Hi all,
As part of a bigger home project I am building a map of Barclay’s bikes docks which shows availability and would love to get your input.
I love the bike scheme (when there are actually bikes where I need them) but all of the maps out there at present seem slow or annoying to use – hence this one!
The current link is: http://www.londoncommuter.co.uk/bikes/
Here are the changes I plan on making:
- To centre the map on your current location
- An input box for a postcode/street name/etc which will centre the map
- Better info in the pop-ups (when you click on an icon)
- The ability to reload the data without refreshing the page
- A button to switch between bike and empty dock qty
I want to make this project as user focussed as possible so let me know your thoughts and if you want any features on there! 
Edit: As a side note I’m coding this to try and make it as fast as possible. I’ve tested it on the below devices and seems to run smoothly:
- iPhone 4s
- iPad 2
- Samsung Galaxy S3
- Samsung Galaxy S2
(n.b. I do not plan on specifically supporting Blackberry devices – sorry
It’s beautiful, and very fast.
A few suggestions:
-centre the map on the current location (as you said), but make the zoom level much closer – otherwise all I can see is a sea of blue and red!
-map caching (so it doesn’t need to reload each panel each time I open it)
-dock caching (so it will show the location of the docks, even when I am underground/out of network – dock location is often more important than dock status)
-please please turn this into an iPhone app with a sexy icon (Yell) – I’d pay!
Thanks for the feedback! Caching actually sounds like a great idea. Will have to learn how to do that first
It’s something that annoys me about the official iOS app but didn’t think to include a fix in mine. Glad it runs fast for you though, that was my main thought when coding it!
Sorry for double post but it now zooms into your current location I’ll add a button that does it when I get a chance
Replying to @urban‘s post:
Hey Urban,
I’ve added the iPhone web app feature now If you go to one of the below and click the 
icon then “Add to Home Screen” it will add an icon to your dashboard with all the other apps (Also comes up full screen so you literally have just the map and the clock bar at the top 
Free bikes: http://www.londoncommuter.co.uk/bikes/index.php
Dock spaces: http://www.londoncommuter.co.uk/bikes/freedocks.php
(I’ll make them all into one page soon)
Update 24/6:
- Now opens and zooms to your current location (if supported). Works on all GPS mobile devices and is fairly accurate on desktop computers too.
- Added link to switch between bike or space quantities
- Added link to zoom out to all docks
- Displays current bike/space/dock quantities in the popup (when you click on a marker)
- Displays a past 24 hour usage graph for the station in the popup (when you click on a marker)
Hi
I am interested in developing an oyster app. I accessed Oyster open API, however the information provided was very generic.Are there APIs available for retrieving individual customer journey information? How can I access these? Can we have screen scraping as one of the options?
It would be great if you can provide me with some valuable information for the same.
Thanks
Hey Sam,
You can do it using cURL. There is no such API so you would have to write a scheduled job that logs into each of your users TfL pages each day and pull the data into something stored on your server. It’s a bit more complicated than an API but is doable (the same way people used to grab data from the Barclay’s Bike map before the API).
It’s not something I’ve done before but take a look on Google and there should be plenty of tutorials
Matt
Update 04/07/2012
Route Planning – BETA
Right click to set route start and end points
Right click to get directions
Click and drag points on the route to change (or add ‘vias’)
Bookmark location
When using a desktop the site can’t always get your current location. If you like to check it before leaving work just right click where you work and hit ‘Bookmark Location’. This will refresh the page with a new URL, which you can bookmark.
Then, when you click the bookmark you’ll be zoomed straight into your work!
Change graph periods
I’m planning a big interactive chart update, but for now you can click a dock, then view the large chart. You can add any variation to the end of the URL to view the time period:
&period=1 month
&period=3 day
&period=16 hour
The graph will then refresh to show, for example, the previous 16 hours.
Example: http://londoncommuter.co.uk/bikes/phpsqlajax_genxml_charts.php?termName=003424&period=16%20hour
As always, let me know if there are any features you want to see added!
Out of interest. I would like to see an interface of how many people need bikes and can’t get them. Where they are at what time. It’d be a big project, but it’d really bring something new to the bikes.
I leave Holborn every night at midnight and sometimes have to walk all the way home (Angel). I have seen them replenishing the docks at Russell Square at that hour which is ridiculous because it doesn’t need bikes, whereas very central areas are in great need.
Hi Screech,
That’s definitely a great idea for further down the line. The info would have to be submitted by users though as the docks currently have no way for the users to specify that they want a bike when the docks are empty… it would be handy to send to TfL though!
Thanks,
Matt
Yes, I thought there could be a “flare” button. You could press – just to vent one’s frustration really. But that information would be very useful. If the bike people were bothered about actually making the system better the data might even be worth money to them.
I vent frustration by calling them up each and every time 
Replying to @blighter‘s post:
Ha ha ha. I would love to do that, but it would literally be every night and cost me a fortune.
your error message saying that IE is not standards compliant is both annoying and incorrect.
