MyTTC

[Kieran]

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to drop a note that Kevin and I have put http://MyTTC.ca
live for you all to play with. While there are still a few things
we're working on, we figured we should make what we have available so
people can start actually using it.

Almost all of the routes and branches are accounted for, and at least
the major stops/intersections are in there. Kevin's busy importing all
the minor stops now, so they should fill in as time marches on. You
can keep an eye on our progress on the stats page (http://myttc.ca/
stats) - we'll also update the video service simulation (same page)
to match the current data every week or so.

The trip planner works pretty well in most cases, but there are a few
oddities from time to time. We're actively refining the algorithms,
but due to their exceptionally complex nature it's a process that can
only really be tested by using it.... a lot. We'll have to rely on
user feedback to judge the success of each iteration.

Soooo..... yeah. Give it a spin and send us some feedback; we'll keep
y'all updated when we add new features into the mix. The next things
we're working on include: SMS, discussions, IE layout fixes, better
mobile device support, and a bunch of stuff I can't remember :-) (we
have tickets created)

Cheers,
Kieran

[Oshoma Momoh]

Congratulations guys, this rocks!

osh

--
Oshoma Momoh
Co-Founder, Mukodu Inc.
http://blog.mukodu.com
http://5BlocksOut.com

[Mark Kuznicki]

Kieran and Kevin, congrats!

I hope people kick the tires a lot to give you the feedback you need.  What else do you need help with?  As a tangible community outcome from the original TransitCamp, I think it's great that you have taken that original idea of an open access trip planner for the TTC to this point.

I also want to let TorCampers and TransitCampers know that the Metronauts project also continues to evolve from that original TransitCamp, with a new community group blog that will be launched shortly to replace the existing site at http://metronauts.ca/.

I am looking for contributors who would like to write about the relationship between information technology and transportation, and myTTC is a great example of what is possible.  If you are interested in being a Metronauts contributor, please email in...@metronauts.ca. For regular contributors, we'll profile your bio on the site and can offer a small honorarium in appreciation.

Mark
http://remarkk.com

[Sandy Kemsley]

This is great stuff! I posted about it here
http://www.stoweboyd.com/message/2008/07/a-community-app.html

sandy

On Jul 21, 9:50 pm, Mark Kuznicki <mark.kuzni...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Kieran and Kevin, congrats!
> I hope people kick the tires a lot to give you the feedback you need.  What else do you need help with?  As a tangible community outcome from the original TransitCamp, I think it's great that you have taken that original idea of an open access trip planner for the TTC to this point.
> I also want to let TorCampers and TransitCampers know that the Metronauts project also continues to evolve from that original TransitCamp, with a new community group blog that will be launched shortly to replace the existing site at http://metronauts.ca/.
> I am looking for contributors who would like to write about the relationship between information technology and transportation, and myTTC is a great example of what is possible.  If you are interested in being a Metronauts contributor, please email in...@metronauts.ca. For regular contributors, we'll profile your bio on the site and can offer a small honorarium in appreciation.
> Mark
> http://remarkk.com

> On 21-Jul-08, at 5:34 PM, Kieran wrote:Hey everyone,Just wanted to drop a note that Kevin and I have put http://MyTTC.calive for you all to play with. While there are still a few thingswe're working on, we figured we should make what we have available sopeople can start actually using it.Almost all of the routes and branches are accounted for, and at leastthe major stops/intersections are in there. Kevin's busy importing allthe minor stops now, so they should fill in as time marches on. Youcan keep an eye on our progress on the stats page (http://myttc.ca/stats)  - we'll also update the video service simulation (same page)to match the current data every week or so.The trip planner works pretty well in most cases, but there are a fewoddities from time to time. We're actively refining the algorithms,but due to their exceptionally complex nature it's a process that canonly really be tested by using it.... a lot. We'll have to rely onuser feedback to judge the success of each iteration.Soooo..... yeah. Give it a spin and send us some feedback; we'll keepy'all updated when we add new features into the mix. The next thingswe're working on include: SMS, discussions, IE layout fixes, bettermobile device support, and a bunch of stuff I can't remember :-) (wehave tickets created)Cheers,Kieran

[Mark Kuznicki]

Great post! Ahem...Sandy, since when are you blogging for Stowe Boyd??

