Calgary Transit

We’ve made some updates on the accessibility front:

1. We’ve added a “colour-clarifying” option in the settings: tap “show line colour names” to get text annotations, telling you whether your CTrain is Red or Blue.
2. Need to know if a trip will accommodate your wheelchair, stroller, etc.? Turn “accessibility” on in the settings, to see accessible options whenever you use the Trip Planner! (Tap any line to check if particular stops — or particular vehicles — are accessible.)

In other Trip Planner news, we’ve done some housekeeping:

- Tap on any trip, and you’ll see the *2 closest vehicles* approaching (instead of all an all-fifty-vehicle-fiesta) right there on the map
- If a good old-fashioned “walk” is the fastest way to get to your destination, we’ll put it at the top of your Trip Planner results. (Don’t want to two-step all the way to your destination? Select “minimize walking” in the settings.)
- Walking directions are now available for super-short trips.

What else. Ah yes… we’ve updated how we sort transit lines on the Home Screen, whenever you open the app. Instead of sorting transit lines “as-the-crow-flies”, we now sort them by walking distance instead. Whatever transit line has the closest stop to you (via walking, not flying) will now appear at the tippity top of the Home Screen.

Other minor bug fixes and imperceptible app improvements.

PS: you are positively *glowing* today! Rate us five stars, to share that shine ;)

Dim the lights. Set a mood. Then, enable Dark Mode in your settings. Wow, what’s that? The app is not green, but dark? Welcome to Dark Mode, an alternative skin for the app. Featuring a black background, better colour vibrancy, and improved contrast. No more nighttime eye strain when you open the app — and if you want to have Dark Mode on all day? Nobody’s stopping you. Go take a look at the Dark Mode home screen, route maps, and trip planner. Snazzy!

Besides that, we’ve turned on multimodal bike connections: you can now plan trips that combine your personal bike + CTrain to find how much time you would save vs. walking to the station.

All that, and some delicious bug fixes. More updates soon!

Helloooo OFFLINE TRANSIT TRIP PLANNING! Every transit line. Every road. Every sidewalk, footpath, intersection. Wherever you are, however poor the cell reception, we’ll let you plan an a-to-b trip.

We’ve compressed our transit data (so we can store it on your phone in extremely small files) and combined that with some fancy math™ to quickly compute trip plans, on your phone, without having to ring-up the web for directions. Which means: faster trip plan results, a seamless trip planning experience even if your data cuts out — or a server crashes — and lighter data use overall. Keep in mind, our trip planner uses data by default in order to incorporate real-time vehicle positions and disruptions. But you’ll still have access to transit-schedule-based trip plans in a tunnel, elevator, or wherever cell reception is bad.

Our latest update has a fresh new design. Check it out! Some highlights for Calgary Transit riders:

- A home screen with a bigger and more accessible search bar, prominently located atop the list of nearby routes. Use the search bar to find a destination, or type in a route number to search for its full schedule.

- Using your current and saved locations (like home and work) the search bar predicts where you’re most likely headed, and instantly tells you how long it will take to get there. Tap this “instant ETA,” located on the right side of the search bar, and you’ll be able to plan a trip in just one tap.

- Now, you can swipe down to return to a previous screen. (You can still tap “x” in the corner to go back, as well.)

- Tapping on a route will open up a new, unified “route view” page, allowing you to quickly see upcoming departures, service alerts, the route map (with vehicle locations), and a list of upcoming stops.

- Scroll down that list of upcoming stops and you’ll see a list of connecting routes at a glance. Tap on a stop to view nearby connections in more detail.

- Lost your data connection? You can still figure out how to get from A to B, because the trip planner also works offline. When your phone is connected to the Internet, the trip planner adjusts to take real-time ETAs into account; when you’re offline, it relies on updated schedule information that’s automatically saved in the app.

That’s enough from us. Now it’s your turn. Take the new Calgary Transit app update for a spin!

Hello, Crowdsourced Real-Time Transit Vehicle Location Data! (Say that five times fast and we’ll give you a medal.)

Starting today you can watch your vehicle approach—in second-by-second real-time—on the map, whenever someone on that vehicle is using GO. What’s GO? GO is our app’s step-by-step navigator, telling you exactly when to leave to catch your ride, when to disembark, plus on-the-fly trip plans and transfers (should something go wrong.)

Our GO feature has a wonderful byproduct: crowdsourced vehicle locations. Every time you press GO, riders down the line will see their vehicle locations update more frequently.

Even better: We now refresh real-time data that isn’t crowdsourced, even faster than before.

The long and short? Better real-time, all around!

New year? New update. Say hello to 1 minor new feature, and some small bug fixes:

NEW SETTINGS PAGE: edit your saved locations, and toggle different modes on/off.

BUG FIXES: say goodbye to issues with our Robot GPS speaking random words. Also, certain stops were displaying "drop off" only messages even though stops were used both for boarding and debarking. Finally, all your wonky Trip Planner timebars have been spiffed up to perfection. And some other minor fixes… but we’ll spare you. Enjoy your day!

Here are all the new features we’re introducing today:

MAPS: we removed highways from the map, so you’ll notice fewer wide yellow rides and highway shields. Which means more space for your route’s ultra-smooth transit maps.

TRIP PLANNING: we’ve added biking and walking directions to the trip planner. If your bus isn’t coming for another hour, you can size up alternative options to get where you’re going. Another thing—you no longer have to type in your destination’s address! In the trip planner, just tap “Choose on Map” and drag the pin to your destination. No more typos. No more typing.

GO: we now update directions in real-time if you decide to move from one transit stop to another. You can now set alarms for trips in the future (yay). Many other minor improvements… like expandable stop lists. No more “10 stops remaining… 9 stops remaining…” Instead of just giving you the number of remaining stops—we’ll give you their actual names. Expand the list of stops with a single, simple tap.

