It’s been a while since I’ve posted something here, and looking through the side projects published here, many of them are no longer alive. But one of my them has stayed running for just over 15 years now: my T-Comm live bus map and tracker. This website, which I created while I was still studying in university, visualizes the location of all of TransLink’s buses together on one map. Last week, I upgraded T-Comm’s mapping engine from Leaflet to MapLibre GL, marking the third version of the map in the site’s history. The original version, from 2012-2016, used Google Maps. Continue Reading
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TransLink’s Electric Battery Buses
About a month ago, TransLink launched its first four electric battery buses on a trial program on the #100 Marpole-22nd Street Station route. There are currently two bus models being trialed: New Flyer XE40, and the Novabus LFSe. These are actually not the first electric battery buses to be run on Vancouver roads. In 2017, TransLink had one demonstration bus from Build Your Dreams (BYD). I never got a chance to ride it though. Whereas the BYD had slow charging (overnight at the depot), the New Flyer and Novabus models here have fast charging at the termini. Two fast charging Continue Reading
My T-Comm site gets its 15 minutes of fame
Earlier today, a few local blogs mentioned my T-Comm website (a live map of all the buses in Metro Vancouver): This real-time Vancouver bus tracking map is pretty obsession-worthy (Vancouver Is Awesome) Vancouver bus tracking map allows you to track movement in real time (Vancouver Courier) This map will tell you where every public transit bus in Metro Vancouver is (Urbanized Vancouver/Daily Hive) The site wasn’t really designed for day-to-day navigation, but more for transit enthusiasts who are looking to find specific buses (e.g., the double decker test buses we have on the streets right now, 1008 and 1009). In Continue Reading
A new batch of New Flyer XDE60 articulated buses
This past Wednesday, TransLink started to put the newest batch of buses out onto the streets, in particular, Surrey streets. The transit enthusiast in me could not resist seeking out that new bus smell. These buses are the same model as the previous set of articulated buses back in 2013. However, this new batch has the “charcoal top” livery instead of the light grey which I think looks much better and fitting with the rest of the fleet. Like the last batch, these buses are fully air-conditioned. (Recently, TransLink announced that all future bus orders will have air conditioning standard.) These Continue Reading
Fun ways to get from Richmond to Downtown Vancouver on transit
I commute from Richmond to Downtown Vancouver every day for work. Normally I take the Canada Line, which is a quick and reliable way to and from work. As much as I like trains, some days it just seems boring; after all, the majority of the ride is underground. So I tasked myself to find five different ways to get to work (potentially one for each day of the week), if I wanted to take a break from the Canada Line. Let’s assume we’re commuting from Richmond Centre to Waterfront. Obviously we’re not optimizing for travel time. Option 1: 403, Continue Reading