[Sandy Kemsley]

Less than a month, just trying it out. Good forum for my social media
stuff that doesn't really belong on column2.com.

[Oshoma Momoh]

blogged it http://blog.mukodu.com/2008/07/22/true-public-service-myttc-is-live/

[Sandy Kemsley]

Great post, Oshoma! Shame, shame on the TTC...

On Jul 22, 10:04 am, "Oshoma Momoh" <osh...@gmail.com> wrote:
> blogged ithttp://blog.mukodu.com/2008/07/22/true-public-service-myttc-is-live/

[Mark Kuznicki]

To be fair to the TTC, their new site is in beta and trip planner
functionality is being developed for end of year (I believe): http://www.beta.ttc.ca/
. TTC's planned future functionality includes SMS notification of
next bus/streetcar. You can send them feedback via an online survey.
If anybody wants to do a detailed critique of the beta site, I'll
feature it on the new Metronauts site when it relaunches.

These new features will of course, be super-expensive proprietary
vendor products and lack much in MyTTC.ca coolness. If only TTC had
taken the Open Access data route that TransitCamp attendees recommended!

[Sandy Kemsley]

It shouldn't be an "us versus them" thing: think of myTTC as a
playground for ideas that may, at some point, creep into the official
TTC site. MyTTC can do the cool add-on stuff too, like taking that RSS
feed of service interruptions (when TTC gets it implemented) and
streaming them to Twitter/identi.ca.

The TTC's decision to not go the Open Access route, however, is
deplorable, and we should take every opportunity to beat them up for
it.

[Sebastien Chorney]

Kieran,

Great job to you and Kevin. The site looks great. Do you guys have a
specific bug-reporting mechanism on the site? I tried the route
planner last night and got an error.

PS love the music in your video... what is it?

On Jul 21, 5:34 pm, Kieran <kieran.hugg...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hey everyone,
>

> Just wanted to drop a note that Kevin and I have puthttp://MyTTC.ca

[Kevin Branigan]

Good gravy such excellent feedback from all of you!

Sebastien,

The trip planner was offline for a small time frame last night, but
it's been online since then.
The server for the planner at Kieran's house fell over last night (the
OS died not the planning software itself)
As for feedback: On every page you view there is a feedback interface
on the right side - as simple as possible and always visible.
We have an internal issue tracker that we've been thinking of putting
live but haven't acted on it yet.

We've been getting lots of feedback and have learned some thinks we
never though of that way, but we definitely want more.

The song is Ping Island: Lightning Strike Rescue from the movie Life
Aquatic (by Mark Mothersbaugh)

[Igor Foox]

Having missed out on TransitCamp. What was the rationale (if any) behind the decision to not go Open Access?

[Mark Kuznicki]

Igor,

As for why TTC hasn't adopted Open Access ideas for its data, you will have to ask them.  I believe that the concerns are (as usual) about control and source data quality issues.  TTC IT no doubt had concerns that bad data would be passed through and used by users on mashup sites without manual scrubbing and quality control, and that user experienced problems caused by these errors would be attributed back to them.

Some of the TransitCamp participants advocated strongly for open access and the idea of a "community sandbox in the wild" for new ideas that the community could engage with and that TTC could look to as a source of innovation.  Here is the document some of us drafted and sent to the TTC as input for a new web RFP process: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ajc4wjdmmk3p_21g9c5b3

But perhaps this notion is not dead.  With MyTTC.ca and the launch of TTC's new beta site, it might be a good time to revisit it.

mk

[Mark Kuznicki]

I love the follow-me maps action on the directions text on the planner...very cool.  And thanks to the nice clean design, it's very usable on my iPod Touch browser even without an iPhone optimized version.