We also fixed a variety of bugs.

Introducing:
- GO
- Real-Time Trip Planner
- System Maps

~GO~
Before you begin your trip, press GO. We’ll tell you…

1. When to leave your house. We track your transit vehicle’s location in real-time and alert you when it’s the perfect time to leave. Not too early. Not too late.
2. When to hurry up. If your bus/subway suddenly starts running fast (or if your phone’s gyroscope says you're walking too slow… or if a real-time prediction skips ahead) we’ll tell you to hurry up so you catch your ride.
3. When to disembark. We track your vehicle’s real-time position and send you a gentle reminder a few minutes before you’re supposed to get off.
4. Detour protection. GO will track the position of your vehicle, and let you know if it strays from its normal path.
5. Re-routing. If you miss your ride (or your connection) we’ll find the next available ride for you, update your itinerary, and tell you what to do.

When you press GO, public transit gets way easier to manage. Best of all, GO doesn’t just work with push notifications. It uses voice alerts too. So if you fall asleep before/during your ride, don’t worry: we’ll wake you up gently with a reminder.

~TRIP PLANNER~
Our new real-time trip planner means that you can discover all those weird transit connections once thought impossible (according to official timetables) but clearly quite possible (at least on days when the right combo of vehicles are running late/fast). Thanks to real-time data, your mission impossible isn’t just possible now. It’s plannable.

We also improved the trip planner design: similar routes are now grouped together. Before, if a transit line departed frequently (say, every 5-10min) the trip planner would be full of those routes. Now, we show you those routes only once—along with their frequency. No more redundant trip suggestions. Great success!

~SYSTEM MAPS~
The CTrain and every BRT line in Calgary are now condensed into one, single, beautiful, curvy, map. At a glance, you can immediately understand your transit system: see where lines go, where you are in relation to them, and where each transit line intersects. It’s beautiful. Just like you are, Calgary.

~ALSO NEW~
We fixed a bunch of bugs and fixed problematic links in the settings pages.

Thanks and adieu! Go Flames Go!

Introducing:
- GO
- Real-Time Trip Planner
- System Maps

~GO~
Before you begin your trip, press GO. We’ll tell you…

1. When to leave your house. We track your transit vehicle’s location in real-time and alert you when it’s the perfect time to leave. Not too early. Not too late.
2. When to hurry up. If your bus/subway suddenly starts running fast (or if your phone’s gyroscope says you're walking too slow… or if a real-time prediction skips ahead) we’ll tell you to hurry up so you catch your ride.
3. When to disembark. We track your vehicle’s real-time position and send you a gentle reminder a few minutes before you’re supposed to get off.
4. Detour protection. GO will track the position of your vehicle, and let you know if it strays from its normal path.
5. Re-routing. If you miss your ride (or your connection) we’ll find the next available ride for you, update your itinerary, and tell you what to do.

When you press GO, public transit gets way easier to manage. Best of all, GO doesn’t just work with push notifications. It uses voice alerts too. So if you fall asleep before/during your ride, don’t worry: we’ll wake you up gently with a reminder.

~TRIP PLANNER~
Our new real-time trip planner means that you can discover all those weird transit connections once thought impossible (according to official timetables) but clearly quite possible (at least on days when the right combo of vehicles are running late/fast). Thanks to real-time data, your mission impossible isn’t just possible now. It’s plannable.

We also improved the trip planner design: similar routes are now grouped together. Before, if a transit line departed frequently (say, every 5-10min) the trip planner would be full of those routes. Now, we show you those routes only once—along with their frequency. No more redundant trip suggestions. Great success!

~SYSTEM MAPS~
The CTrain and every BRT line in Calgary are now condensed into one, single, beautiful, curvy, map. At a glance, you can immediately understand your transit system: see where lines go, where you are in relation to them, and where each transit line intersects. It’s beautiful. Just like you are, Calgary.

~ALSO NEW~
We fixed a bunch of bugs and fixed problematic links in the settings pages.

Thanks and adieu! Go Flames Go!

- Improved design and reliability for the Notification Centre Widget
- Fixed issue where send feedback support email was not working

- Regular dose of bug fixes
- Improved Stop Announcements: we'll now notify you two stop ahead of your destination
- More location favorites! You can now save as many locations as you want (e.g. school, grandmas, gym, etc)
- Toggle between real-time information and posted schedules on the schedule page

Introducing: Stop Announcements!

Get a push notification before you reach your stop. No more looking out the window for landmarks to find where you are, and no more worrying about missing your stop if you fall asleep!

To activate a Stop Announcement:

-Tap your route and open its map (pin icon)
-Find your stop and tap the bell icon

We’ll send you a push notification one stop before your destination (or 300 metres, if your stops are really far apart).

Moreover, a list of stops can now be seen under the map for transit routes and planned trips. We call it Hybrid View! (You can call it whatever you’d like ;)

Finally, you can now disable all alarms in the settings page. Turn them on. Turn them off. Turn til your heart’s content.

Hello!

In this update, you're getting two helpful new features.

The first is Transit Alarms.

Tap your route, open up the schedule list (clock icon), and choose which departure you want to receive a reminder for, and how early (5 minutes before your bus comes, 10 minutes, etc.). We will send you a push notification to let you know when to leave.

You can choose to have alarms occur once, or to have them repeat until you board (i.e., get a reminder 30 minutes before each bus leaves until you move from your current location).

The second new feature is bike paths.

Plan ahead for your next bicycle trip by opening the map layer menu (select options in the top right corner) and activating the bike path overlay. You will then be able to see bike paths on the map.