(1/27/2013)
One decision I make during my NYC daily commute is whether to walk 5 minutes to take a bus or walk 10 minutes to take the subway. MTA has recently released real-time data behind major subway lines and bus lines. Many apps have since been developed to simply report real-time transit data of subway and bus arrival times. However, none have leveraged the integration of location-aware information with both real-time subway AND bus data to assist a commuting decision made on a daily basis.
Transit Quest’s central design consists of the following:
General User Experience
1. User provides Location and Time
- User’s current or user-specified
2. User provides Transit Options
- User would provide up to a number of the following options
- Subway
- Which line
- Specific stop
- Direction
- Bus
- Route
- Specific stop
- Direction
3. App performs each of the following:
- Processes time, location and transit options
- Calculates the distance of the user to each option’s stop
- Considers the real time until transit (subway/bus) would arrive to each stop
- Returns its recommendation of an optimal option
Other Features
- Favorites: individual location, subway and bus lines/stops
- Favorites: combinations of the location, subway and bus lines/stops
Project milestones and deliverables
- Interface design
- API integration (MTA subway and bus)
- Mapping and navigation integration
- Database management
Thoughts
I had just started out with planning and designing this project. Like many in our class, I don’t have much time to work on this. I welcome any feedback or comments, and hopefully have provided enough detail for you to have an idea what I’m pursuing.