Forum: General Topics
Forums / General Topics / London Barclays Hire Bikes (Boris's Bikes)
| Subject: | London Barclays Hire Bikes (Boris's Bikes) | |
ChrisM 17:32 Location: Phone Model: | Hi Stephen, long time no speak! How are you? I was randomly purusing the web, as I'm prone to do when bored at work, and I came across this: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/syndication/feeds/cycle-hire/livecyclehireupdates.xml which is quite neat, in a geeky kind of way :o) I just wondered if you'd ever thought about adding a function in TMJ to help find the nearest hire/docking station etc? I would have thought that some basic functionality would be reasonably simple, based on that xml feed?? Cheers, Chris. | |
Stephen 21:13 Location: Phone Model: | Hi Chris, Yep, not bad thanks - nice to hear from you! Yes that feed does suggest several possibilities, I've wondered in the past about ways to add further cycle-station related features. Ideally it would be linked to the OSM vector map data, allowing a cycle station to be selected on the map and then look up the current capacity etc via an embedded website (the same as can already be done on the Plan Screen with UK Railway stations and Bus stops). The OpenStreetMap data already includes most (all?) of the docking stations, but the problem is their references don't seem to tally in any way with the XML feed, so linking the two datasets would be tricky when looking up the live capacity info. Incidentally, you can already do the 'nearest-station-lookup' - I have previously grouped all of the cycle stations into a (made-up) OSM 'relation', so you can find the nearest one to your Current Location or Map Centre via: Plan Page / Context Menu / Go To Location / Map Index: Relations / Cycle Routes / Barclays Cycle Hire / etc Not the simplest operation, admittedly!! Also it'll only show the stations in the currently loaded maps so you'll need to scroll the screen to Central London first... Better than nothing, huh! Cheers, Stepehen | |
ChrisM 22:29 Location: Phone Model: | Hi, Didn't realise all this information was there! Must admit I haven't really looked at the 'Relations' stuff in the maps. TMJ is so feature-rich now, that I probably only use 20% of its functionality!! I must make some time to have a proper play and 'discover' some of these clever features. Cheers, Chris. | |
(You must be logged in to post a reply to this thread)