Talk:Bloomington Transit

Because I sometimes find Bloomington Transit's online maps and printed schedules lacking in detail, I've decided to make my own reference for the bus routes, using Google Maps. When I'm already at a computer to begin with, it seems quicker and easier to look up a place on the map and click something once to see when the bus comes there, rather than open a PDF file or dig the schedule out of my bag and pore over all that text. Maybe others feel the same way, and if you do, I'd like your input.

My plan is to draw a line along the whole route, and add every single stop there is, with icons that mark which direction the bus is headed when it comes to the stop (using the placemark feature). And then I'll put a timetable relevant to that stop, which will be visible when you click on each bus stop placemark.

I'm not certain the timetable idea will be a good idea because some of the buses have different timetables for different times of day, and not every stop has a specified time associated with it (only the main stops do), so if you have suggestions about where/how else to make the timetables easy to find for a particular stop, please let me know.

I've sort of done one map so far, for the C-9 route.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=106006479395010559025.00045ae1da8e4034820ef&ll=39.172892,-86.500812&spn=0.026849,0.042787&t=h&z=15 .

I added all the stops I could find - I used Street View to find the stops that I don't know of off hand. The College Mall side of this map looks very devoid of stops, and I'm pretty sure I missed some because Street view isn't perfect. If you know of any stops I missed, please tell me!

The last thing that concerns me is how to represent which direction the bus is going when it loops around and stuff, because to a new rider, it's not apparent from this map. I thought about making two different colored lines to represent the mall-bound route and the campus-bound route, but I don't know exactly where to start and stop those lines. And it would make the Tulip Tree stop part of the map really busy looking. Again your input is appreciated.

I get bored at work and like to do tedious tasks like this, so I plan to make one for every route that I use, and then make them all publicly available (There are some routes I don't use and wouldn't be able to make an authoritative map). Wheee! --Katyism 13:46, 10 November 2008 (EST)

Good job!

• I put your link into the article.
• Having the stops is a very nice touch. Maybe the next step is to put the Bloomingpedia links in the pop-ups.
• Maybe put the arrows only on the loops. I think most people would assume the other parts of the routes are bidirectional in the absence of any other clue.
• When I open the map the focus is at 10th and the Bypass and the south loop and most of the west loop are off the map window (I am using Google Chrome under XP)
  • Oops! I tried it again and now the focus is out on SR-446 and only the south loop is in the window - so I guess this is some Google anomaly.
• Once in Google Maps, if I click on the link for Katy, I get a gallery of your maps - but the conglomeration of arrows does not line up with the route on the map - but I know there have been Google Map issues with laptops - especially laptops that are sometimes plugged into desktop monitors and automatically change screen dimensions.
  

BirdieGalyan 09:23, 12 November 2008 (EST)

All my previous comments were based on viewing the maps at a scale in which the entire route is in one window. When I zoom in and look at only a few blocks at a time, I see what you are trying to do with the arrows. They are part of the symbol for each stop and I can look at w-bnd vs e-bnd order of stops. At that scale the arrows look very good. But at "zoomed out" scales the size of the arrows dominates and makes the map look cluttered. Oh well. I assume you want to get these details "just right" before you go off and make more maps. I am still at the "on the one hand but on the other hand" stage and don't have a clear judgment. BirdieGalyan 10:44, 12 November 2008 (EST)