Electronic bus stop timetables

xper · 16-11-2010 12:56am

KC61 wrote: »

They are being installed at stops that are busy from a loading perspective.

Was in Stillorgan this evening and noticed a silvery new pole beside the inbound shopping centre stop there as we pulled out of the car park. I presume someone has told DLRCC that the 145 and 46A (offically) and 84 (unofficially) don't pass it anymore, just the 47 now. They have, haven't they? :eek: If one doesn't also appear at the dual carriageway stop I might die laughing.

bk wrote:

They couldn't just create an open and free web service and leave anyone who wanted to create the apps.

I just hope they're not looking this as a revenue stream and charge for it like DB did with BUSTXT. Message to DB: You don't charge people to view adverts for your service.

FreudianSlippers · 16-11-2010 1:30am

xper wrote: »

Was in Stillorgan this evening and noticed a silvery new pole beside the inbound shopping centre stop there as we pulled out of the car park. I presume someone has told DLRCC that the 145 and 46A (offically) and 84 (unofficially) don't pass it anymore, just the 47 now. They have, haven't they? :eek: If one doesn't also appear at the dual carriageway stop I might die laughing.

I just hope they're not looking this as a revenue stream and charge for it like DB did with BUSTXT. Message to DB: You don't charge people to view adverts for your service.

Yeah, charging would be a huge mistake.

IngazZagni · 17-11-2010 4:23pm

xper wrote: »

Was in Stillorgan this evening and noticed a silvery new pole beside the inbound shopping centre stop there as we pulled out of the car park. I presume someone has told DLRCC that the 145 and 46A (offically) and 84 (unofficially) don't pass it anymore, just the 47 now. They have, haven't they? :eek: If one doesn't also appear at the dual carriageway stop I might die laughing.

You could argue though that having an electronic timetable inbound at Stillorgan DC is rather pointless as you'd be quite unlucky to be waiting more than 10 mins for a bus anyway. With a bus stop that just has the 47 stopping at it, you could be waiting for well over 30 minutes if unlucky so it may make more sense to have one here. So then a person could read the board which says next bus is the 47 in 40 mins. Person would realize that they just missed the bus and could walk down to the DC to get a bus more quickly.

Sulmac · 17-11-2010 10:54pm

Saw a pole today beside the 39A bus stop on Nassau Street.

18-11-2010 1:21pm

The information on the display screens should be pretty much accurate. It will never be 100% correct in it's present form as it is dependent on input from controllers.

Example: The display reads "Route 128 due in 3 minutes." However, this bus breaks down out of sight and before it reaches the stop. The sign will continue to display the "due in 3 minutes" until the controller curtails the journey on his computer.

If there is an error with the radio data system on a particular bus, you may also get a wrong display time. A bus could just turn up out of the blue and not be listed on the display.

This AVL system is in use in Germany and was developed for German conditions. It is being currently adapted for use in Dublin conditions which are much more difficult to operate a bus service in.

The AVL uses two seperate tracking systems on each bus: Logical and Satellite tracking. Logical measures the distance driven by a unit attached to a wheel on the bus and the satellite tracking is similar to sat-nav on a car. Signals from both units are transmitted via the bus radio unit to transmitter stations every few seconds and this information is forwarded to the computers in the Central Control Unit in Broadstone.

It is a very good system, but like all technology will have glitches now and again.

18-11-2010 1:27pm

The following website is currently on test. It gives real time information for buses at one or two test stops. It is probably a little cumbersome in it's current format, but it will give you an idea of what to expect.

http://dublin.acisconnect.com/

noelfirl · 20-11-2010 3:30pm

Many thanks for that helpful information and link to the test server. I noted this morning/afternoon that poles have appeared on D'Olier and the South Quays from Aston to Usher's at most if not all stops I could see, and at Parkgate St., in addition to those who others have already pointed out that are on College St., College Green, Nassau St. and Abbey St. (and I presume others spots in the city centre as well). I really think these will make one hell of a difference to the dreary wait for commuters playing out the will it/won't it come game in their head. Great stuff.

