When I saw Visualmotive's "Walk or Bus?" chart, I was fascinated. I love stuff like this! It answers the question of "If I have to be somewhere, is it going to be faster to wait for a bus, or just start hiking?"
I am a multi-mode commuter. I often use my bike combined with the bus to get myself downtown. Sometimes, I also need to get around the city. I almost always do this on my bike unless it's somewhere really close. Still, I felt compelled to create a chart that included bicycling, as well as walking.
The top header is how long you'll have to wait for the bus.Where there's a gray bus icon, it's faster to wait for the bus. Where there's a blue bicycle, it's faster to hop on the bike and ride. The yellow jogging man represents a brisk walking pace and the green foot represents trudging along with an average gait. I extended the chart out to 4.0 miles, which is about how far one can get on a bicycle in an urban setting within half an hour at 8 MPH. These are just guidelines, of course. Some people are considerably faster on bicycles. Others are slower. Same with walking and the bus, actually.
Click for big:
I ended up making a quick program in PHP to draw the main part of the above chart for me. I sourced the icons from the same place Visualmotive did (icons.mysitemyway.com) but opted to modify their icon colors, then added the headers manually in GIMP. I'll upload a .zip file (and link to it) later, with the icons.
I ended up making a quick program in PHP to draw the main part of the above chart for me. I sourced the icons from the same place Visualmotive did (icons.mysitemyway.com) but opted to modify their icon colors, then added the headers manually in GIMP. I'll upload a .zip file (and link to it) later, with the icons.
The algorithm is pretty straightforward. Urban buses probably average 15 MPH with all their stops included, or about 4 minutes for every mile. Most people can get around on a bicycle at an average speed of 8 MPH (7:30) and so on and so forth as commented in the code below.
The code is pretty simple and very ugly. Not only did I use tables (ew) but I also barf out HTML with PHP. This is why I say there's a massive difference between programmers (like me) and developers (who code for a living).
The code is pretty simple and very ugly. Not only did I use tables (ew) but I also barf out HTML with PHP. This is why I say there's a massive difference between programmers (like me) and developers (who code for a living).
<html><head><title>Walk, Bike, or Bus?</title></head><body>
<TABLE cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0'><TR>
<TD></TD><TD><CENTER>1</CENTER></TD><TD><CENTER>2</CENTER></TD>
<TD><CENTER>3</CENTER></TD><TD><CENTER>4</CENTER></TD>
<TD><CENTER>5</CENTER></TD><TD><CENTER>6</CENTER></TD>
<TD><CENTER>7</CENTER></TD><TD><CENTER>8</CENTER></TD>
<TD><CENTER>9</CENTER></TD><TD><CENTER>10</CENTER></TD>
<TD><CENTER>11</CENTER></TD><TD><CENTER>12</CENTER></TD>
<TD><CENTER>13</CENTER></TD><TD><CENTER>14</CENTER></TD>
<TD><CENTER>15</CENTER></TD><TD><CENTER>16</CENTER></TD>
<TD><CENTER>17</CENTER></TD><TD><CENTER>18</CENTER></TD>
<TD><CENTER>19</CENTER></TD><TD><CENTER>20</CENTER></TD>
<TD><CENTER>21</CENTER></TD><TD><CENTER>22</CENTER></TD>
<TD><CENTER>23</CENTER></TD><TD><CENTER>24</CENTER></TD>
<TD><CENTER>25</CENTER></TD><TD><CENTER>26</CENTER></TD>
<TD><CENTER>27</CENTER></TD><TD><CENTER>28</CENTER></TD>
<TD><CENTER>29</CENTER></TD><TD><CENTER>30</CENTER></TD></TR><TR>
<!-- Model View Controller what? -->
<?php
$Miles=.2; # .2 Miles. Just walk it. Jeez.
while ($Miles <= 4.0){
$Miles=$Miles+.1;
$TravelTime['Bus'] = $Miles * 4; # Bus ! 15 MPH (4:00 mile)
$TravelTime['Bike'] = $Miles * 7.5; # Bike ~ 8 MPH (7:30 mile)
$TravelTime['Brisk'] = $Miles * 15; # Brisk walk ~ 4 MPH (15:00)
$TravelTime['Walk'] = $Miles * 20; # Walk ~ 3 MPH (20:00)
$Mins=0;
print "<TR><TD><CENTER>$Miles</CENTER></TD>" ;
while ($Mins < 30){
print "<TD><CENTER>";
$Mins++;
if ($Mins >= $TravelTime ['Walk'])
{print "<IMG WIDTH='45' SRC='img/iconwalk.png'>" ;}
elseif ($Mins >= $TravelTime ['Brisk'])
{print "<IMG WIDTH='45' SRC='img/iconbrisk.png'>" ;}
elseif ($Mins >= $TravelTime ['Bike'])
{print "<IMG WIDTH='45' SRC='img/iconbike.png'>" ;}
else
{print "<IMG WIDTH='45' SRC='img/iconbus.png'>" ;}
print "</CENTER></TD>";
}
print "</TR>"; #I know you're not supposed to print HTML. Byte Me.
}
?></body></html>
So, what started as a desire to have a cool chart to share with other bicycling/pedestrian friends of mine turned into an exercise in algorithms last night, with a little bit of PHP programming tossed into the mix. This is yet another example of a quick-n-dirty program I wrote for something simple.
Posts
