Sox Shuffle Continues
Friday Afternoon Diversion
Jay-Z Announces 2010 Tour Dates. Chicago Not On List.
Around Town
I Fight Dragon$
The CTA has teamed up with Google to help riders plan trips (starts playing a video) with Google Maps, and lo, it is good. Google Maps now has a "take public transit" option when giving directions. We've been playing around with it for a little bit, and it seems to work pretty well.
In other CTA tech news, the agency redesigned its website. It's better looking and easier to use than the old one. Um, does that website grant wishes?
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Not bad but it should give you the option of taking a train or a bus.
It's great however I would like real time tracking information included. One thing at a time though.
It seems the CTA site has gone from shitty to crappy.
I'll take crappy
aside from the myspace-esque homepage, i don't notice much of a difference.
Actually, now that I look at it, they only redesigned the home page, which is the website equivalent of using nice brick to cover the front of a new construction and that shitty concrete to cover the other three sides, like no one will notice how shitty it looks.
Jeebus! Who gives a rat's ass what the fucking website looks like? Doesn't the "leadership" (and I use that term very loosely) know how to prioritize work? The CTA should expedite and finish the Brown Line upgrades, the track repairs, and the Blue Line repairs (and stop fucking backing up the Kennedy on the fucknig weekends), and NOT worry about riders are planning their trips or how the website looks or whether or not it uses the latest fucking mapping technology. Goddammit, someone needs to put some fucking "leaders" in fucking place at the fucking CTA who fucking know how to fuckinbg run a fucking business for fuck's sake.
It's nice to finally see some progress in this area. The Google Maps integration is pretty handy, particularly when trying to plan a route using a mobile phone. I think that the Paris Metro (RATP) interactive map kicks serious ass:
http://www.ratp.info/orienter/cv/cv_en/carteparis.php
But, seeing as this is the CTA we are talking about, I have much lower expectations.
Too bad, as others have mentioned, that the transitchicago web site still has the same shitty static content hidden behind a slightly less craptastic home page.
-A
whoa, chill there trp...maybe you should start driving/biking it more often.
Regarding the Web site, CTA Tattler posted last week that there will be a full site redesign within six months. The new homepage is simply an interim improvement, done completely in-house.
Come to Clark/Lake, 95th, Midway or Ohare today and there will be Google employees explaining the new service and handing out schwag.
frp- you do know why the Kennedy is getting backed up, right? Because, you know, they're working on the tracks! Everything you "suggested" is already underway. Sometimes it takes time to finish things, k?
Why can't the CTA work on repairing the infrastructure and improving client relations at the same time?
Frp, the same people that are fixing the tracks are likely not web designers as well. But I could be wrong. We also do not know how the funding is allocated, so the CTA may be able to prioritize maintenance and web design separately.
But it does feel like a myspace page. They should have Hubermans's favorite artist and song on there, with a picture of a CTA train.
Please let them add "Huberman's Commute Playlist" so that we can all see what he listens to. "The Duchess" by Fergie is No. 1 guess.
"Not bad but it should give you the option of taking a train or a bus."
Absolutely! I just plugged in some address locations where I use the trains because it gets me to the south side much faster. The new system automatically gave me three bus routes only. When I modified one of the addresses just a little, their system returned train routes.
I have used Google Maps just to see where the train stations are though -- since the street views are helpful in recognizing where the heck you are if you're not familiar with an area. I like the idea of integrating GMaps... they just need to program in trip planner preferences, like minimum walking and taking the train vs. bus. People who have mobility issues but aren't disabled need those options!
They had some light computer displays that they were trying to get to work this morning at the Clark/Lake stop. . .they got one working (by plugging it in). . it then took 4 men to figure out how to plug the other one in! WAY TO GO!
The system is not without flaws. Of the more noticeable is that the station closures are not up to date. According to Google I can board and exit at the Wellington station. I don't see how Google will be able to be perfectly timed when the CTA is constantly rerouting the trains in the evenings and on the weekends.
Would be nice if it worked with Metra and Pace. Once again, the RTA FAILS at working together.