Gm Bus Times App from Lovely Data Hackday

[Ben Gibbs]

Hi all,

Firstly, thanks to those who organised Saturday's Lovely Data Hack day, especially Alan Holding.

Using the TFGM (formerly GMPTE) bus data which the Swirrl guys, Ric and Bill, have processed as Linked Data (http://linkedmanchester.org/datasets/buses), I was inspired to out accessibl-ise the TFGM way of finding bus time information.

Currently, you have to go to the TFGM page (http://www.tfgm.com/journey_planning/bus_times_leaflet_library.cfm), type in your Route number, then you're presented with PDF downloads which can be pretty out of date - not very open, accessible or friendly.

So, with SparQL help from Ric and Bill, I created the beginnings of an easier, more accurate and more accessible way to find the bus time info you want: http://gmbuses.heroku.com

It is currently very basic and you can only see today's times for a route at a particular bus stop, but I plan to add maps and allow users to view future days' times and find the stop they are at easier. I also want to optimise it for mobiles.

Hope it inspires other uses of the TFGM bus data and Swirrls Linked Data version of it!

Ta, Ben

--

www.bobop.co.uk
07811 197374
WordPress Specialist, Ruby On Rails Developer, Web Consultant to the Third Sector

[Julian Tait]

It was a really good event and I have fed back to TfGM with regard to some of the suggestions that came up. It would be good to keep the momentum up and hopefully we can pickup where we left off with the next Lovely Data event on the 14th May.

Ben I have noticed that my bus 86 has a funny journey. It does Chorlton Bus Station > Piccadilly > Chorlton Bus Station and then gets conflated with another bus service (maybe the night bus) that then goes all round the houses and ends up in Altrincham

Cheers

Julian

Julian Tait

Open Data Cities and Social Sensing

M: 44 (0)7802 851 394

Skype: Julianlstar

FutureEverything - Innovation Lab and award winning global festival of art, music and ideas.

FutureEverything 2011
11-14 May, Manchester UK

http://www.futureeverything.org

Twitter: @FuturEverything

Tag: #futr

[Ben Gibbs]

I've added pretty maps to the GM Bus Times app, hopefully making it more useful and interesting!

http://bit.ly/hKqQ3j

Ta, Ben

[Transport Action Group]

Nice work Ben, like the way clicking on the stop brings up the times from there.

Bill

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Bill Harrop
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[Julian Tait]

Lovely. This is really cool

Julian

[Transport Action Group]

Hi Ben,

A suggestion if I may, could you put the route entry field at the top rather than the bottom?

[David Bamber]

Hey Guys,

I have also been hacking away with the Swirrl and Linked Manchester
data and come up with a little mSite I like to call NextBus!

Check it out on your phone: http://bmbr.co/nextbus, or desktop
browser, chrome seems to work best.

It will try and geolocate you but will fail pretty bad if it is unable
to so make sure you have location enabled first.

Its work in progress and will be bringing it along to the hack day at
the weekend, so any suggestions will keep me busy on Saturday!

If your interested in the code and some of the sparql that I used you
can check it out at https://github.com/dbamber/nextbus.

Dave


On Apr 19, 12:09 pm, Transport Action Group <transp...@merci.org.uk>
wrote:

> Hi Ben,
>
> A suggestion if I may, could you put the route entry field at the top
> rather than the bottom?
>
> Bill
>
> MERCi - Ideas into action for a sustainable future
>
> Bill Harrop
> Transport Strategic Engagement Worker
>
> Bridge 5 Mill
> 22a Beswick Street
> Ancoats
> Manchester
> M4 7HR
>
> T: 0161 273 1736
> F: 0161 274 4598

> E: transp...@merci.org.uk
>
> www.tag-mcr.org.ukwww.en4m.org.ukwww.merci.org.ukwww.cn4m.net

> >>     <http://gmbuses.heroku.com/>

>
> >>     It is currently very basic and you can only see today's times for
> >>     a route at a particular bus stop, but I plan to add maps and
> >>     allow users to view future days' times and find the stop they are
> >>     at easier. I also want to optimise it for mobiles.
>
> >>     Hope it inspires other uses of the TFGM bus data and Swirrls
> >>     Linked Data version of it!
>
> >>     Ta, Ben
>
> >>     --
>

> >>     *www.bobop.co.uk<http://www.bobop.co.uk/>
> >>     *07811 197374

> >>     WordPress Specialist, Ruby On Rails Developer, Web Consultant to
> >>     the Third Sector
>
> >     Julian Tait
> >     Open Data Cities and Social Sensing
>
> >     M: 44 (0)7802 851 394
> >     Skype: Julianlstar
>
> >     FutureEverything - Innovation Lab and award winning global
> >     festival of art, music and ideas.
>
> >     FutureEverything 2011
> >     11-14 May, Manchester UK
>
> >    http://www.futureeverything.org
>
> >     Twitter: @FuturEverything
> >     Tag: #futr
>
> > --
>

> > *www.bobop.co.uk<http://www.bobop.co.uk/>
> > *07811 197374

[Ben Gibbs]

Great work Dave,

I'm interested in the code and queries you used to do the geolocation so I'll take a look at your repo.

Ta, Ben

--

www.bobop.co.uk

[Julian Tait]

Hi Dave,

Really like this. I used it this morning and it worked a treat. Inward and outbound bus stops with the same name can be a little confusing as it truncates the direction but I'm not sure what you could do about that as it would crowd the text.

Cheers

Julian

Julian Tait

Open Data Cities and Digital Innovation

M: 44 (0)7802 851 394

Skype: Julianlstar

Twitter: @julianlstar

FutureEverything - Innovation Lab and award winning global festival of art, music and ideas.

FutureEverything 2011
11-14 May, Manchester UK

http://www.futureeverything.org

Download the festival brochure http://futureeverything.org/downloads/FE2011Brochure.pdf

Twitter: @FuturEverything

Tag: #futr

[Ric Roberts]

Hi Dave. 

You app works and looks great! It's great to see someone else using our Linked Data. 

If you need any help with using our API or writing SPARQL queries etc, just give me a shout.

Cheers,

Ric