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The MBTA subway system as multi-colored ant farm

Compressing all MBTA subway service for an entire day into a four-minute video:

James Kebinger explains how he created the video using MBTA scheduling data recently released by the state.

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Comments

So, this is the ideal state. Ok, seems fairly reasonable, although the Green Line could use a second set of inbound and outbound tracks from Kenmore to Government Center (not that we didn't know that already).

Now, show the reality. Show the B Line stopped for 5 minutes at Kelton, Harvard, and Packard's Corner waiting for the signal to come around again because people wouldn't get on fast enough when it was green the first time. Show the Red Line hitting 3 red signals in a row for no good reason causing a "signal delay" in the schedule. Figure out why the Blue Line never seems to be evenly spaced throughout the day at all for no good reason at all.

Then let's see how great the system looks. Heh.

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One step at a time, the guy doesn't work for the MBTA just making a cool video

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Wasn't harping on anyone BUT the MBTA.

I said it was fairly reasonable.

By the way, geek joke here: The guy says he used Ruby to process the train data...does that make this Ruby on Rails? Hehehe.

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My hat's off to you!

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... that i can't somehow "favorite" a post. well done!

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I might install a module that basically lets you do that.

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there are some gems on this board that really deserve some recognition :)

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1. Some of those ants should "stop" for several seconds (and hold up any ants behind them to the point where it becomes a bottleneck), especially on the Green Line.

2. Have no ants for several seconds on one branch then 2-3 ants at once, with 1 ant noticeably speeding ahead of the other two as it "ran express" for a few stops.

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and then crashing into the other ants?

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