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Canadian Urbanism Uncovered

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9 comments

  1. I love it! If the TTC had it I would make it a screen saver (whoa I may have just set a new record for transit nerdiness)

    With more widespread HTML access from mobile phones, this would be a great service to have on the go.
    I assume that they don’t show every bus on there yet, unless Helsiniki has a much smaller bus fleet than I suspect.

  2. I miss helsinki. Oh look the #6 car is right by the mbar. It’s too bad with the map you cant control the public transit vehicles it would feel like a wonderful train set then.

  3. The map definitely has a “cool” factor, but I don’t think it’s the best way to present the information. What most people want is to know when the next bus(es) will arrive at their stop, factoring in layovers, traffic, and short turns.

    Seattle’s Bus Tracker has a bit of both.

  4. Damn…it’s like a transit geek’s wet dream!! (speaking as a transit geek myself)

    It doesn’t actually seem to track that many buses though.

  5. I don’t think this would work in Toronto. The city is a lot bigger, and there are more buses than in Helsinki. The map would be so crowded that it would be hard to read.

  6. I’m not holding my breath for the TTC to introduce this, but I’d love to see the VIVA system adopt it and they’ve already got most of the technology.

    Matt L – it does show the next buses. You need to put a valid place name into the place name box. It zooms in and shows all the stops in the area. If you click on a stop, it’ll show the next departures.

  7. Helsinki public transport also:

    1 – includes the ferry to Suomenlinna (it would be as if your TTC transfer would work on the Toronto Island ferry)

    2 – has WiFi on some tram routes

    3 – has a pub tram in the summer

    4 – has an excellent bike journey planner (that is actually run by the public transport authority),
    http://kevytliikenne.ytv.fi/?lang=en

    5 – has a regular journey planner that is available in four languages (Finnish, Swedish, English, and Helsinki slang)

    *love* Helsinki!

  8. Look, I would just be a lot less bloody grumpy if I knew for a fact whether the subway trains were properly running or not before I dump $2.75 in the turnstile.