The HereItIs application takes the GSP data of the buses/trams exposed through an Open Data API by the regional transport and displays this data in real time and in motion on a map as well as on a panel where we can see for each station the estimated arrival times . These data can be displayed with any frequency coming from the regional transport (currently this is 30 sec).
The application has the necessary maps for driving in all the major cities in the country.
Currently active cities with real data:
Iasi: the application takes data from such an API in Iasi, however in Iasi there are two problems: only 90% of the vehicles transmit data (the others being currently defective), and the second problem is that the data from that API exposed by CTP Iasi does not they contain the number of the route on which that vehicle goes. However, HereItIs has implemented a line detection algorithm, thus in Iasi 90% of the vehicles on the road and transmitting GPS data appear on the map (in the next period CTP Iasi will fix these and they will automatically become visible on the map), the others vehicles can be placed on the travel map through the "I saw/I left" functionalities.
Oradea: after months of monitoring the traffic, we display approximately all the vehicles in Oradea with a precision of less than a minute.
In all of these cities, the application can be used if there is an open API with the GPS data of the means of transport or if we find collaborators to promote the application to be used through the functionality of sharing the location of the buses on the part of the traveling community: Alba, Arad, Brasov, Bucharest, Cluj, Constanta, Craiova, Ploiesti, Sibiu, Timisoara, soon also Bacau).
The operating principle is based both on data taken from the regional transport and on the input of the traveling community.
The application is free, at the moment there are no annoying ads, the only condition to use the application is to be in solidarity with each other and to "share" information about the location of the buses.
The main screen of the application consists of a map of our city, a 2km circle, a search component and a button with which we control all the actions we can do. We can also see the waiting times for the stations close to my location.
In practice, we load on the map only the means of public transport within a radius of 2km from my current location, of course if we want to see beyond this distance we can use the "Search" component, all the means of public transport selected through that component become visible on the map regardless of the distance from my location. We can define a number currently limited to 2 "favorite" routes, they will be visible on the map all over the city when the application is loaded.
To browse the location of a means of transport, we have 2 cases:
1. If the bus/tram I intend to go with has not yet been browsed by someone else on our map, press the green button -> "I've left", then select the desired route from the displayed list and the direction of travel through a left or right slide.
2. If the bus has already been shared, click on it and press "I left"
The application performs validations and does not allow the sharing of information unless the user is on the route of the respective means of transport.
When we browse the location of a means of transport with the "I left" option, the application starts repeatedly taking the location of the current user, with the "I saw" functionality, I allow the application to take my location once.
The application requires the following access rights:
- Internet connection to receive live data about public transport
- Local storage to save some minimal information such as: the name of the favorite city and favorite routes.
