App: A bike map and guide for Chicagoland
Consider this: You like to use the Chicago Bike Map but you don't always carry it with you. You want to be reminded of where the bike lanes and trail access points are. But you do carry your smartphone with you, all the time.
In April 2012 I launched my first-ever app, the Chicago Bike Guide. It works similarly to the "Chicago Bike Map" (the City's printed one) in that it shows the presence of on-street bike lanes, multi-use trails, and train stations. It works like Google Maps, though, where you can pinch and zoom to interact with the map.
Divvy, train stations, directions, The Chainlink, Twitter, points of interest, it's all right here.
Available for Android and iOS.
Views: 3852
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Steven Vance on
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The app has evolved beyond a Map to become a Guide. It helps you see what's going on in the bicycling community in Chicago. Check out these screenshots to see the new features in action.
James BlackHeron said:While I don't really need this app for my Android (Gmaps works pretty well and I don't have an issue with bandwidth for the rest of that stuff) the one thing that looks REALLY cool that I wish I could get is a decent mobile interface to The Chainlink.
It's been ages since the mobile versions of this site were deactivated and I really miss them.
That one feature of this iApp makes me iWant to go iBuy another iPhone again (iAlmost) -but then...iNot.
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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on
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I agree that this app has a TON of great functions within it and I can see why you didn't want to do the buttload of work it would take to get all of that stuff ported over to Android. Android is also funny with their store I heard and many iPhone developers have not wanted to port their stuff over because of differences in the way they do things.
But I still say the killer function of this app, beyond the offline bike maps, is the mobile gateways to this site. I get very frustrated with the way this website is rendered onto my Nexus 4. The device is powerful enough but it is super wasteful and everything is so tiny and wide-screen that I need to do a ton of zooming in and out to do anything, especially when trying to click on anything specific.
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The way that Ning sets up the RSS feeds, it truncates them. My app shows the truncated RSS feed for discussions. I'm not even sure if it's showing the discussions with the most recently added replies, or the discussions that were most recently added (I think it's the former, but the Ning RSS feeds are not very good).
When you tap on a discussion thread in my app, you are immediately taken to Safari. So the mobile view isn't there because Ning just doesn't make the raw data available.
James BlackHeron said:But I still say the killer function of this app, beyond the offline bike maps, is the mobile gateways to this site. I get very frustrated with the way this website is rendered onto my Nexus 4. The device is powerful enough but it is super wasteful and everything is so tiny and wide-screen that I need to do a ton of zooming in and out to do anything, especially when trying to click on anything specific.
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Blame it on Ning!
I was hoping with the revamp of the whole site and everything that The Chainlink could dump Ning! and find some other system and hosting. Maybe that isn't possible with the contract with the devil that was signed with them when they set things up. It could be that we are stuck with them for life.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Schwab on
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311 suggestion: debris pickup and street sweeper needed for glass and other very small debris.
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This is definitely in the pipeline. When I first started looking into incorporating a 311 submission system back in December or January, I ran into some problems. There was weak documentation but I know the people behind it at the City so hopefully I can have better success on the second run.
Mike Schwab said:311 suggestion: debris pickup and street sweeper needed for glass and other very small debris.
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Permalink Reply by Tony Adams on
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This would be great. It seems like there would be/should be an easy way for people to submit such reports, (glass or debris in a street) but I didn't see it at the newly revamped 311 reporting site.
Steven Vance said:This is definitely in the pipeline. When I first started looking into incorporating a 311 submission system back in December or January, I ran into some problems. There was weak documentation but I know the people behind it at the City so hopefully I can have better success on the second run.
Mike Schwab said:311 suggestion: debris pickup and street sweeper needed for glass and other very small debris.
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I worked with Ning just enough to realize that it is the worst possible platform for doing a forum. I certainly could have missed something, but I sure don't recall noticing any kind of "deal with the devil" when I was learning about the platform. The closest thing (that I know of - and its been a while) is that the data isn't easily ported to another less crappy platform (less crappy would be any other platform of course.) But I seem to recall that even at the time - a couple years ago - there were ways to get it done.
James BlackHeron said:Blame it on Ning!
I was hoping with the revamp of the whole site and everything that The Chainlink could dump Ning! and find some other system and hosting. Maybe that isn't possible with the contract with the devil that was signed with them when they set things up. It could be that we are stuck with them for life.
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I find it pretty easy to submit reports via that website, but for those looking for another – mobile-oriented – solution, try Chicago Works, SeeClickFix, and Fix 311.
BTW, everyone, version 0.7 will drop in a few days (it's waiting for review right now). It brings several improvements to the routing function (showing distance, estimated travel duration, and more usable results), reduced file size, and fixed CTA stations. There was also an issue with the screenshots being shown in the app store (they showed an outdated version).
Here are the 10 best new features of version 0.6 and the upcoming version 0.7.
Tony Adams 6.6 mi said:This would be great. It seems like there would be/should be an easy way for people to submit such reports, (glass or debris in a street) but I didn't see it at the newly revamped 311 reporting site.
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Even if it meant starting from scratch, losing everything, and everyone needing to sign back up again with a new system it would be worth it IMHO. But that is just my opinion. Ning really sucks.
Something free and open-source like Simple Machines would be awesome as long as enough ad revenues could be harvested from the site to pay for hosting and other costs what more would people really need?
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A calendar.
Please let this be the end of Ning versus Everything in this thread.
James BlackHeron said:Even if it meant starting from scratch, losing everything, and everyone needing to sign back up again with a new system it would be worth it IMHO. But that is just my opinion. Ning really sucks.
Something free and open-source like Simple Machines would be awesome as long as enough ad revenues could be harvested from the site to pay for hosting and other costs what more would people really need?
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The new icon is beautiful. Nice work! I can't seem to get the update to work, but I think that is because my phone lacks room for it.
I have no one to blame but myself, but I'm still mad at the dude at the Verizon store for not even mentioning the option of a phone with more storage capacity.
(a l m o s t got through this entire post without mentioning how crappy Ning is!)
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