Weld recently did a two part series on the status of the BJCTA Bus System. My trip planner was featured in the second part. You can read it online from the links below:
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Part 1 is a very interesting look at the decline of the bus system since the 1950s and the turmoil and political games around transit in Birmingham. Part 2 takes a look at what is being done now to improve the system along with stories from riders who rely on the system.
Last night I was waiting on a bus in 5 points after some drinks with friends. Among the 12 of us who were waiting on a bus, I noticed two young girls, who we clearly not from Birmingham, looking at their phones to figure out what bus to ride to get back to their hotel near the convention center. As I looked over their shoulder, I saw they were using my App! That right there was enough to make me realize that all the work I’ve been doing for the last 1.5 years has been worth it! So, if you haven’t already, give the buses a try and use my app to help you.
I have updated the trip planner for the BJCTA Max buses to include new routes. The 41 Fairfield has been completed. You can download the data off of the GTFS Data Exchange.
My Trip Planner already includes the latest data. Or you can download my Android App for free from below.
If you have an iPhone, you can download a 3rd party app called Hop Stop.
Microsoft’s Bing Maps now includes my GTFS bus data for the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority (BJCTA). This means you can use Bing Maps to plan all your bus trips through Birmingham on the MAX buses! This is great news! Here’s an example:
I have updated the trip planner for the BJCTA Max buses to include new routes. The 1 Express, 45 Express, 44 Montevallo, and 6 Pratt-Ensley have all been completed. You can download the data off of the GTFS Data Exchange.
My Trip Planner already includes the latest data. Or you can download my Android App for free from below.
If you have an iPhone, you can download a 3rd party app called Hop Stop.
I have created a Trip Planner app for Android phones. This was based on an open source OTP project that I was able to modify and customized to run against my trip planner. Â It costs nothing and has no ads. Please give it a try an let me know if you like it! It is available in the Google Play store under the name BJCTA Trip Planner.
You can learn more about it from the link below.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.line72.bjcta.opentripplanner.android
You can also grab the source code and submit patches from my github site:
Using my website (http://bjcta.line72.net) to catalog bus stops, we have successfully cataloged over 1,000 stops! I estimate there are somewhere between 2,000 – 3,000 stops in Birmingham. We are making great progress and have already been able to finish about 1/3 of the routes which can be seen on my trip planning website (http://tripplanner.line72.net).
My company, VIPAAR, made the cover of the Birmingham Business Journal. That is all.
Using Open Trip Planner, I have setup a website for riders of the BJCTA Max Bus in Birmingham, AL to plan out their trips. Â I only have a few of the routes online right now. More routes will be available as their stops are cataloged. Please help test the existing routes and verify the times and locations! You can find the trip planner site below:
Continuing on with my project to get Birmingham’s MAX bus system on Google Transit, I was able to get the Open Trip Planner software up and running. This is letting me visualize some of the preliminary GTFS data to validate it before I continue work on the rest of the routes.  Here’s two examples showing trip planning between various locations. The stop locations are coming from my stop cataloging site.
