For Geography Nerds

How many of us geography nerds have gotten annoyed that Google Streetview doesn't cover China? Whelp, here's the fix:

http://map.qq.com/

While everything's in Chinese, be advised that the commands on the upper left-hand corner of the map correspond to Map, Terrain, and Satellite views respectively. To the right of Satellite view is an icon with a peg--that's Streetview. You can't just drag and drop, though; click on the icon once to show the places where streetview is available, and click on the line or intersection of your choice to see what it looks like on the ground.

You can also search, although you get much better results if you first translate your criteria (name) to Chinese, and then search.

It's a fun way to see how incredibly diverse China's urban geography is.

Map Porn!

Check this out! This map shows what's in a x-minute transit (walking?) radius of anywhere you plunk the point down. I've set it to 15-minute radiuses of City Hall, top, and Wissahickon Transfer, bottom.

Warning: messing with the time slide makes changing zooming nigh-impossible and may cause tab to crash.

TransitView Goes Live

TransitView screenshot, 5:45 PM, 2 June 2011

Check this out. It's the 10 trolley on SEPTA's new TransitView technology. Just gone live a few days ago, it allows anyone to track any bus, trolley, or trackless trolley real-time with GPS data. This is something even the MTA is still piloting.

SEPTA, I have to give you props. You may still not have real-time subway information at your stations (seriously, how hard is it?) but between the real-time information available at (many) Regional Rail stations and on the web, and this TransitView technology, planning a mass-transit trip in Philadelphia, and compensating for late buses, is now easier than ever. In fact, it might now be easier here to coordinate across modes than anywhere else in the U.S.

Notice, by the way, that the URL is http://www3.septa.org/transitview/###. Switch out ### with whatever route you want information on (10, 17, 65, 99, whatever*) and you can easily toggle between routes on TransitView just using your browser's URL bar.

Let's pop in on this link too, soon. It's not quite live yet, but when it is, it'll rock. Tip to Temple students: remember stop IDs 1277, 16111, and 5328. These are the stop IDs for Center City-bound routes from Main Campus: 1277 is Cecil B. Moore station, 16111 is 12th and Berks (23), and 5328 is Broad and Berks (C).
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* Caveat: I'm not getting it to work with lettered routes (C, G, L, H, XH) right now.