Comments on: A Better Port Authority Trip Finder

By: nathan

nathan — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:37:41 +0000

Nice one, Anukul. I’ve just had a quick look through your site but it looks pretty useful and thanks for the link!

By: Anukul

Anukul — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 03:35:49 +0000

FWIW, you can use the same scheme for links to PDF to link to GIF versions of the schedules (e.g. gifs & PDFs).

We’ve used that for links from http://buskarma.com/ which provides port authority schedule data in a simpler way that works well on mobile devices as well; although we don’t have a trip planner.

I’m happy to add your trip planner front end into my treo’s arsenal along with buskarma, google transit, and of course port authority’s own site.

By: Port Authority of Allegheny County Hand Schedules

Port Authority of Allegheny County Hand Schedules — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 22:54:05 +0000

[...] with RSS. You can also register and don’t be afraid to make with the comments!After I created this mobile-optimized version of the Port Authority’s trip finder, Jake from 42harold.org sent me some code and permission to style up his own creation, an extremely [...]

By: Brent

Brent — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:21:23 +0000

Jake, that’s a good tool. And it shows Port Authority doesn’t remove old schedules, try 501 or 50B and old routes are brought back from the dead… yes I know that’s not practical for anything.

By: Jake

Jake — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 12:20:39 +0000

Here's a quick and dirty form that you can use to jump right to a PDF schedule without having to go through the Port Authority site: Port Authority Hand Schedule Lookup Nathan, feel free to link to it from your tool, or even make a form on your site that posts to the address. How do iPhones handle PDFs?

By: nathan

nathan — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 17:12:05 +0000

Hey Brent – I’m hoping this works on a normal cell phone’s browser – which it should – but I haven’t had the chance to try it out…

By: Brent

Brent — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 15:48:55 +0000

Awesome! Now all I have to do is buy an iPhone…

The Port Authority website is all sorts of pain. First of all, some things such as “Way To Go” maps that sort-of resemble Oakland and Downtown system maps are nowhere to be found except on schedule racks. Some maps of routes surrounding busway stations can only be found in person on the busways. Some nstructional guides such as “Riding the Bus 101″ and the “Ride Guide” are also absent. Also, they system map that is online lists Three Rivers Stadium. Ugh. But, if you dig (Search 2 – Time Point Search under hand Schedules), you can find a list of every stop for every route, which is very useful.

By: Jake

Jake — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 21:59:08 +0000

Anyway, best we do for ourselves what the pros can’t do for us

“Pros.” Ha.

By: Ms. Wakame

Ms. Wakame — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:14:19 +0000

This is such a great time saver and now I have a lovely new widget for my iphone. It even has a nifty bus icon. Thanks!

By: nathan

nathan — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 12:25:41 +0000

Nice! I’ve been thinking of setting up a simple link to their PDFs for those of us with smartphones / iPhones but the list would be more useful to me rather than anyone else, as I’d only list the routes I primarily took.

It’s too bad the Port Authority wouldn’t put more effort into their site, specifically a mobile version…it’d be such a useful tool and would surely eliminate a ton of calls coming in to their station.

I once questioned them about why their site was done so poorly and the response was told by a customer support agent that they actually thought the site was up to snuff. Anyway, best we do for ourselves what the pros can’t do for us.