Automated bus announcements

[161 New York]

Are you kidding with me with that crappola?  BusTime does NOT kill one's battery life to the degree that you're trying to convey, and there are plenty of places to juice up one's phone. When I'm traveling for long periods of time, I simply carry an extra charger with me, and please don't tell me that they're so expensive because you can get one for a few bucks on E-bay.  BusTime also does NOT use that much data.  Your arguments are completely over exaggerated.  The politicians that pushed for countdown clocks mainly did so for a few elderly people that simply refuse to move into the 21st century and evolve like the rest of us have.  I've seen plenty of elderly folks with smart phones that simply refuse to learn about BusTime not because they're afraid of data expenses, but because they're afraid of adapting to the new world that we live in, so despite me showing them how it works, they act as if the app. is so difficult to use or so complicated that they can't be bothered, but they can call all of their girlfriends (aka yentas) and yack on the phone until the cows come home eating up their voice minutes.  

Hmmmm..... Just out of curiosity I made the first page of the mobile page of Bus Time offline and it was a size of 581 KB, which is slightly over 1/2 MB (and larger than I expected). I also made offline the x17 page and it was 681 KB, the 100 KB difference was presumably the code for each and every object ( bus stop) which has its own hyperlink and however the (at stop, 1 stop away etc., approaching) is coded ( fyi my code knowledge is limited, so coders please chime in). 

 

So, if one were to have to "freshly" load the mobile bus time website 2x a day onto a mobile browser, you would use about 30 MB minimum per month for querying one route. However, most people don't wipe their cache's every session so  followup "refreshes" and queries of different routes would be negligible as the images and script (search boxes) is should be saved to cache (i.e the phone's storage) and wouldn't be necessarily downloaded, therefore bandwidth utilization under most circumstances would be  lets say 1/3 of that 10 MB at the absolute most.

 

I have a monthly 5 GB , 4G plan with unlimited 3G, despite what I consider heavy usage (work, non-mobile optimized internet browsing (across 3 browsers), Facebook, dating sites, NYCTF, Google Maps, streaming music, periodic NSA/CIA/Mossad/Mi5/FSB queries (just kidding ) etc., I have yet to break the 2.5 GB mark.

 

And VG8, you are completely CORRECT about people's reluctance to use the Bus Time and it ain't even the elderly. In the rare instance I talk to people at express bus stops, I usually end up explaining to folks what Bus Time is (since the schedule for the PM weekend x17 buses is a suggestion) and while people seem at first interested (namely that I know when the bus is coming) they don't want to be bothered with it.

 

Also check this out, I use a spare battery pack that I got at Microcenter for $10 that holds two charges.I need music to drown out those yentas as well as the "doctors" and the "self-proclaimed kingpins" one of whom always seem to share the x19 or x24 with. There's a guy who always orders delivery on one bus I had frequently used, blurts out his entire credit card number with expiration date every time on a full bus.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Hmmmm..... Just out of curiosity I made the first page of the mobile page of Bus Time offline and it was a size of 581 KB, which is slightly over 1/2 MB (and larger than I expected). I also made offline the x17 page and it was 681 KB, the 100 KB difference was presumably the code for each and every object ( bus stop) which has its own hyperlink and however the (at stop, 1 stop away etc., approaching) is coded ( fyi my code knowledge is limited, so coders please chime in). 

 

So, if one were to have to "freshly" load the mobile bus time website 2x a day onto a mobile browser, you would use about 30 MB minimum per month for querying one route. However, most people don't wipe their cache's every session so  followup "refreshes" and queries of different routes would be negligible as the images and script (search boxes) is should be saved to cache (i.e the phone's storage) and wouldn't be necessarily downloaded, therefore bandwidth utilization under most circumstances would be  lets say 1/3 of that 10 MB at the absolute most.

 

I have a monthly 5 GB , 4G plan with unlimited 3G, despite what I consider heavy usage (work, non-mobile optimized internet browsing (across 3 browsers), Facebook, dating sites, NYCTF, Google Maps, streaming music, periodic NSA/CIA/Mossad/Mi5/FSB queries (just kidding ) etc., I have yet to break the 2.5 GB mark.

 

And VG8, you are completely CORRECT about people's reluctance to use the Bus Time and it ain't even the elderly. In the rare instance I talk to people at express bus stops, I usually end up explaining to folks what Bus Time is (since the schedule for the PM weekend x17 buses is a suggestion) and while people seem at first interested (namely that I know when the bus is coming) they don't want to be bothered with it.

 

Also check this out, I use a spare battery pack that I got at Microcenter for $10 that holds two charges.I need music to drown out those yentas as well as the "doctors" and the "self-proclaimed kingpins" one of whom always seem to share the x19 or x24 with. There's a guy who always orders delivery on one bus I had frequently used, blurts out his entire credit card number with expiration date every time on a full bus.

LOL@ guy that blurts out his credit card on the express bus.  We have a few folks who order on the express bus, but they never give their CC info.  I've done that too (place an order for pickup from this Japanese place I like) but I'd never be that bold and stupid to yell out my CC info on the bus.

 

Speaking about lazy folks, this morning during the monsoon, my BxM2 bus was MIA, so after the Hudson Rail Link shuttle passed and the local buses came through, that left me and another lady at the stop at that time before the next pack of people arrived.  I asked her if she wanted the BxM1 or BxM2, and she commented that either one would be fine, but the BxM2 would make things easier (she had a Mount Sinai umbrella, so she was probably one of the medical staff there).  I showed her BusTime, and she was pleased to see that I could see where the buses were on my phone, but didn't inquire further about how to use it, etc.  Here in Riverdale though, usually at my stops there are a bunch of people all checking BusTime to see where the bus is and then we converse with each other to confirm what comes up on our phones.

[Q113 LTD]

If I want to know when my bus comes, I use "Bus Checker" app. The should install announcements  to say what buses/subways to transfer, like NICE buses does. I know I am not suppose to say NICE in NYCT Bus forums but just saying.

[MysteriousBtrain]

If I want to know when my bus comes, I use "Bus Checker" app. The should install announcements  to say what buses/subways to transfer, like NICE buses does. I know I am not suppose to say NICE in NYCT Bus forums but just saying.

This is the automated bus announcement thread, not the NYCT automated bus announcement thread. So it's whatever. And I'm pretty sure you can talk about NICE in other NYCT threads as well.