Most subways and bus lines already have route maps posted everywhere. Why not replace them with screens that show where the actual people-movers are? That way, you can decide whether you're better off taking a taxi or another route. [This part is apparently baked for every public transportation system in existence except New York's.]
In addition, have a pager-type device that will let you know where the trains/buses are from anywhere (i.e., BEFORE you pay your fare), or add some processing power and let it determine the fastest public-transportation route from point A to point B.-- bookworm, Jul 06 2000 Intelligent Transportation Systems http://www.its.washington.edu/index.htmlBaked. [egnor, Jul 06 2000, last modified Oct 21 2004] Next Bus http://www.nextbus.com/Baked- San Francisco Area maps w/ locations of vehicles. [billh, Jul 06 2000, last modified Oct 21 2004] http://www.gizmodo....-phone-on-the-tube/ [hippo, Sep 25 2017] http://www.gizmodo....ls-official-report/ [hippo, Sep 25 2017] Transit55 Calgary https://transit55.ca/calgary/Mentioned in my anno [notexactly, Feb 07 2018] See the link to the left.
In Seattle, they have a browser-based applet that will show you the location of any bus in the county. Some bus terminals also have displays showing bus locations and/or arrival times. I think there's even a Palm VII app...-- egnor, Jul 06 2000 In Ipswich (UK) most bus stops have exactly this, an electronic display showing the time to the next bus, where it is going and if there are any delays. As for the taxis, you can always tell how busy they are by how much they quote for a three mile trip across Ipswich (between £3 and £8) the price goes up as demand increases, the gits. Volvo drivers, the lot of 'em.-- Haemavore, Sep 20 2000 In San Francisco some lines now have electronic signs that tell you how long til the next bus will arrive. And in one underground station there's a computer display showing the location of all trains currently underground.-- raisin, Sep 27 2000 Look at www.stcum.qc.ca for telbus and all azimuts-- 974612, Nov 22 2000 When I rode the London Underground a decade ago they had electronic signs which would show when the next train or trains would be arriving and where it would be going; quite nice I thought.-- supercat, Dec 30 2000 This is still a good idea. Also (see link) TfL (Transport for London) has been experimenting with anonymous tracking of passengers' mobile phones to provide data on train crowding. This would allow a passenger to select between multiple route options on the basis of how crowded each was likely to be.-- hippo, Sep 25 2017 Wouldn't that in itself drive some kind of bus-bunching feedback loop?
I see you're unearthing some ancient ideas - nice work.-- normzone, Sep 25 2017 ([norm] It might be cheating but I have a custom 'view' which shows only ideas created/annotated in 2000 but not touched since then)-- hippo, Sep 25 2017 Calgary Transit has this now. See [link] for a third-party map based on the first-party data (via their GTFS-RT API).
// have a pager-type device that will let you know where the trains/buses are from anywhere (i.e., BEFORE you pay your fare), or add some processing power and let it determine the fastest public-transportation route from point A to point B. //
That's a smartphone running Google Maps (which also pulls the GTFS-RT data).-- notexactly, Feb 07 2018 random, halfbakery