Chris_5339762 · 20-11-2010 9:14pm

Delighted too that its using OSM data

Sulmac · 27-11-2010 7:03pm

Noticed a pole yesterday next to the stop on Baggot Street Upper for buses heading into the city centre (the one on the same side as Eddie Rocket's).

bg07 · 27-11-2010 8:29pm

The poles have been appearing steadily in the city centre over the last couple of weeks. Still none on O'Connell Street but hopefully that will change in the coming weeks.

bg07 · 30-11-2010 4:23pm

904473 wrote: »

The following website is currently on test. It gives real time information for buses at one or two test stops. It is probably a little cumbersome in it's current format, but it will give you an idea of what to expect.

http://dublin.acisconnect.com/

Information is shown for a lot more stops now. Some routes such as 41 and 16/16A among others are shown along their entire route. Seems that all stops where buses are from depots where AVLC is rolled out are up on the system now. The website beginning to be useful depending on what buses you get.

KC61 · 30-11-2010 5:43pm

Why is the website useless?

bg07 · 30-11-2010 6:04pm

KC61 wrote: »

Why is the website useless?

Apologies I'm must have been half asleep when I wrote that. Meant to write useful. Post corrected now

baileys3 · 18-01-2011 10:36pm

In todays Evening Herald

http://www.herald.ie/national-news/c...r-2500321.html

By Geraldine Gittens
Tuesday January 18 2011

REAL-time information screens will be operational at Dublin Bus stops by the middle of next month, it has been revealed.

Up to 450 signs will be erected at the city's busiest bus stops, and real-time information on the remaining stops will be available for passengers online.

The new screens will mean that passengers will now be informed on the expected arrival times of their next buses, similar to the Dart and Luas information screens.

Each bus stop will have a four digit "identifier number", which city commuters will be able to search online to check for the next available bus.

Poles for the signs are being erected across the city, and the pilot began last March when tender contracts were awarded.

FACILITY

A spokesperson for the National Transport Authority (NTA) said: "We'll be doing live, dynamic tests by mid-February, and as we're testing we're learning. "It's going to be live, and as far as the commuters are concerned, it will be running.

"The stops that have been chosen are because they're the busiest or there's a lot of interchange with other buses, or it meets a destination or a sporting facility."

The project has been delayed since it was announced early last year that it would be operational by Christmas, with the cold snap blamed.

The NTA spokesperson explained: "It's like every new piece of technology.

"The testing stage is critical and it will be rigorous, and we didn't want to launch into something that wasn't right. The whole December period was a bit of a wipe-out as well.

OPERATIONAL

"It's being tested and piloted all over the system, and where the signs will first be switched on hasn't been decided yet.

"But we'll roll it out very quickly so that it covers the whole city."

Meanwhile, Dublin Bus is in the process of rolling out an automatic vehicle location system (AVLS) on its bus fleet, in tandem with the screens.

The AVLC system operates like a GPS system, and the technology is fitted in Dublin Bus vehicles and this feeds data back to the centralised control centre at Dublin Bus.

A spokesperson explained: "It is operating on all bus routes based in five of our depots. Routes from the remaining two depots will be operational by the end of the first quarter of the year."

BrianD · 22-01-2011 12:35pm

Is there much activity at the moment? A lot of poles went up before the cold snap but not much has been happening since. I would have thought that they would have a lot of the displays installed by now.

dubb · 03-03-2011 12:05pm

BrianD wrote: »

Support post has appeared in Rathmines.

The display is up and running now at Lower Rathmines Rd., Junction Williams Park, Stop 1070. Looks good.
It's a great big wide stop too, in front of the new Rathmines pool. Unfortunately the drivers refuse to use it, and instead stop just past the stop in the bus lane. So to read the display you have to walk 20 feet back from where the bus stops.

Any idea why the drivers won't use this stop? There was a smaller one before, and the builders or council did a big job a year or so ago adding in the new wheelchair friendly kerbs, etc., but the drivers insist on stopping in the bus lane instead.

LXFlyer · 04-03-2011 10:14am

dubb wrote: »

The display is up and running now at Lower Rathmines Rd., Junction Williams Park, Stop 1070. Looks good.
It's a great big wide stop too, in front of the new Rathmines pool. Unfortunately the drivers refuse to use it, and instead stop just past the stop in the bus lane. So to read the display you have to walk 20 feet back from where the bus stops.

