Over the weekend, I finally said that it was enough of this “downtime” and unavailability of London Transit Commission’s WebWatch application. Thousands, if not millions, of dollars have been spent on the London Transit Commission’s new vehicle technology which includes equipping each transportation vehicle with Global Positioning Systems (GPS). I have written a letter which will be put in the mail today to Councillor David Winninger who currently is the Chair of the London Transit Commission and the elected official of Ward 11 (which I reside). The letter is written expressing my concerns about the downtown and unavailability of this application and that I believe it the issues around the unavailability should be addressed immediately and in a timely manner.
Now, with that being said, and here is the letter which will be mailed today to Councillor Winninger.
September 1, 2010
Councillor David Winninger:
London Transit Commission
450 Highbury Avenue North
London, Ontario, N5W 5L2Sir
I am writing (as a London Transit User, a Fanshawe College student, a citizen of London and a Ward 11 Constituent) to express my concern with the London Transit Commission’s WebWatch availability and downtime.
Over the past four months I have noticed, and personally have been a victim to, the unavailability of information through the London Transit Commission’s WebWatch. Repeatedly the web application has been unavailable for use because there is no data regarding routes available or present. Whether this is because of system maintenance or technical problems, it is a continuing concern to myself and other citizens who frequently use public transit in The City of London. The WebWatch’s often repeated downtime for more than an hour or two is unacceptable and should be addressed as soon as possible.
With the new school year and winter months rapidly approaching, I believe that the London Transit Commission should look to expediently address and resolve issues around the downtime and the unavailability of the WebWatch application. Because printed schedules do not contain every stop on a route and the uncertainty of approximately where the vehicles are on a route, it is difficult for an individual to estimate the arrival at a minor stop. Therefore, when transit vehicles arrive earlier then their scheduled times and/or riders miss buses due to an incorrect interpretation of the printed schedules, their frustration is increased. This increases the possibility of arriving late to appointments, scheduled classes, and jobs, making the London Transit Commission a less viable transportation choice. However, with less downtime and the increased availability of the WebWatch application, users can be assured that they arrive on time to their destination and will no longer required to wait in subzero temperatures for longer periods of time during the winter months.
Your consideration is appreciated.
Yours sincerely,
Aaron McGowan
If you feel that this letter should be mailed to anyone else within the City and or at the London Transit Commission, please contact me or leave a comment below.
Updates
- September 2, 2010 – Today (or possibly yesterday afternoon), the London Transit Commission has posted a notice regarding technical issues with the WebWatch application on the main WebWatch overview page. This can be viewed at: http://ltconline.ca/WebWatch/.
- September 08, 2010 – Received a response from the London Transit Commission’s Director of Finance and Administration. The response can be viewed here – Re: An open letter to London Transit Commission….
Sounds like a perfect opportunity to publish transit data openly so that others could build better apps.
I couldn’t agree more Nik. I personally as a professional within the Information Technology industry would recommend the use of Google Transit.
I agree Aaron and I actually sent LTC an email regarding this long before the WebWatch tool was released.
@ChrisM:
I do believe others here in London have also sent the London Transit Commission letters regarding the Google Transit Feed capability.
Quoting an admin type’s post on SmartMovesLondon:
I second open data. This way, we as the community have the option to be watchdogs over the “hot” buses by providing LTC and our neighbours both the software to scan the GPS data for anomalies and the its findings.
Agreed. Some of the ‘canned’ responses are unfortunately a little tiring and frustrating in my opinion.
And regarding Open Data, essentially like I said above, if the they should be publishing this data (in my own personal opinion) in a Google Transit feed for others to also use an create apps like NextStop.
My son and I have both travelled almost every single route in the city. A report on what we found out will soon be available on Facebook (Londonontariobybus).
Feel free to read it and to add comments of your own concerning buses etc. I am not able to do the routes any longer because my buspass was taken away by the city thanks to a doctor’s note excusing me from job search for the next year. GAH!! I have to wait a month to try to scrape up the money out of child tax.
Please let me know when this ‘report’ has been published. I would love to read it and hear your opinions on it.