Hi Chuck, Ron, and Ioana, First, Chuck, thanks for the suggestion. I tried downloading "The Transit App" by Samuel Vermette that you linked, and tried it out. I think the first review comment I read was accurate on this app. It was titled "Good option for pros" and said, "This is a good app for those who are familiar with their local transit system and just (want) an easy access to info. While it does give you route info, they aren't step by step. That said, for many people step-by-step is overkill, and the apps basic transit status page more than makes up the basic directions."
This gives a nice summary of transit stops in your vicinity, and the time the next bus will be leaving. However, if you use this for route planning, you get an abbreviated table of times, bus numbers (with destination), and stop corners. By contrast, if I use an app like HopStop (free, and also works for the Montreal area) to plan the route, I'll get step-by-step instructions telling me to start out going north east on my current street, which is named, towards another named street, along with the estimated walking time (1 minute). The instruction for which bus to take gives the estimated arrival time of the next bus, as well as the the next few scheduled departure times. In addition to the estimated transit time for this section of the route (17 minutes), there's a list of bus stop intersections that are passed on the route, and the approximate time intervals. The instruction on where to get off and transfer to the next bus will say something like "Start out going South on a named Avenue towards another named Street, then turn right onto another named Street, with an estimated walking time (2 minutes). The next bus is again announced with the expected arrival times, etc. I'm not saying that HopStop is necessarily a better public transportation planning app -- just that it provides a different level of detail which you may or may not need. Accuracy of this kind of information varies greatly by area, and certainly cities with NextBus type of information will be able to give much more accurate time predictions. HopStop started many years ago for the New York City area, and covers many cities in the U.S., along with major cities in Canada such as Montreal, Qebec City, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, St. John's, Saute Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay, Halifax, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Calgary, and others I've probably forgotten. It also covers some cities in Australia and New Zealand (Sydney, Perth, Auckland, Wellington, etc.), and very early on included cities like London, Paris, and Moscow. I've never heard anyone report on how the app works from London and Paris, when I asked on list 3 or 4 years ago. You can also change your preferences to look for routes that includes bus/subway or bus/subway/regional rail, or with taxis. I was actually surprised how far out the routes would work. The key to extending the route planning area seems to be choosing a metropolitan area, and then entering an address that can be pretty far away, but including the postal code or zip code. Here's the App Store link to the free HopStop app, if you're interested: • HopStop Transit Directions for iPhone by HopStop.com, Inc. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hopstop-transit-directions/id303217144?mt=8 HTH. Cheers, Esther On Mar 5, 12:05 pm, Chuck Dean <[email protected]> wrote: > Sorry I couldn't tell much about the app, my area is not supported so I never > made it past the first screen. > If it is voice over compatible, it looks like a good app in the screen shots. > But, I agree, I really do not like paying subscription on apps. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. To search the VIPhone public archive, visit http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
