In message , at 17:20:26 on
Fri, 11 Apr 2008, MarkVarley - MVP
remarked:
A few times I've seen that my bus is due next in a couple of minutes
but it just doesn't arrive, several later busses come and then it
vanishes off the sign, abducted by aliens?

Signs like that normally have two modes of operation (but they fail to
explain this).

If the arrival time says "10.35" that means the timetable says there
should be a bus at 10.35. Nothing more.

If the arrival times says "3 minutes" that means they've tracked an
actual bus and it's 3 minutes away.

The former will just scroll off irrespective of the passage of buses.
--
Roland Perry

On 12 Apr, 10:36, Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 17:20:26 on
Fri, 11 Apr 2008, MarkVarley - MVP
remarked:

A few times I've seen that my bus is due next in a couple of minutes
but it just doesn't arrive, several later busses come and then it
vanishes off the sign, abducted by aliens?

Signs like that normally have two modes of operation (but they fail to
explain this).

If the arrival time says "10.35" that means the timetable says there
should be a bus at 10.35. Nothing more.

If the arrival times says "3 minutes" that means they've tracked an
actual bus and it's 3 minutes away.

The former will just scroll off irrespective of the passage of buses.


I'm almost certain that the London Countdown system doesn't have any
capability to work in the first way you describe - i.e. by simply
listing buses according when they should arrive according to the
timetable.

On Apr 12, 11:55*am, Mizter T wrote:
On 12 Apr, 10:36, Roland Perry wrote:





In message , at 17:20:26 on
Fri, 11 Apr 2008, MarkVarley - MVP
remarked:

A few times I've seen that my bus is due next in a couple of minutes
but it just doesn't arrive, several later busses come and then it
vanishes off the sign, abducted by aliens?

Signs like that normally have two modes of operation (but they fail to
explain this).

If the arrival time says "10.35" that means the timetable says there
should be a bus at 10.35. Nothing more.

If the arrival times says "3 minutes" that means they've tracked an
actual bus and it's 3 minutes away.

The former will just scroll off irrespective of the passage of buses.

I'm almost certain that the London Countdown system doesn't have any
capability to work in the first way you describe - i.e. by simply
listing buses according when they should arrive according to the
timetable.-

I am sure that the disappearance is due to the locations of detectors
and faster than expected arrivals. Eg if the nearest detector is in a
location deemed to be 10 minutes away, and the bus does it in 7
minutes, it will show the bus as still expected for 3 minutes after
it's gone. (Although could the detectors be that far apart?)

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...

If the arrival time says "10.35" that means the timetable says there
should be a bus at 10.35. Nothing more.

We have the sma problems in railway world... PIS pulls off the PTT and
assumes everything is ok. When a train is CAPD and the system is not told is
assumes its just not left yet, and either add's 2min's a time to its ETA.
Once it passes its due time at any point along the route (if it ever dose)
it will vanish without a trace.

If its delayed on leaving its origion then it will just rackup time by
2min's at every refresh, or if there is no recording of it it will vanish
anyway and show the next booked service, and then flup between the late one,
and the booked one.

If the arrival times says "3 minutes" that means they've tracked an actual
bus and it's 3 minutes away.

This is the same as 'LULTime' where in it might be 3 min's away, but not
moving - so it will never arrive in 3 min's


There is the added fun of turn-a-rounds at either end of the route, PIS (and
others) have no idea or concept of it, and can't compute the 'next working'
This can cause all sorts of fun when things go a bit broke.

What we should be doing with I-Bus is getting the backend to process what's
actually going on in real time based on live GPS data, LTIS, SWS, and real
time congestion data. They should have the ability to calculate the arrival
of the service at any given point based on all the information above. It
should also be aware of things like driver changes, and what happens when a
bus is pulled half way on its route.

In railway world all we need to do is process the TDS information a bit
better, work in turn-rounds, and have some hook into the SSI (Assuming we
don't role out a GPS system across the NR network...


My 2p worth.