There's a bus station across from my studio / coworking space. I can see people waiting for the bus and doing either: 1) staring into the void 2) looking at their watches 3) desperately glancing in the direction where the bus is coming from.
I figured that it'd be nice to let people know when the bus is supposed to be there. So, I installed a 28" display on a monitor stand, installed the stand on my window frame, turned the monitor to face the bus station, and show the up-to-date arrival time in a very big font (the buses have GPS; the Pi gets the real time info from the local transit authority).
This is in Montreal. Some info here [0]. And a little video [1].
Big ups! I use this all the time in winter while waiting for the 55. I definitely assumed you worked at Ubisoft across the street!
Btw, from some experience spending cold winters looking at it, it flickers a lot by having so many screen changes, making it tiring to see the screen change so much. L'AUTOBUS - SERA - LA - DANS - 5... - MINUTES - GREG . - TECHNOLOGY. It would be easier on the eyes if it changed less often.
I think that makes sense, yeah. I would rather not flash other digits (55) as that could be confusing for someone who sees that number go by (was that the bus number or the number of minutes?)
I don't think that it's as common to write or read
I'll be there in 5'
Also, since this is a sign seen from about 10-15 meters away, using an apostrophe might lead to confusion (it might not be clear to read).
The aesthetics of the big flashing words are also intentional. Way, way back in my brain there was definitely [0] playing while I was creating this. :-)
As many other transit authorities, the STM [0] offers "GTFS" data (a standard feed format for transit info) [1].
Mucking around STM's public site, you'll also see the schedule information go by if you inspect the network requests. From what I've seen, their API endpoints are stable, reliable and fast. I've had to do ~2 updates in >1 year of service.
If you use MITMProxy or Charles you can easily intercept the traffic on 99% of all iPhone/Android apps (bit harder if pinned-sertificate). These API’s are often stable because a lot of users don’t update their apps that often.
For newer android apps this is no longer true. By default, apps only trust system CA's. User added System CA's are not trusted by apps. I believe only the browser uses the user added CA's.
It can be crazier than that. App makers who work with important APIs often pin to specific certificates (not signers) so we have an one final absolute emergency measure to kill a version and force an upgrade when we have to.
That is what I refer to as pinned-certificate. Not often used except from some of the biggest companies like Facebook and Snapchat. See my answer on how to go around this.
In S. Korea most bus station have a display showing the current position of the bus and the estimated waiting time. Recently they are changing the display to show the bus stop remaining and removed the estimated time of arrival.
Lots of people use app so when the bus is about to arrive the bus station will suddenly get busy and full of people.
I live nearby and often use this when catching the 55! Sort of surreal to start reading your post and immediately recognize it's something from just a block away!
In China, they can get these bus message on a smartphone at mostly main city. The app would show the bus location and predict the time bus would reach according to the traffic status graphically.
We get this in the US in most major cities as well. But sometimes you don’t want to deal with smartphones and apps with bad UI developed by Fortune 500 firms for regional transit authorities, you just wish there would be a simple sign next to the stop that gave you 2 pieces of information: “BUS X IN Y MINUTES”.
We have both in my city (Spain). The problem with displays is that sometimes they get too much light and you can't see that well. Also, the app has much more info than the display, and you don't need to be in the bus stop to know when the bus is going to be there.
Awesome! This has reminded me of an old Heroku app that has been sitting idle for years: https://wmata-status.herokuapp.com (before the Silver line, which is why the UI is all wonked now)
I wanted to do something similar to try and reinvent the old/ugly/hard-to-parse televisions scattered around the DC metro.
Lovely UI, congrats!! You should definitely consider doing a 'gonzo' TV install somewhere in the city where you have access to power, wifi and shelter.
really cool project man, props! bit strange they don't do this ,but i suppose Canada is A LOT larger than my country so perhaps it's harder to roll out decent services in all places :D very nice stuff though! the most annoying thing in the world to me is waiting on something without a clear indication of when the wait will end so you are doing a big big service to these poor people :D
Thanks! Some bus stations in Montreal do have small digital signs announcing the next departures. I’m sure those devices cost a bit of money and need to be serviced, so it makes sense that not all stations get them. (All stations do have a paper schedule which is neat, but isn’t real time info..!)
Canada's a big country :-) As far as I understand, local transit authorities in every city have the autonomy to decide how they spend their budgets. A digital sign is useful, but is it worth having one at every single stop, considering the cost to buy them, the necessary infrastructure (electricity, internet access), the support costs to repair/replace them, etc.?
Also, paper schedules have been part of all stops here for a long time. Considering that the buses are pretty reliable, the paper schedule typically does the job. And you can always use the transit authority's website or one of the many mobile apps to see if there's an unexpected delay.
>> but is it worth having one at every single stop, considering the cost to buy them, the necessary infrastructure (electricity, internet access), the support costs to repair/replace them, etc.?
Well, I just don't recall when I saw a public transport stop that does not have the digital sign here in the Netherlands. The paper version is always provided as well. But I suspect that it works like this in large cities only.
If the buses have GPS then Montreal should launch an app. They did that here where I live and now everyone can see where each bus is, live, on a map of the city. Best thing ever for us control freaks.
The transit authority did have an app, which they’ve pulled at some point (as far as I understand, they felt like they couldn’t compete with the level of transit info apps out there — which isn’t untrue). There’s also the Transit app [0] that is made in Montreal, so I guess that they (the transit authority) were happy to shine a light on that (pretty great) app.
In any case, one of the neat things about the Pi sign is that it works for everyone (whether you have a phone or not), and is part of the urban landscape. You can use your phone for more important things, or just leave it alone a few minutes while you wait. :)
I figured that it'd be nice to let people know when the bus is supposed to be there. So, I installed a 28" display on a monitor stand, installed the stand on my window frame, turned the monitor to face the bus station, and show the up-to-date arrival time in a very big font (the buses have GPS; the Pi gets the real time info from the local transit authority).
This is in Montreal. Some info here [0]. And a little video [1].
[0] https://greg.technology/#bus [1] https://youtu.be/pc16oPb5zW0