Ok, I have a question. How does MyTTC trip planner choose one routing possibility over another?

I did a route from my office (215 Spadina) to Don Mills & Eglinton.  The planner suggested a route that would have me take the Bloor line from Spadina to Donlands and then two buses: 56 Leaside, followed by 25 Don Mills.

Left to my own way-finding, I would have transferred to the Yonge line north to Eglinton and taken the Eglinton bus east to Don Mills.

I have no idea which is the better route. Generally I place a premium on reduced time on buses and avoiding waiting at outdoor bus stops, not knowing the frequency of service and wait times on unfamiliar routes.

[Kieran]

I'll bet I can answer this question ;-)

Essentially, the trip planner tries to get you there in as little time
as possible. In your case, being able to catch those two buses would
beat the same trip on the subway. Departure time can make a big
difference.

If you left at 7pm, it would take the route you describe:
http://myttc.ca/travel/from/215_spadina/to/Don_Mills_and_Eglinton/at/7:00pm

However, if you leave just 5 minutes later the route changes
significantly:
http://myttc.ca/travel/from/215_spadina/to/Don_Mills_and_Eglinton/at/7:05pm

This is because it shaves a few minutes off your trip, including all
the waiting and calculated walking time.

People are often more comfortable sticking to simpler and/or familiar
routes, and we plan to use this as the default behaviour in the
future. For now, at least getting you there with a decent amount of
certainty was our top priority, so that's exactly what we focused on.
Well, that and the lowest travel time.

Eventually, I'd like to give several results ordered by either speed
or number of transfers. Other suggestions are welcome!

Sometimes I plan trips just to see if there are alternatives I'd never
considered... it's actually kind of fun! I'm often surprised by the
results - sometimes buses are faster than you think.

Cheers,
K

On Jul 22, 10:51 pm, Mark Kuznicki <mark.kuzni...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I love the follow-me maps action on the directions text on the  
> planner...very cool.  And thanks to the nice clean design, it's very  
> usable on my iPod Touch browser even without an iPhone optimized  
> version.
>
> Ok, I have a question. How does MyTTC trip planner choose one routing  
> possibility over another?
>
> I did a route from my office (215 Spadina) to Don Mills & Eglinton.  
> The planner suggested a route that would have me take the Bloor line  
> from Spadina to Donlands and then two buses: 56 Leaside, followed by  
> 25 Don Mills.
>
> Left to my own way-finding, I would have transferred to the Yonge line  
> north to Eglinton and taken the Eglinton bus east to Don Mills.
>
> I have no idea which is the better route. Generally I place a premium  
> on reduced time on buses and avoiding waiting at outdoor bus stops,  
> not knowing the frequency of service and wait times on unfamiliar  
> routes.
>
>
>

> > On Mon, Jul 21, 2008 at 5:34 PM, Kieran <kieran.hugg...@gmail.com>  
> > wrote:
>
> > Hey everyone,
>
> > Just wanted to drop a note that Kevin and I have puthttp://MyTTC.ca

[Ollie Saunders]

Kieran I think I suggested this to you before when I showed you the
London Underground Trip Planner, which is just to show results from
several departure times around the specified one (like +5, +10, 0, -5,
-10). It'll add a significant overhead but very easy to implement.

2008/7/23 Kieran <kieran....@gmail.com>:

[Mark Kuznicki]

And a great answer it is!

I'm struck by the thought that this would kick so much ass with OPEN
ACCESS REALTIME DATA and an iPhone optimized interface!

You should totally put this in front of the right people at the TTC
and Metrolinx at the earliest opportunity!

Hmmm...I think I know some.

mk

[Jay Goldman]

On Jul 21, 5:34 pm, Kieran <kieran.hugg...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Just wanted to drop a note that Kevin and I have puthttp://MyTTC.ca

> live for you all to play with.

You guys rock! I second Kooze in saying that it brings a tear to my
eye to see the community which sprung from TransitCamp produce such an
amazing site.