Google Local UK Transport & Weather Overlay

Any beta version mentioned here can be bookmarked if you wish, but may occasionally fail to work due to testing, or be superceeded.

This site overlays various bits of data onto a Google Map.

Designed for Resoulitons 1024 x 768 or better, but should work on lower resolutions if necessary.

Any Comments then email me @

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Planned Features

• Move more data to the side bar (cookie preference allows you to choose whether to keep on-map pop-ups)
  • see under "Options" on side bar to set/unset
  • I plan to offer a sidebar (similar to http://bbc.blueghost.co.uk/site31.php), and a non side-bar version (similar to http://bbc.blueghost.co.uk/site22.php). Hopefully both will have similar or near identicial features just displayed differently
    • Both Version are near identical now in features
  • Sidebar/ Non-sidebar now obsolete, just 1 version - 30 May 2006
• Permalinks to any view
  • try the Permalink link to the top left of each webpage
  • I will add the permalink feature to the non-sidebar version sonn once I get it finished
  • See this page on how to use the permalinks
  • need to track open traffic markers
  • need to pop-up weather markers if selected
• Motorway data
  • added to http://bbc.blueghost.co.uk/site31.php
    • added to both versions now
  • see option "Show Motorway Delays" on side bar under "Options" for the sidebar version
  • see option "Show Motorway Delays" on the navigation bar at the top of the page while "Traffic" is selected
• Railways: Live Departure Board Info
  • added for some of my local stations in shropshire - see this page for an example of how it works
  • http://bbc.blueghost.co.uk/site31.php, not on the non-sidebar version yet
    • viewable in both versions now
  • select railways then click on the markers
    • NB. This works better in Firefox, see this page for an example
    • And looks terrible in Internet Explorer when there are no trains.
• Scrolling the map in Internet Explorer seems sluggish compared with Firefox
  • Need to identify + fix problem
    • Some work done in Bug Fix 30th July PM to address the problem
    • Still apparent - 30 May 2006
• Optimised version of each overlay
  • Each overlay has it's own page, the current script contains the javascript for all overlays - hence it can be slow
  • Intended for:
    • use when speed is not essential to the user
    • if they want to just bookmark a permalink for quick viewing of a single location and overlay
  • This option had now been dismissed completely :)
• More data feeds from the bbc & elsewhere
  • News Feeds:
    • BBC Local and National - Soon
    • Other News Sites - Later
  • Sports Feeds
    • BBC National - Later
    • Specialised feeds for sports such as: - Much Later
      • May be problematic - see http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/ideas/archives/2005/05/league_tables.html
      • football: combine travel/weather/fixture info for a particular team
      • cricket: weather/news/travel for a particular test match (or county)
      • rugby: similar to football idea - although I don't follow it some may find it useful
  • Haven't got the time to implement any of these ideas any more

Changelog

About Weather Data

This site gets weather data from weather.com® and displays it on the map.
You can click on the weather icons to show more information.
The links provided here are required to fit in with weather.com® terms and conditions although they are pointless to UK users as they only work for US locations.
You can drag the map by holding the mouse down on it and dragging it around. As you zoom in more weather stations appear.
7 day data is updated every 12 hours, current data is updated every 30 mins.
Links are provided to the BBC Weather site for each location.
The Map is provided by Google Maps and uses their Google Maps API.

The data grabbing has been optimised by using a cron job to get the current data every hour, and 10-day data every 12 hours. It also caches search results for the same period. This should mean the pages load more quickly due to the fact they don't need to check to see if they are getting up-to-date data.

If searching through the 10 day forecast and you stay at the same location the data should load almost instantaneously due to the fact it will cache the xml javascript object without refetching it from the server.

*** The bbc now provide rss feeds for weather, but the data is in such a poor format compared to the weather.com I have decided to keep with the weather.com feeds until the bbc sort out some better format for their feeds ***

About Traffic Data

Work in Progress!
You select the county/area by clicking on the icons on the map, you can then show/hide the delays/roadworks in that area. You can view as many areas as you want, but the more you do the more memory is used.
This Data come from the BBC's TPEG Travel Feeds. They are converted to an easier format via PHP so that they can be easily parsed in Javascript.
I convert them from TPEG files as the RSS feeds don't contain Geographical co-ordinates to position reports on the Google Map.
The Converted files are visible @ http://bbc.blueghost.co.uk/travel_data/

The data is automatically updated every hour 30 minutes, i may cut this to half an hour depending on how much bandwidth it takes up - DONE

Limitations/Bugs

• When reloading this map it forgets the all locations are now hidden, any previously unhidden will still require you to press "Hide Delays" before pressing "Show Delays"
• Not all locations have meaningful names - need to have extra database field to store it.
  • DONE - separate field for display names (some scripts need updating at present to show this)
• Doesn't hold all locations, I haven't added them all yet. Un-added list @ http://bbc.blueghost.co.uk/un_added_locs.htm
  • Most Now Added.

supported by backstage.bbc.co.uk"

About Railway Data

This Data come from the BBC's TPEG Travel Feeds. They are converted to an easier format via PHP so that they can be easily parsed in Javascript.
I convert them from TPEG files as the RSS feeds don't contain Geographical co-ordinates to position reports on the Google Map.
The Converted files are visible @ http://bbc.blueghost.co.uk/travel_data/

The data is automatically updated every hour 30 minutes, i may cut this to half an hour depending on how much bandwidth it takes up - DONE

Live Departure Board Data is taken from the National Rail Website. The relevant Data is extracted (firefox only currently) and displayed in a map pop-up.

supported by backstage.bbc.co.uk

About Live Departure Boards

This is a manual process to add railway stations to my database. See this page on how to add your local station : http://pritch.blueghost.co.uk/wordpress/uk-train-stations-locations/

I use the virgin live departure boards as they still use the old national rail interface (although with Virgin Branding). I prefer the old style as it is easier to understand and contains no adverts. The new national rail website is harder to follow and contains adverts hence I don't link to it.

supported by Virgin Trains Live Departure Boards

*** You can now use the search function to find any UK train station ***

Any Comments then email me @

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