Posts Tagged ‘cta’

Chicago CTA Bus Tracker Gadget for Windows

View estimated arrival times for selected Chicago bus routes.
Windows 7 and Windows Vista compatible.

Download Chicago Bus Tracker Gadget Version 1.1
Updated October 2010: Now uses the official Bus Tracker API
Version 1.1 Changelog

Sofware Development Extras

Windows Gadget Build Script – A powershell script that creates a .gadget file from source

jQuery CTA BusTracker API Plugin – A jQuery plugin that wraps the Bus Tracker API endpoints into javascript methods.
The Same Origin Policy currently prevents using this script outside of a gadget since Windows gadgets do not enforce the Same Origin Policy.

Special thanks to Harper Reed for his work on the Chicago Transit API and Kevin Zolkiewicz for the Chicago Bus Tracker Widget.
This widget was not created by the Chicago Transit Authority.

Chicago Bus Tracker Gadget Source Hosted at GitHub

CTA Conductor Platitudes

There are phrases uttered by many CTA train conductors that has garnered a collective eye roll reflex for its would be passengers.

  • There is an immediate follower.
  • There is another train directly behind this one.
  • Do not board the train while the doors are closing.

Now I am going to give these conductors the benefit of the doubt and assume they mean there will be another train arriving in less than a minute. More often, another train does not arrive any sooner than I would have otherwise expected. And of course there is a train directly behind the current train, we are on rails here! Now if the blues mobile is taking a shortcut on the L and a few trains had to be delayed, feel free to let us in on that.

I would recommend that this tidbit of information is no longer provided. If the CTA doomsday has come and this is the last train ever, go ahead and let us know. Otherwise, we are all aware that another train will be coming and from where.

As for the statement about the doors closing, that just sounds like a challenge.

Chicago Train Visualization

The original rail system map image was found at the CTA's map page.

Runs best in a browser that has javascript acceleration (Firefox 3.5/Chrome). Trains are only added/removed at the beginning of the line.

I created this to test out some jQuery and javascript animation ideas I had. There is no
real practical use for it now. Think of it as a model railroad without the constant derailments.

Train Instructions

  • Hover: Pauses and Selects Train
  • Click: Reverses Selected Train
  • Double Click: Deletes Selected Train

Controls

  • Power:
  • Display:
  • Animation: (affects performance)
  • Speed

    Interval: 1000ms
    Processing Time: 0ms

  • Trains

    Max Trains: 25
    Current Trains: 25

Black Line

  • Requires at least two stops to have trains added
  • Click Map: Create Stop
  • ENTER: Show Marker Crosshair
  • w/a/s/d: Move Marker Crosshair
  • 1/2/3: Change Marker Crosshair Movement Scale
  • e: Output Marker Crosshair Coordinates