This enormous red circular carriage will never fit onto the tracks!
January 21, 2008 7:57 AM   Subscribe

 
Limited UK version (not nearly as cool)
posted by grouse at 8:03 AM on January 21, 2008


This is the future I dreamed of.
posted by phrontist at 8:08 AM on January 21, 2008


I bet they're running on time, too. Very cool.
posted by carter at 8:11 AM on January 21, 2008


I had hoped this was actually live train data. Disappointed.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 8:13 AM on January 21, 2008


That is so cool. I can see the trains go past my office, and this is pretty bang on real-time. This site does the same for Swiss air traffic..
posted by jontyjago at 8:14 AM on January 21, 2008


jontyjago: That is so cool. I can see the trains go past my office, and this is pretty bang on real-time.

That's thrilling to hear! I thought it was just a demo.
posted by Kattullus at 8:18 AM on January 21, 2008


I'll be on the 1818 from Cointrin to Geneva if y'all want to make sure I get home on time...
posted by jontyjago at 8:27 AM on January 21, 2008


You know who else made the trains run on time? That's right...
posted by Anything at 8:28 AM on January 21, 2008 [3 favorites]


This is cool.
posted by maxwelton at 8:36 AM on January 21, 2008


The UK version is just a static .Gif - it's stunningly accurate.
posted by oh pollo! at 8:39 AM on January 21, 2008 [4 favorites]


That's pretty cool. Now if only I could see live traffic like this so I could avoid jams, since google's traffic monitoring sucks.
posted by cashman at 8:44 AM on January 21, 2008


The UK version is just a static .Gif

It's not, actually.
posted by grouse at 8:46 AM on January 21, 2008


I love living in the future.
posted by Skorgu at 8:59 AM on January 21, 2008


That is the coolest thing ever.
posted by Zonker at 9:03 AM on January 21, 2008


The appallingly named "iBus" should hopefully have some of this functionality for London busses. It's supposed to be operational soon, but we'll probably wait ages and two will turn up at once.
posted by patricio at 9:17 AM on January 21, 2008 [1 favorite]


This game needs more hamsters. (Seriously - very cool.)
posted by cairnish at 9:50 AM on January 21, 2008


Hmm, not totally accurate unless someone has built a bus stop right outside my house while I wasn't looking...

....

nope. darn.

But they do say it's alpha so all good.
posted by derMax at 10:04 AM on January 21, 2008


I had hoped this was actually live train data. Disappointed.

Where do you see that it isn't?

We got more or less the same in the Copenhagen area in Denmark, but it's not quite as nifty. However It is live.
posted by Catfry at 10:06 AM on January 21, 2008


We have realtime bus information here in Brighton, though bizarrely the site isn't available in a format that works on mobile phones. Here's the information for buses from the stop by my house.
posted by athenian at 10:12 AM on January 21, 2008


I checked the Bahn.ch mailing list (German) that I subscribe to just now and they say that at the moment they show the scheduled train position, not the actual position. It is still cool - and tbh trains are pretty much on time here anyway. They also say that when it is officially live they may connect to the SBB (Swiss Federal Railways) train information system, which will make it truly live.

(and that phantom bus stop right outside my door is an unmarked drop-off point for the 'buxi' minivan-night bus that runs late at night and drops off drunken revelers. So it is even more accurate than I thought.)
posted by derMax at 10:21 AM on January 21, 2008 [1 favorite]


These big squares have trouble fitting through the streets of Seattle, too. [Warning: launches window with java applet.]
posted by mvd at 10:40 AM on January 21, 2008


I can't wait until things like this are commonplace. I'm going to like the 21st century a lot. (That is, if we get beyond 2030 without decimating ourselves.)
posted by not_on_display at 11:06 AM on January 21, 2008


The UK version is just a static .Gif - it's stunningly accurate.


Hey now, they're not that slow!

What I like is the button at the top that makes them run 10 times normal speed. Whee!
posted by skippyhacker at 11:25 AM on January 21, 2008


I won't be happy until there's a GPS in everything I own and everybody I know, and I can track them all with my phone.
I applaud this as a step on the path.
posted by greytape at 11:29 AM on January 21, 2008


Now if only I could map my Netflix, paycheck, future husband, winning lottery numbers, and incoming favorites, I could die (right on time, too).
posted by iamkimiam at 12:07 PM on January 21, 2008


The interweb is starting to outpace the superlative-laden predictions that have been lavished on it.
posted by chuckdarwin at 1:04 PM on January 21, 2008


Awesome, and will be quite useful to judge apartment locations next month. As a token of my appreciation, I'll pack some extra summer weather in my freight container, for release when we get to move in to our yet-unfound new home. Expect a summery April Fool's, the most likely move-in date.
posted by Goofyy at 9:40 PM on January 21, 2008


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