Some creative use of NextBus GPS data to help visualize transit patterns and volumes in the San Francisco area. Market St. is on the upper right, and you can see buses coming across the Bay Bridge to Treasure Island in the far upper right. In the first video, each white dot/cube is a bus or train.

Thanks Jeevan. This is very cool.

San Francisco Public Transit Data Visualization from Jeevan Kalanithi on Vimeo.

San Francisco Public Transit Visualization from Jeevan Kalanithi on Vimeo.

With winter weather and snow storms soon upon us in most of Canada and the northern US, I thought it would be interesting to show some of our (lucky) warmer weather readers what dealing with snow on city streets really means –  and what is involved from a vehicle fleet management perspective.

Here is a YouTube find that visually tells the story of some of what happens on city streets ‘after the storm’… often a round-the-clock operation that tests the efficiency and coordination of vehicles and city personnel.

WebTech Wireless’ InterFleet Solution was recently purchased by the Ville du Quèbec (City of Quebec) – one of Canada’s snowiest major cities. With a mean annual snowfall of 317 cm (125 inches) that means it spends a considerable proportion of its street maintenance budget during the winter months.

Sometimes Only the Horses Move in Quebec City

At these levels of snowfall, cities such as Quebec and Montreal have to do more that snow ‘clearing’, which simply means displacing the snow off to the side of streets and sidewalks. Because of the volume, snow ‘removal’ is necessary and this involves the coordination of many different types of equipment (plows, graders, blowers, dump-trucks, etc.) in sequence to take the snow away to special dumping sites outside of the city. Here, huge snow mountains are created that can last into the summer before completely melting away.

InterFleet helps cities like Quebec City manage their fleets to handle these complex winter snow removal operations, and you can read more about it here.

A great YouTube find from a search for “telematics”.

This video Telematics City was done for Toyota Lexus by Hook Interactive and Minefield, Detroit. Here is more info on the technical aspects behind it, which are really something. Enjoy.