On Tue, 28 Aug 2012 15:24:14 +0100, David Cantrell
wrote:
On Wed, Aug 22, 2012 at 02:47:38PM +0000, d wrote:
Meanwhile my Nokia dumbphone will go a week on a single charge in normal use.
Well, I'm back from my weekend in Zurich, and found my smartphone to be
very useful indeed. While there I made six journeys on public
transport, over four different routes, all involving a change. In all
cases, my phone told me exactly what modes of transport to take, what
route numbers, and how long the journey would be. On later comparing
its recommendations to a printed map, it was spot on - and it was far
more convenient, as the ZVV maps are not particularly easy to read.
Wouldn't you get the same from TfL's journey planner? Or do you
perhaps mean that their decision to stay out of mobile apps entirely
was a poor one? Very impressive to see, on the tram, the connections
at the next stop shown in real-time (I think - it certainly showed a
delay for one route).
One other thing that ZVV gets badly wrong and TfL gets right is that at
the confluence of many routes - Central, for example - there are no maps
showing where all the various routes stop.
At least the stops themselves are big and bold. I think the Swiss
believe that any problem can be solved by a big enough chunk of (of
course) Helvetica. (I stayed for a year just up the hill from
Central.)
I've always thought that TfL's spider maps are beautifully simple and
easy to use. Odd that nowhere else I've been, except Lisbon, has used
this idea.
Richard.