MUNI Transit Delays Visualized

Data

transit delay visualization

SHOW HN2014

86points
32comments
#337of 2,272 in 2014
Top 15%of 2014 by points

How HN took it

CuriousMostly questions and neutral comments

2 positive, 9 neutral or asking, 0 mixed, 0 critical, out of 11 comments about the project. Thread score +0.15.

Idea: 1 for, 0 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Useful for seeing N Judah delays and deciding when to walk or bike instead.

    From 3 comments
    • Well done. This would be extremely useful in one of the mobile muni apps. I look at Transporter in the morning to know when to leave for the N, but if it had an indicator of…
      alexmr on HN
    • This is awesome. Nice work. Accurately shows the N-Judah ridiculousness I experienced this morning.
      evanm on HN
    • Yep. And it's more than just psychological: say I have to be somewhere that's 15 minutes away by bus, and 30 minutes away by foot (this is common for me). A random 20 minute…
      timr on HN
  • Marey's Trains style graphs are a good fit for this data.

    From 1 comment
    • This graphical schedule visualization is often called Marey's Trains. https://mbostock.github.io/protovis/ex/caltrain.html Another project that uses Marey's Trains is an…
      oscilloscope on HN

Objections

  • Comparing against the published schedule is not very useful; planned interval matters more.

    From 1 comment
    • Trying to compare against the published schedule isn't all that useful. As a resident of SF, I long ago gave up the idea that you could look up the scheduled arrival of a bus and…
      dougmccune on HN
  • Delays at the start of routes may reflect driver breaks or waiting rather than traffic.

    From 2 comments
    • Looking at some of the bus routes confirms something I've suspected about MUNI for a long time: most of the "delays" happen at the beginning of the route. I've watched bus…
      timr on HN
    • If you look at these graphs, you'll consistently see horizontal lines in front of the first bus of the day, or on busses that run an hour apart. That's not a delay due to the…
      timr on HN

Requests

  • Measure deviation from planned headway instead of the published schedule.

    From 1 comment
    • Trying to compare against the published schedule isn't all that useful. As a resident of SF, I long ago gave up the idea that you could look up the scheduled arrival of a bus and…
      dougmccune on HN
  • Add private bus locations to the data.

    From 1 comment
    • This would be a lot more interesting with data about private bus locations interlaced with coordinated time.
      justizin on HN
  • Sort bus lines numerically and place limited lines after their regular lines.

    From 1 comment
    • Looks interesting. One minor thing is that if the sorting of the bus lines was numeric rater than lexical I think it would be easier to find a specific bus line. Also the limited…
      birken on HN

Questions

  • What the short black lines represent.

    From 1 comment
    • What do the short black lines represent? I see some lines start, then abruptly end. Is that a train changing route assignments?
      refurb on HN
  • How to decide which direction is inbound versus outbound.

    From 1 comment
    • Could you swap the vertical axis for N Judah? It's a bit confusing to have King & 4th at the top and Judah at the bottom.
      Camillo on HN

Alternatives named

  • nextmuni.com for real-time vehicle position.

    From 1 comment
    • nextmuni.com is pretty good as far as real-time position information goes. I don't think I've even looked at a published schedule for the last decade.
      oneweirdtrick on HN
  • Transporter mobile app for MUNI arrivals.

    From 1 comment
    • Well done. This would be extremely useful in one of the mobile muni apps. I look at Transporter in the morning to know when to leave for the N, but if it had an indicator of…
      alexmr on HN

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