Paging TransLink: Zoomify your maps!
Posted on January 30th, 2008 in rants, technology, transportation, vancouver |
How many of you just absolutely *hate* TransLink’s PDF system? It’s just god awful, and I’m even on a Mac - which makes the situation slightly more bearable than on a PC. At least I don’t have to wait for the ridiculously slow Adobe Reader to load up before I can check out the transit information.
TransLink currently stores both schedules and maps on PDF. I have no reason why they haven’t embraced the new millennia and chosen a more accessible and easy to use format for this information, like the WMATA, ACTransit, or the MBTA.
Frankly, we already know their schedule information is available in a chart/table format (i.e. GTFS) - otherwise we wouldn’t have Google Transit for Vancouver (not that it even works anymore. They removed schedule information from it ever since they realized they weren’t the same times as the *actual* schedules. Something I encountered twice. Ugh). But this post isn’t about schedules.
This is about maps. Something that, really, beyond David’s cool project, you really can’t find any TransLink routes in a format other than PDF. Completely sucks right?
Well, I’ve got the perfect solution. I came across this great platform, Zoomify, which sucks in images, cuts them up, and along with a flash engine, puts them into an easy to use zoomable flash interface. Click the image below to use the example I did.
This is a perfect stopgap solution, until TransLink gets some cool Google Maps routes interface happening. All they have to do is transfer their PDFs to image files, throw them into Zoomify for a couple of minutes, then throw the new files up on their server.
So come on TransLink, why not?
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5 Responses
Google Transit doesn’t work? It’s always been excellent for me.
As for Zoomify, it’s pretty slick. Although there’s a big black hole in the zoomed in downtown Vancouver.
Paul,
I’m liveblogging the Vancouver Meetup. I can’t email you from my GMail account as my blogger is linked with my other email. Hope you can check it out!
Hey Paul, I’m also confused by what you said about Google Maps. Can you give me more details?
@ Chris. I’m pretty sure if a block of the map isn’t showing, it has to do with my server - slow and without much bandwidth.
@ Joe. Google Transit works on and off. For a month, TransLink had the wrong data at my bus stop, screwing up several trips. The info at said stop was different than that of TransLink’s actual website. Also, sometimes I’ll go back and check out times at stop on the map, but there won’t even be any data showing up. This most likely is all TL’s fault, not Google’s system.
The point of using Zoomify over GTransit, is that there’s no simple way in GMaps to view specific routes. It’s a trip planner - no more than that. For people who already know what route they want to take, they can’t just select it from a drop down menu and view it overlayed on the map. This feature is on iMove - but then there, you can’t see the individual bus stops. Plus iMove is fugly.
@Paul. iMove’s fugliness aside, you can view individual bus stops for any route by checking the column under the bus icon in ’selected routes’.
@Joe. I have noticed that the individual routes when you click on a stop do not show up on occasion but when you click on the + they come up with the schedule fine. Is this a problem with the data or something else?