City
TTC: Give Us A Route Planner
Okay... I've agreed with too many people lately on this point: it is ridiculous that the TTC does not offer some sort of route planner tool on their website. You know... go to a website, punch in where you are, where you want to go, and tell me how to get there.
They have just approved $9.9 million to be spent on a satellite system to give travelers an accurate update on for arrival times. GPS data will be relayed to bus and subway stations to let you know precisely when to expect your ride.
That's great. But someone please give me a good reason for not making a trip planner a priority. Although they have recently unveiled their new website, a trip planner is still M.I.A.
How many times have you had to download the huge PDF version of the system map, zooming in with your fingers crossed that your computer doesn't hang up, so that you can try to plot out a decent route to get somewhere? An automated trip or route planner seems like such an easy way to drastically improve service.
There is the TTC phone hotline but believe me, you won't get much help there. Call expecting someone to tell you how to get from point A to point B - they're about as helpful as a candy store is to a diabetic.
I'm not a tech wizard, but it just doesn't seem that complicated. When I lived in Mississauga, I guess I took their Click n' Ride Online Trip Planner for granted. But Ottawa has one. So do Calgary and Vancouver. They make it so easy that it's hard to imagine not having.
So maybe Toronto's transit system is larger than all those cities. Perhaps it's too complicated to translate online. Hold on. London and New York have pulled it off.
Actually, there is a private website, MyTTC.ca, that does exactly this. It's not affiliated with the TTC but provides a pretty good tool for planning trips online. For major routes I'm sure it works great but I have my doubts about how well it can work, given that it uses limited data and can admittedly give some "wacky" information. I think it's awesome that they went ahead and did this, but you would think that the TTC would have access to all the data to make something like this work best.
I'm not the first to point out the ineptitude of the TTC's website, but I just had to rant on this one point that stands out for me as one of the major shortcomings of our transit system. I hope they don't plan on stalling on this one for much longer.
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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 :)
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
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.
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....
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)
From Tatiana's <a href="http://www.blogto.com/city/2008/06/ttc_to_unveil_new_website_today/";>post</href> 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.
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.
Maybe that's why they are pushing for GPS tracking, so they can create an adaptive planning system (yea right!).
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.
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.
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 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).
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?
See, I said it concisely.
TTC Online Trip Planner
I figured since Mississauga has one, why not? Toronto will definitely have one.
WRONG.
These online trip planners are very helpful and I think it is very important that every city has one, including the largest, most populated city in Ontario (Canada even), Toronto.
In my test it worked a little better than myttc.ca
guess the TTC management is getting all its ideas from the sports teams here, ala leafssss
Take the subway eastbound from Islington to Yonge (green line). Go to the Bloor platform (yellow line) and take the subway northbound to Finch station. Then, according to the TTC: From Finch subway station, take any 39 Finch bus (except E) to Seneca Hill Drive, proceed to the campus.
Good luck...
http://tripplanner.ttc.ca/