Any idea why the drivers won't use this stop? There was a smaller one before, and the builders or council did a big job a year or so ago adding in the new wheelchair friendly kerbs, etc., but the drivers insist on stopping in the bus lane instead.

Because it is appallingly designed - it's too small to drive a bus into it and align it properly with the kerb.

You would need a much bigger bay especially with the volume of buses driving along Rathmines Road. It would have been far better to have built it flush with the roadway.

That username is already in use. · 07-03-2011 10:41pm

These digital signs are in English only and are not in compliance with the Official Languages Act.

An Coimisinéir Teanga is currently looking into this.

Even if the signs are on a test run or temporary, they still have to be in Irish, or bilingual.

I do hope that Dublin Bus aren't trying to contravene the regulations like Dublin City Council did with the Way-finding Scheme.

If Dublin Bus didn't tender for a fully bilingual system in the first place, they will now have to go back and spend even more money altering the system to cater for the Irish language.

The legislation is there, and if public bodies ignore it, the tax payer has to pay even more to bring these signs into compliance.

markpb · 07-03-2011 10:50pm

That username is already in use. wrote: »

These digital signs are in English only and are not in compliance with the Official Languages Act. An Coimisinéir Teanga is currently looking into this.

That username is already in use. wrote: »

I am actually very happy with that.

It means I now have a stronger clout when querying DCC on other issues, not just in relation to language policy. They won't fob me off with blatent lies the next time as they know I will take things further. Goal achieved.

I have learned a lot about the inner workings of the DCC over the past month and I intend to poke about a lot more.

I am nosey and insistant - the government hate that.

Congratulations - after delaying the tourists signs for the city centre and putting more cost on DCC, you're now embarking on another campaign to have useful signs rendered useless at huge cost to the taxpayer.

Do you really believe that changing City Centre into An Lar will encourage people to use Irish? Thank you for reminding me though - I must start lobbying my new FG TDs to have the OL Act scrapped.

L1011 · 07-03-2011 10:54pm

That username is already in use. wrote: »

The legislation is there, and if public bodies ignore it, the tax payer has to pay even more to bring these signs into compliance.

Only when busy-bodies cause that to be the case.

The signs are too small to be bilingual. Nobody - absolutely NOBODY - is reliant on the Irish names for places in Dublin.

Causing extra costs to a broke state isn't going to endear the language to anyone and I sincerely hope our new, non-Irish loving government halt the implementation of the OLA due to it being celtic-tiger era legislation for a now broke land.

Also, why someone living in Carraroe feels *entitled* to repeatedly stick their oar in in Dublin amazes me.

That username is already in use. · 07-03-2011 11:12pm

markpb wrote: »

Congratulations - after delaying the tourists signs for the city centre and putting more cost on DCC, you're now embarking on another campaign to have useful signs rendered useless at huge cost to the taxpayer.

Do you really believe that changing City Centre into An Lar will encourage people to use Irish?

I don't care if you hate the language, as you will do so 'till your grave, and nothing I say or do will ever make you change your opinion.

Love it or hate it, I am exercising my rights under the OLA and exposing those that are deliberately contravening the legislation.

The only people wasting tax payers' money are those that ignore the legislation in the first place and then have to go back and spend even more money correcting their own mistakes.

I guess you're looking for a two-tier system: Laws that apply, and laws that don't. Good luck with that.

L1011 · 07-03-2011 11:13pm

That username is already in use. wrote: »

Love it or hate it, I am exercising my rights under the OLA and exposing those that are deliberately contravening the legislation

I don't think forgetting a minority language of no relevance is "deliberately contravening"

I'd also think that providing unused translations of documents is possibly the most obvious waste of tax payers money possible; something your beloved OLA causes en masse.

markpb · 07-03-2011 11:14pm

That username is already in use. wrote: »

I don't care if you hate the language, as you will do so 'till your grave, and nothing I say or do will ever make you change your opinion.

Where did I say I hate it? I've no problem with Irish - I have a problem with it being forced down peoples throats in a useless fashion. I think forcing DCC to put Irish on tourist signs after they had been manufactured and printed was a giant waste of money. I think forcing DB to put An Lar on the RTIS is stupid. I think that money would be better spent on serious Irish initiatives that might make people love it. I genuinely don't believe you love Irish.

