T Times

T Times

@ttimes.boston

ttimes.boston – free & open source MBTA transit dashboard

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T Times
@ttimes.boston

The status of a vehicle that is accepting passengers but hasn't yet departed is now rendered in a clearer way – "bus is preparing to depart". Previously, it would render as "bus is X stops away", which sounded like it was in motion. ttimes.boston #mbta 👈 🚌

T Times
@ttimes.boston

I've overhauled the update logic for an individual trip page a little bit. Now, • Trip info refreshes every 5 seconds, not 20, before the vehicle arrives at your stop • There's a manual override for when your position is older than 10 seconds (see pic) ttimes.boston 👈 🚍 #mbta

T Times
@ttimes.boston

There are still some kinks to work out – the code is a little nasty (trying to avoid JavaScript is hard) – but enjoy! 😎 Next up: a similar small overhaul of the main (all nearby routes) update behavior.

T Times
@ttimes.boston

Feature in the oven: a larger search area for "nearby routes". A small part of the work involves building a simple geospatial index for identifying all nearby stops. Behold: the entire area serviced by the #MBTA, divided into sections of approximately equal numbers of stops. 🤷‍♂️ ttimes.boston 👈 🚌

T Times
@ttimes.boston

The great city of Malden is now officially represented in my database of polygons. That means if you're in Malden, you'll see "Routes near you in Malden" rather than the fallback "Routes near you". HUGE. ttimes.boston 👍🚍 #mbta

T Times
@ttimes.boston

In the trip details view, we show connecting routes for context. But did you know (no, you didn't) that they're divided into two categories? 1. Routes that go through that stop (not inside parens). 2. Routes that go through a very nearby stop (inside parens). Now you know! (But you'll forget.)

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T Times
@ttimes.boston

• What does the queue contain, exactly, though? It's... ok, simplifying a little bit... route+stop pairs. So when you hop on route X at stop Y, we push X+Y to the queue. This allows us to effectively capture different sets of recent routes at different parts of the world.

T Times
@ttimes.boston

Here's a breakdown of how this feature works and the rationale behind the design: • We consider a route "taken" whenever you click into an actual trip's details view. While it won't capture every bus or train you ever hop on, it allows us to avoid having any new interaction (e.g. a button).

T Times
@ttimes.boston

• The data structure backing the recent trips is a simple queue. Whenever you click into a trip, its route gets bumped to the front. In particular, this design explicitly avoids trying to intelligently incorporate route frequency into the ranking. Goal: user should understand why a route is there.

T Times
@ttimes.boston

/u/VibrantGlimmer63 and /u/hemidemi on Reddit both requested the routes be sorted by proximity. I don't think that's a slam-dunk win, because it's easier to scan routes that are sorted alphabetically. But I do see the utility. So I've implemented a middle ground! ttimes.boston 👈 #mbta

T Times
@ttimes.boston

The routes are now separated into two sections: nearby (0–10 minute walk to the nearest stop), and not as nearby (11+ minute walk to the stop). I plan on expanding this to three sections: 0–10 minutes, 11–20 minutes, and 21–30 minutes. Let me know what you think! 😎

T Times
@ttimes.boston

Seeking feedback for ttimes.boston! #mbta /u/hemidemi on Reddit requested more than one upcoming trip on the home screen. Here's a proposal: show all upcoming trips up to and including one that's more than 5 minutes out.

T Times
@ttimes.boston

The idea here is that when you check the app, you are likely ready to leave, but might need a few minutes. So, it's useful to see e.g. "Arlington Center 5 34" (if 5 minutes is too tight), but not useful to see e.g. "Davis 37 55" (because 37 minutes is plenty). What do you think? 👍👎

T Times
@ttimes.boston

Hello, world! Can anyone hear me? I (the human writing this) have made a small dashboard app for MBTA transit. It's very much a work-in-progress but plenty usable. I (the anthropomorphized software) invite you to check me out! I'm 100% free! 🚍👍 ttimes.boston #mbta #boston #cambma #somerville

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