Gunnar Thöle wrote:
Dave Arquati schrieb:

I found riding buses in London to be quite difficult because
information is not very complete. But the underground network is cool.

That's interesting. What don't you consider complete about the
information? In my (probably more limited) experience, London has the

Mainly its the onboard information i found missing. Travelling to
Crystal Palace on a bus i was constantly looking outside for some
building that might be a palace... Whereas i would have preferred to
drowse and just glimpse at some kind of in-bus display once in a while...
Also i would have liked a map with all bus lines on them (yes, this
would have to be very very huge). My Hamburg town map shows bus lines,
for example. Does an A-Z show bus lines?

A-Z's don't show bus lines (although some very old ones used to have a
map of important bus routes in the back).

I can understand the problem with on-board information. As Neil
suggested, LEDs with the next stop would be very useful. Ideally I'd
also like to see important real-time information displayed on these too
(like Tube, DLR & rail disruptions, and bus diversions). I'd imagine
this could be delivered relatively easily using GPRS.

A number of buses have screens fitted to them now (one on each deck)
which show CCTV images from around the bus - presumably to deter
vandals. However, this isn't necessarily very useful at busy times, and
they could be used to display the sort of information I am talking about.

most comprehensive bus information of anywhere I have ever been. For
example: the spider maps (although I know John dislikes them :-) ).

Yeah, its quite comprehensive, Hamburg surely isn't better than London
in this regard. But IMHO its not perfect. Problem: I don't know how
offboard information (at the stop) could be made much better.

What i found very good was the Countdown system. Hamburg is just now
starting to install something similar.

I would have said Countdown was the worst of the stop information!
Although I appreciate the idea (particularly when making a choice
between bus & tube at Piccadilly Circus for example) I don't think it
works well; many buses are not listed and the information tends to be
inaccurate. It may be better in some parts of London than others; at
Piccadilly Circus and South Kensington it certainly doesn't seem to be!

online information (www.journeyplanner.org). The WAP version of TfL's
site also extremely comprehensive and valuable information.

Yes, WAP is cool. I got a flat tariff for WAP now (5 Euro per month for
unlimited WAP) and this changed my journey habits very much. I use
http://mobile.bahn.de/ as my journey planner for everywhere now, it
knows all Hamburg transport systems, most of germany, and it will even
tell me London rail timetables. This is so useful.
And for getting to stations http://pda.mappy.com/ shows me the way
everywhere...

As well as the TfL site, I also regularly use the National Rail one
(live arrivals and departures info is very handy, as well as the journey
planner) and the BBC's road traffic information (not as good but
sometimes useful).

I'd say the next step for the TfL sites (normal web & WAP) is to
introduce Tube next-departure info like they have for the DLR (they're
trialling at the moment I think). Whilst they're at it, they could nick
National Rail's info too. After that, an option for "next departures
from nearest stop" would be great, where it gives that information based
on your location.

I'm sure on 3G networks something more sophisticated would be possible -
e.g. bringing up a map of your surrounding area, highlighting nearby
stops or stations with their live next-departure information.


--
Dave Arquati
Imperial College, SW7
www.alwaystouchout.com - Transport projects in London