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Live map of public transport in Belgium

openbaarvervoerbelgie.be

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Re: Live map of public transport in Belgium

#51

Post by rzwitserloot »

ssernikk wrote: post #38

I don't want to be negative here, just asking out of curiosity. Does anyone actually use apps/services like this? Why would it be useful? Normally when I want to get somewhere I just use local public transport navigation app which calculates the route and shows me estimated time of when my tram or bus arrives (taking into account its GPS data). Why would I need to know live position of every vehicle in the city? Neve…

I use the dutch version of this (OVInfo: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nl.skywave.ovi... ) which does have a nicer interface: You _can_ load a map and gawk at it, but by default it loads very fast and shows a list of stops/stations in order of how close they are, and clicking on them shows the up-to-the-minute (in some regions, up-to-the-second) exact departure times including any current delays.

In an public transport heavy region (lots of The Netherlands is PT heavy) this changes how you interact with public transport. You stop planning. You decide you want to go to X, so you walk to the nearest stop you know will take you to X (in contrast to someone who rarely uses PT or lives in a PT light area: They either don't know the routes and thus don't know which stop to walk to, or there is only one stop within walking distance if that), and as you walk, it takes all of about 5 seconds, literally, to know if you should walk briskly or have time for a detour or whatever. Or even check if a different stop would be more efficient.

It's powered by the same data. 'look, a map!' is visually the most interesting, and thus perhaps appropriate here, where I would assume most readers don't even live in Belgium.

Re: Live map of public transport in Belgium

#55

Post by crispyambulance »

MHordecki wrote: post #52
gworf wrote: post #13

Similar real time traffic map for Switzerland https://maps.trafimage.ch/ch.sbb.netzkarte?baselayers=ch.sbb... >

This is a simulated map based on published transit schedules. As I’m typing this I sit on a bus that’s nowhere to be seen on the map.

Transit telemetry is inherently spotty on these public-facing applications.

If it's like other systems, it will resort to transit schedule estimations when data is missing and then try to sync as live data becomes available.

Re: Live map of public transport in Belgium

#56

Post by nevi-me »

MHordecki wrote: post #52
gworf wrote: post #13

Similar real time traffic map for Switzerland https://maps.trafimage.ch/ch.sbb.netzkarte?baselayers=ch.sbb... >

This is a simulated map based on published transit schedules. As I’m typing this I sit on a bus that’s nowhere to be seen on the map.

I have a crowdsourcing app [0] that powers maps like this [1] in South Africa. Where I'm able to directly or indirectly get bus feeds for agencies, I'm able to augment them and provide a hybrid of live vs scheduled services.

It's been a fun project, both the app and the site. The idea with the app's that there's often numerous commuters on a bus/train vs relying on a hard to get vehicle telemetry feed/source. So I'm trying to get a fun/friendly way of getting commuters to share their location data in exchange for shared alerts and updates on delays.

Nothing novel, if you're in a first world country lol.

[0] https://socioloza.co.za/ [1] https://movinggauteng.co.za/gautrain

Re: Live map of public transport in Belgium

#57

Post by crispyambulance »

Betelbuddy wrote: post #39
ostacke wrote: post #37

This thread is full of people linking similar projects for different locations. The next step must be to combine it all to a global live map. Useful for... something, I'm sure.

We should also have a hierarchy: Platinum - Real Live Location Gold - Live as Estimated Where It Should Be From Last Observation Silver - Live as Estimated According to Published Schedule You Kidding Me? - Animated JavaScript...

I think subway rail systems do have "real live location", but whether that information is consistently provided to public distribution for use through apps is a question mark.

I suspect most systems are a mix of your platinum, gold and silver (and kidding me).

Re: Live map of public transport in Belgium

#59

Post by dandanua »

ostacke wrote: post #37

This thread is full of people linking similar projects for different locations. The next step must be to combine it all to a global live map. Useful for... something, I'm sure.

The nest step would be to map every human. Shouldn't be too hard, there are only 8B of us.

Re: Live map of public transport in Belgium

#60

Post by sbb_equals_ffs »

gworf wrote: post #13

Similar real time traffic map for Switzerland https://maps.trafimage.ch/ch.sbb.netzkarte?baselayers=ch.sbb... >

I've mentioned this before on another thread about the swiss map but for the uninitiated:

It's certainly a cool map and useful to get a general idea how many trains are around at any given time, but it's important to note that this is not real data. They use the train schedule combined with the projected delay to estimate track location. I'm not sure if it's because SBB has an interest in keeping reported delays low or if they think exposing real data is a security risk, but I noticed the data being fake on several occasions, for example:

- My train wasn't able to continue its journey and was stuck between two stations for a few minutes while the map showed it continue to the next few stations up until the point where it started moving again, when their App also showed it running with a delay of 8min.

- On several occasions: watching the map show a train roll into the station and driving off, while seeing from my window that the train is only just arriving when the map shows it as between stations already.

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