TTC: Give Us A Route Planner

So woefully behind is the TTC. Those new signs telling you how long the wait for the next train will be? I first recall seeing those in the London Underground, 21 years ago!

I heard on the radio yesterday, via Giambrone, that by this time next year they hope to have a route planner on the web site (and soon thereafter on mobile devices).

If someone steals this idea and makes money off of it, I'm warning you this message is time stamped, all rights reserved, etc... of course maybe it isn't that brilliant...

My idea: charge commuters a nominal fee to have a portable/phone app that tells them exactly where buses are on the routes. They could type in the route number, or street name, and have a live gps mapping system that lets them know exactly when the bus is coming.

Commuters could pay for this as a subscription, or a one time fee (making a killing, a la 407), subsidize the transit system, and of course have the convenience of checking when the bus is coming from their WORK, HOME or wherever they may be, to time the walk to the stop. I'd pay for this.

So I'm thinking genius. But I have been wrong before :)

Dear Corina,

Your idea has officially been stolen by me. No fee will be paid but I will give you a shout out in the software credits.

Sincerely,

RBeezy

Transit users aren't generally the ones with much disposable income. This should be provided at no cost, IMO.

damned programmers ;)

But I sort of posted this to egg on all the genius software app developers to go build it for me - - COPYRIGHT IT, AND THE DEVELOPERS WILL COME ... and reverse engineer the idea hehe.

Make my shout out BIG, and addressed to Corina the Sexy Genuis who came up with the Idea. Damnit.

(maybe spell genius correctly har har)

Montreal has one too!

The Vancouver Translink system has something like this where you can call a number, punch in a code for the stop you're at and the bus you are waiting for and it will give you an approx. wait time. It is a little janky but helpful when you're trying to decide whether it might just be easier to walk.

First of all, yes, they should have that trip planner service. It's a standard by now, in Germany some of them are integrated with the railway trip planner, so you can actually plan a door-to-door from one town to the other in some cases, it's really cool, but it doesn't seem to be rocket science any more.
I appreciate the idea with the displays. Often enough, you see 5 trams right behind one slow mocing due to traffic, and guess, then it gets from bad to worse because people gather and Trains are full.
Yet, TTC is the only public transport in the world being able to deliver an excellent choice of extra adventure for the unprepped traveller such as trams passing just right away, not picking up people, or tram drivers deciding to go heome earlier and just drop off everybody at their personal discretion and short turn somewhere en route. Also, i would like to have them spend a couple of bucks in a decent cleaning of all of those AC units in the subway, sometimes i'd think they make extra money growing funghi in these things.

Just my 2 cents, i'm still an outside visitor....

@Angela: That sounds like an easier idea than Corina's (still a great one, Corina - but I'd hate to stare at a route map on a tiny little screen).

One idea I really liked, Corina, I might change my online name to "Sexy Genuis". That sounds awesome.

There really is soooo much that the TTC can do with their maps software if they get one. I mean, picture a google maps/ttc/attractions mash up. Not only could you look up how to get to a location, but you could also see major art galleries, theatres, monuments in the area - maybe even a little of the area's history if you wanted to see it.

*sigh*... not in my lifetime probably (I'm 27 btw)

although an online system is probably much more efficient... it still drives me crazy that you cant call the ttc and get some phone help on how to get around.. like what about the less computer savy older ppl (such that surround me in little italy)

I don't want to wait for a route planner either, but the TTC has consistently said that it is coming in 2009, including when they launched their new website.

From Tatiana's post about the new website: "Finally, by early 2009 a much-awaited Trip Planner is supposed to be completed!"

Before moving to Toronto, aside from lack of subway coverage, I thought the TTC did alright. Living here, though, I'm amazed that the TTC still has an antiquated fare system, no trip planner, no bus tracking, or basically any modern (and pretty much standard) feature. I get that they don't have it all, but none of it??

I hope that they meet their promises and goals; better late than never.

