Posts Tagged ‘commuting’

Improving transportation planning for cyclists through smartphones & GPS

Monday, January 11th, 2010

The San Francisco Transportation Authority (SFTA) has released a mobile application that will improve its ability to understand the traffic patterns of cyclists in the city. Traditionally, the SFTA has used far less accurate and more manual methods of collecting data on bicycle use – e.g., someone standing on a corner counting. By installing an app on your GPS-enabled smartphone and then providing some data on your trips, you can provide rich, accurate, and real-time data to SFTA on how you bike in the city. This is a great step forward in quantifying the growing number of cyclists in the city and making the roads better for them.

The application is currently only available on the iPhone and Android platforms. This has driven some concern for a variety of reasons:

  • It doesn’t provide an accurate view of a very large segment of users. Blackberry has far more current users than the iPhone and the Android platforms combined.

  • It doesn’t provide as representative a picture of users from a variety of income backgrounds. The iPhone is one of the most expensive devices out there ($200 for the newest model). You can get a Blackberry for $50 or often less.

  • It probably undercounts bicycle commuters heading downtown. There are 16 million more enterprise Blackberry users than there are enterprise iPhone users in the US. I believe that addressing the bicycle needs of commuters represents the largest opportunity for taking cars off the road.

  • It isn’t available on CREDO Mobile. Bicyclists such as myself love CREDO Mobile, the greenest mobile phone carrier in America. The iPhone is only available on AT&T, a carrier with a history of contributions to right-wing politicians, including U.S. Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) who opposes government spending on bicycle infrastructure. Also, CREDO Mobile is a San Francisco business and woman-owned.

    • If you are interested in having the Cycletracks app support Blackberry, please contact Billy Charlton via email or at (415) 522-4816.

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    Posted in Public policy, Reference, Utilities | No Comments »

    When’s the Next Bus?

    Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009

    The environmental and social benefits of mass transit are obvious.  But often, those benefits can be outweighed by the time costs — especially when you have no idea when the next bus (or train) is going to show up, and thus have to plan extra time into your trip to sit there and wait at the bus stop.

    Fortunately, if you’re served by any of about 50 transit agencies that publish real-time arrival information on the web through NextBus.com, you can easily use your mobile phone to find out exactly when the next bus is going to show up.

    To try it out, point your phone’s WAP browser to www.nextbus.com, and then navigate according to your transit agency, route and stop.   If it’s a stop you use frequently, it’s probably best to bookmark that page so you can get to it easier in the future.

    When living in San Francisco I found this service to be a great help in squeezing a few extra minutes into my hectic morning.  Living about 2 minutes from my MUNI stop, I knew that if the next streetcar was coming in 3 or 4 minutes, I needed to leave immediately.  If the WAP browser on my phone told me 5 or 6 minutes, I could calmly finish my coffee…and if it said 7 minutes or more, I could spend a little more quality time with my daughter.  (2 minutes?  Start running, or catch the next one.  1 minute?  Fuhgeddaboudit.)

    In mass-transit world there’s nothing more satisfying than having your bus show up at your stop right after you do.  With accurate, real-time transit info delivered to your phone, long waits for the bus can become a thing of the past.

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    Posted in Green, Travel and Maps | 4 Comments »