Post-summer update

I can’t believe it’s September already.  The weather is starting to become cool and wet, days are becoming shorter, marking the end of what has been an incredible summer (and year to date).  It’s been a while since I’ve written here, so with the changing season I thought I’d share a bit of an update of 2016 so far. Some of these warrant their own blog posts, but until I have time to write the full thing here is a summary.

Side Project 1: Real Time Bus Map in Vancouver

Since TransLink released their new mobile Next Bus site with real-time GPS updates of bus locations, I’ve been trying to find ways to get the data and rehash it into something that  Metro Vancouver transit enthusiasts (more specifically, enthusiasts who chase buses and monitor the transit system’s operation) will find useful. There were two main shortcomings of TransLink’s site from the viewpoint of a transit enthusiast: Can’t search for a specific bus.  Often times transit enthusiasts “chase” a particular bus, usually a new bus, a fresh bus after a midlife refurbishment, or a bus with a new advertisement wrap. Can’t Continue Reading

The wheels on the bus go round and round…

On September 2, 2006, a crowd of people watched as the buses whose home had been the Oakridge Transit Centre for the past years made their way to the new multi-million-dollar state-of-the-art garage called Vancouver Transit Centre. Many of the buses leading the parade were retired buses restored by The Transit Museum Society (TRAMS). I also took 3 video clips: 2102 pulling out of Oakridge V1109 The bus parade going down Oak Street

Canada Day

Well for the latter half of Canada Day I went out to Canada Place to check out what kind of stuff was happening. I ended up taking more time outside than inside. The weather was wonderful–cloud-less, rain-less, and lots of sun. The view of the North Shore mountains was thusly amazing, to say the least. I wish I had a camera with higher resolution :(. At the end of the day, when this CTV camera was lowering, a bunch of kids started crowding around the camera and waving at it heh. And I couldn’t resist taking a photo of the Continue Reading