (and near sea level) pipes should be drained and everyone do without water - this happens so rarely that it isn't worth the cost to figure out how to handle that. When you live in a place where it goes below 0C for weeks on end every winter that isn't acceptable and so you have to pay the extra costs of putting pipes inside buildings (or far underground) and insulating and heating those buildings to keep the pipes warm.

Re: Realtime BART Arrival Display

#50

Post by Symbiote »

jrockway wrote: post #6
rafaele wrote: post #4

Cool! Hey I have a feature request: Could you add the robotic voices? https://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2009/news20090309

I love how long the terrible speech synthesis on BART lasted. I don't mean this in a negative way at all. BART was so state of the art when it was built, that it still feels like the future today. They did a good job on ... everything. Fun link. I saw this article and immediately thought "I need to go find the voice" and this is exactly what I was looking for.

Trains in London in 1992 had announcements using recorded voice clips, so I'm surprised BART chose this synthesized system. Perhaps it sounded more futuristic than plain recordings?

https://youtube.com/watch?v=vW3hheSml3Q

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