MyBusStop Project Reloaded

“Winners never quit and quitters never win”. This is what I learnt from two years of blogging. I started some interesting ideas, but it stopped for some reason. Many people have brilliant ideas but not many can stick to with them.

I started the My City, My Bus Stop project in the first week of 2004, but the system failed because of migration to the new server. It involves much work to rebuild the whole thing and it did take some time to rebuild it. My friend Isaac has asked about the status of the project and so have some contributors. Although it took about half a year to fix it, I finally fixed the problem and now everything works. I bet we can start it again – the My City, My Bus Stop Project hasn’t die yet. (These two paragraphs were rewritten according to mc_dean’s suggestion)

Go to My City, My Bus Stop Project (Chinese site)

screen-my.bus.stop-lines.GIF

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The Base

The project started with a base of all public transportation lines in a Wiki site. Now there are nearly 400 lines in it already. You can navigate through public transportation lines or see which lines stop at a certain stop. It is very useful for people to find the right bus in the city.

At least, I believe it will become one of the top results for many bus stop names in Google within two months, as the Shanghai Map did. Why? Google loves the intensive cross links in the Wiki site.

What is the Next Step

The power of the Wiki site is that everyone can modify and contribute to the pages. Here is how everyone can participate.

Attach Your Blog to a Bus Stop

If you run a blog, you can put your blog along with your name to the stop that is nearest to you. No matter where you live in the city, there must be a stop that is closest to you. For example, I put my name at TianChi. Maybe you can find a blogger at the same bus stop. It will be fun if you find other bloggers this way.

Describe the Stop

The initial idea behind this project is, by describe the points of the city; we have some idea of the whole city. If you are interested, you can select a bus stop, and describe the bus stop in your own words. You can tell people what is unique in this bus stop that makes it so special within the city.

Correct Errors and Update the Route

There may be errors in the map and you can correct it. There are new bus lines, such as GJ607, that can be added into the system. So help yourself to do it.

How to Participate

If you want to participate in this project, follow the simple steps:

1. Choose a stop. You can follow a bus line to reach your stop.

2. Click “Edit Page” button located on the top-right and/or bottom of the page.

3. Modify the page as you wish. You can find formatting tips at the end of the edit page.

4. Click “Save” to make your change available for others. Yes. No authentication and authorization are implemented so far. This is how Wiki works.

Good luck! This is Your City.

6 thoughts on “MyBusStop Project Reloaded

  1. This is a great project, Wang Jianshuo. I see that all of the edits so far are in Chinese… English is OK too, right?

    I think some stations are missing, though. For example, my house is closest to the 白玉路 station of the 136路 line. But this station is not on the GJ136 Wiki page[1]. If you look on the 上海城市交通 website, it has a longer list of station for 136. Should I add the missing stations myself?

    [1] http://bbs.wangjianshuo.com/Bus/GJ136

    [2] http://www.jt.sh.cn/jtfw/gj/jtfw-gj1-7.htm

  2. > Does Shanghai still use “LU” instead of “road” in English version?

    Yes, they mostly do, but this simply is because most of the “romanized” signs are NOT English at all, but simply use the “PinYin” rewriting of the Chinese characters!

    Otherwise, wouldn´t it be consequent to translate the full name and talk about about

    “Southern capitol road” (Nanjing Lu) etc. ?

    I think, sticking with the PinYin if its only a name and hence with “Lu” is very OK

    Joachim

  3. Micah, the source I got for all the road is out of date. It is only a base for everyone to modify upon. The bus lines changes so quickly. New stops emerges and old lines were extended. That is the reason why we cannot find the most updated source at any time in this fast changing city. It is the case of your Bai Yu Road. So I took the communinty approach that everyone with Internet access can modify the page and correct the data.

    You can encouraged to modify anything that is no longer accurate. Simply click on the “Edit Page” link and you can edit. No arthorization needed. That is the beauty of Wiki. Feel free to try to edit and let us know if you need help. I am looking forward to seeing your addition to the lines.

    English is also OK. You can edit on the same page and explain it in English.

  4. Stephen and Joachim,

    Your guess is partyly right. Please note the title or URL of the page is only used as a convention in the project system, instead of an official translation. I chose to use the direct PinYin mapping to choose the URL. For example, I used ShangHaiHuoCheZhan as the name for Shanghai Railway Station. Note the H in Hai – it makes it easier to get a unique name, instead of debating on which is the better translation. Anyway, don’t call the title an English name for the stop – it is just a convention in this system.

    Regarding the original question, is Lu still used for Road in Shanghai? I guess so. Although Road or Rd is more and more frequently used today, some places still use the direct Pinyin, such as Zhe Jiang Lu. You can call it English or you can call it Pin Yin. No one said anything spelled in the 26 letters are English, right?

  5. I am very displeased with your tirade of the harmless misuse of English on signs in Shanghai’s public transportation system. I can go on and on about how your reaction was exaggerated and how your criticism was unfounded, but I hope what follows will suffice to demonstrate to you the irony of your complaint.

    I took a quick look at your first two paragraphs of this entry. All comments are in parentheses.

    “Winners never quite (quit) and quitters never win”. This is what I learnt from the (omit the) two years of blogging. I started doing something with quite interesting ideas (awkward), but it stopped by (for) some reason. Many people have brilliant ideas but not many can stick to (with) it (them).

    I started the My City, My Bus Stop project in the first week of this year (awkward), but the system failed because of migration to the new server. It involves many works (much work) to rebuild the whole thing and it did take some time to rebuild it. My friend Isaac has asked about the status of the project and so does (have) some contributors. Although it took about half (a) year to fix it, I finally fixed the problem and now everything works. I bet we can start from this new start (bad style) – the My City, My Bus Stop Project didn’t die (hasn’t died) yet.

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