One feature of the http://511.org web site is called the "Take Transit Trip Planner." Using the Trip Planner, you enter your starting point and your destination, and it will respond with the information on how to use mass transit to get there.
Although the ready availability of sites like http://mapquest.com have caused us to take capabilities such as this for granted, the fact is that implementing such a system is no trivial task.
One of the agencies that provides data used by the Trip Planner is Caltrain, which provides commuter rail service between San Francisco and San Jose. Their data includes the name and location of each station, as well as schedule information.
Caltrain's main station in San Francisco is known as "4th and King". I noticed that when I entered this station name, even including "caltrain" as part of the name, Trip Planner did not consider that to be a match, and always prompted me to verify that was the station I meant.
Since I occasionally use Trip Planner to get information on how to get to and from "4th and King", I took them up on their offer to provide suggestions for improvement to their site.
Before I provide the response I got to this suggestion, I need to point out that http://511.org is not a "minimalist" sort of web site. It's got javascript, links that change color when you mouseover them, and style sheets.
While these features make the site "cool", they're also annoying. Yes, tens of thousands of sites use these features, just like they use "flash" and do other things
that require serious effort to put together but actually detract from the usability of the web site.
| Topic BayAreaTransitPartners . { Edit | Ref-By | Attach | Diffs | r1.1 } |
|
Revision r1.1 - 08 Jun 2004 - 02:59 by EliMantel
Privacy Policy |
Copyright © 2000-2005 by the contributing authors.
All material on this collaboration tool is the property of the contributing authors. Collect email addresses here. Ideas, requests, problems regarding TWiki? Send feedback. |