First off, there is a "community created" route planner at http://www.myttc.ca. Last time I checked, its routes were a bit wonky but it's there if you want it. TTC should have their planner next year, and also Metrolinx is setting up a regional planner (so you can plan cross-boundary trips).

other than the daily commuters.. seriously, how many people are actually willing to attempt to use public transit to go from downtown to the suburbs regularly? even with the device, they still won't..'cause they will find out it will take them over 2 hrs to get to anywhere from 416 to 905 on a good day..might as well ask your friend for a ride or rent a car for $1 a day

I commuted on transit for many many years, from Aurora to King and Spadina if you can freaking believe it.

I then drove for almost 3 years from downtown Toronto to Richmond Hill every freaking day. The transit, as much as it may seem slow and sucky and expensive, is BY FAR the better deal. It costs less time and less money, even in its current state.

The transit/trip planners usually require a transit system that can follow scheduled times (read: not the TTC). The most we can hope for is just a general route planner.

Maybe that's why they are pushing for GPS tracking, so they can create an adaptive planning system (yea right!).

The route planner is coming, as someone else mentioned above, it was always scheduled for early 2009 and was a separate contract from the website.

I thought I heard a few years back that Google offered to implement this for free but TTC refused. I know Google has released a public transit planner for Chicago, it's awesome.

There is also a website, which takes in account GO Transit, Toronto Mississauga and Brampton Transit. It has a few bugs and outside the direct Toronto area you have to give it a station ... but it is a start.
http://imetro.nanika.net and for the mobile http://imetro.mobi
It has done this for a number of world cities and has 4 Canadian cities so far.

Have a look at MyTTC.ca

It says right on their website, "Future home of Trip Planner" directly underneath "Find a schedule" so something's going to show up there eventually.

What bugs me most is the new layout of their freaking site is more confusing (see: trying to see which bus goes when to the zoo) and worse, I can't plan out 'length of trip' anymore by following a specific bus along from point A to point B because the 'next 3 buses' system ruins that. UGH!!

Mississauga Transit's site is kinda ghetto but not only have they had live agents willing to plan your route for you for at least 10 years, they've had a trip planner for about 5. That's a sign right there that the TTC is stupid.

MyTTC.ca is actually quite good, given that you know how to read GoogleMaps and understand that MyTTC is in its infancy. As the site's creators admit, there's a lot of data being wrangled, and it isn't perfect. But it's a community-based website, and they're looking for feedback. It's a helluva lot better than guessing, and it has the potential to be awesome *and* inclusive (something the TTC has been less than stellar at). I find the route planner to be great, even if the schedules aren't always perfect (thanks to the TTC's renowned punctuality).

Transit users *do* pay a fee for accessing transit data. They call it "taxes." Personally, I'm sick of being gouged every time I get on a streetcar, and I certainly don't want to pay AGAIN so that I can predict when the next one is coming to collect my exorbitant fare. Transit data should be completely public and accessible, and should be displayed at major stops. If Viva can do it, so can the TTC.

The answer to this question is the same answer to every repetition of this question: They had to revamp the entire base Web site first. Then, concurrently, they had to amass their own geospatial data (they *must* own their own data). Then an entire system has to be developed to plan routings using that data. And it has to be accessible, which, incidentally, I doubt it actually will be.

The problem is not centrally that the TTC is merely backward, as implied. Nor is it remotely viable to just plug in Google Maps, for reasons that have already been explained on the dozen other blogs that have treated this subject (and explained by implication above).

Following on from Joe's comment:

I've been told that the TTC doesn't have a schedule database. Yep, all those schedule lists you see are produced by hand. They simply don't have the decent enough data to base a trip planner off. I guess that's why they have to invest in GPS to get the data. But as MyTTC has proved - it doesn't matter all that much - I mean who plans their trips by the minute anyway?

if you dial 393-info and then press zero they'll tell you exactly how to get to your destination using the ttc, i've been using it for years and it's pretty great.

TTC's job data infrastructure. Then applications easy part for others. But where TTC data? Why not listen to Princeton guys?

See, I said it concisely.