BussMap

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Goal: Explore different map interfaces / integrations for searching bus routes (i.e. BussTUC)

Contents 1 Data sources 2 General features 3 (DONE)Simple map integration 4 Extended map integration 5 Walking direction 6 Browsing of bus routes and stops 7 Real-time information

Data sources

• http://www.rutebok.no/
  • Complete(?) route information in Norway?
• Local PostGIS database over bus stops in Trondheim - with coordinates
• BussTUC - (straightforward) screen scraper developed in PHP

General features

• Automatic fill-out of "from" location using:
  1. GPS
  2. (Firefox) Geolocation API (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W3C_Geolocation_API)
  3. Generic IP geocoding
  4. User preferences (i.e. most used from location)

• Auto-complete bus stop names in all textual inputs
  • Google suggest-like

(DONE)Simple map integration

• Initiated by TeamTrafikk/LingIT
• Proof of concept for map integration
• Requirements; Simple map integration to bussTUC showing driving route.
• POC; http://geomatikk.eksplisitt.net/taraldsv/

Extended map integration

• Extending simple map integration
• Requirements:
  1. Allow bus stops name in to/from input
  2. More accurate bus route in GMap.
• Solution
  • Integrate bus stop database
  • Parse (some) of the bus oracle result
    • Move oracle query to server side for post-processing
  • Extend GDirection query to include intermediate bus stops
    • Route will be forced to bus stops - however not necessarily completely accurate...
• Query process

1. Input from user
2. Reformulate and query bussTUC
3. Parse result (get bus stop name closest to address)
   1. Parse the bus route number "Buss 8" - fetch "8"
   2. Save result for later display
4. Query BussTUC again with: "hvilke Holdeplasser passerer buss 8 fra nardosenteret til erling skakkes gt 14"
   1. Parse result (i.e. explode on ",")
   2. Query bus stop database to retrieve coordinates for all bus stops involved in journey
5. Send GDirection query as
   1. "from: 64.1234,10.234 to: 63.234,10.432 to: 64.23,10.543 ..... to: Erling skakkes gt. 14" Include all involved bus stops
      1. If start/end points are addresses - use initial "to" and "from" addresses as start and end point in direction query
6. Display first oracle query
7. Display GDirection result in map

Walking direction

• Walking direction to/from arbitrary address/point to/from nearest bus stop
• Input: to/from address (point)
• Intermediate: Formulate bussTUC natural language query
• Output:
  • Two maps with walking directions
    • from point1 to nearest bus stop
    • to point2 from end bus stop nearest point2
  • Textual response from bussTUC

Browsing of bus routes and stops

• Ability to browse/see (all) bus routes and stops in a map
• Need route-information as geodata
• Challenge:
  • Is a lot of information (many points and lines) - need good uncluttered visualisation

Real-time information

• Communicate real-time information of buses in relation to geography
• Mostly base itself on GIS-functionality to filter relevant buses
  • Current location as filter
  • Previously selected routes (i.e. user profiling)
  • ...
• Visually in a map
• Textual