Thank you on behalf of all the people who will now get to stare at turned off signs by DCC re-write the software to accommodate precisely no-one (since you don't live in Dublin but care enough about our signs).

L1011 · 07-03-2011 11:16pm

markpb wrote: »

. I think forcing DCC to put Irish on tourist signs after they had been manufactured and printed was a giant waste of money.

It wasn't even that much. He forced them to change the colour of the Irish. - it was already there, and in a different colour to show that it wasn't a second set of attractions...

That username is already in use. · 07-03-2011 11:21pm

MYOB wrote: »

The signs are too small to be bilingual.

The place names will flick from Irish to English every 3 seconds.

MYOB wrote: »

Causing extra costs to a broke state isn't going to endear the language to anyone

Perhaps Dublin Bus should have followed the law in the first place, then there wouldn't be any extra costs.

MYOB wrote: »

Why someone living in Carraroe feels *entitled* to repeatedly stick their oar in in Dublin amazes me.

I am as Irish as you - we're from the same country. Get over it.

markpb · 07-03-2011 11:22pm

That username is already in use. wrote: »

I am as Irish as you - we're from the same country. Get over it.

Why can't you answer my question? Do you think this will encourage people to speak Irish?

L1011 · 07-03-2011 11:25pm

That username is already in use. wrote: »

The place names will flick from Irish to English every 3 seconds.

Making them unreadable for nearly all the population half of the time; and requiring software changes that could be either impossible of cost huge amounts of money.

That username is already in use. wrote: »

Perhaps Dublin Bus should have followed the law in the first place, then there wouldn't be any extra costs.

Perhaps the law shouldn't have such ridiculously far reaching provisions as it has. Like most laws drafted under an FF government, its badly thought out and panders to interest groups, no more.

That username is already in use. wrote: »

I am as Irish as you - we're from the same country. Get over it.

I don't feel any right to complain about bus stop design in Connemara.

bg07 · 07-03-2011 11:33pm

That username is already in use. wrote: »

Perhaps Dublin Bus should have followed the law in the first place, then there wouldn't be any extra costs.

Stop blaming Dublin Bus. The rollout of these signs is the responsility of your old arch nemesis DCC

That username is already in use. · 08-03-2011 12:19am

markpb wrote: »

Why can't you answer my question? Do you think this will encourage people to speak Irish?

Having public signage primarily in Irish will re-enforce the attitude for the next generation that Irish is the first official language of this State. Overhaul of the Irish curriculum and more Gaelscoils will bring more Irish speakers.

That is my goal, and I will use these laws to ensure that Irish comes before English in the public realm.

I really couldn't care less about posters here that hate the language. You will never learn it or speak it, you will forever hate it, so you are a lost cause to me.

It is my children and the next generation that I am concerned about. I want them to grow up loving the language and speaking it fluently, and to see as much Irish in the public realm as possible.

Next target is road signage, which is not covered under the OLA. We're going to change that. See here for proposed signage.

I have many other schemes going on, which will absolutely sicken all of you you here.

I have a tin whistle and bodhrán class every Wed for free - have about 30 - 40 students. I also have an Irish cómhrá circle every other Monday for all ages.

Anyway, it's pretty clear I'm up against the huge anti-Irish lobby here, so I'll move on and return once I have another signage issue to complain about.

Byeeee!

L1011 · 08-03-2011 12:26am

That username is already in use. wrote: »

Next target is road signage, which is not covered under the OLA. We're going to change that. See here for proposed signage.

Seeing as we've just had a new TSM published, I think you can put that delusion away where it belongs.

How come its OK for Irish to be a different colour there and not on DCC tourist signs? Oh yes, because you enjoy being awkward.

You may also remember that public signage was nearly entirely in Irish until about 20 years ago; it did absolutely nothing to "reinforce" the language. The OLA and its provisions just allow a tiny, shouty group to be awkward and think they're winning.

You make a very big, very dangerous and I suspect hilariously wrong assumption that people who think you're doing nothing other than wasting public funds for the hell of it "hate" Irish and can't speak it.

Electronic bus stop timetables

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