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TTC Station Pages


M.Wright

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I noticed most of them aren't even created, so that would need completion before my idea.

Now one way I think we could improve them is by for the stations that have off-street bus terminals, by creating diagrams and showing what routes service what stops. As currently, not even the TTC has this information on their website.

I was thinking if it's possible, we could do it similiar to this format:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtown_Ottawa#Map

Source could be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=...amp;action=edit

As that allows for linking to the route pages. Not sure if our wiki would allow this formatting, but this would be helpful, right now I do not have the time to try this out as I need to be somewhere shortly but this is an idea I would like to investigate the possibility.

I am considering this for OC Transpo but since many buses service our stops, it would just link you to the stop that is applicible. (Our stops are also numbered in Ottawa, which helps)

I would love to help with the TTC but I do not have the knowledge of station layouts or which routes service what bus bays. So I am just offering up ideas for you guys to consider while performing a much needed update of the TTC section.

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I noticed most of them aren't even created, so that would need completion before my idea.

Now one way I think we could improve them is by for the stations that have off-street bus terminals, by creating diagrams and showing what routes service what stops. As currently, not even the TTC has this information on their website.

I would love to help with the TTC but I do not have the knowledge of station layouts or which routes service what bus bays. So I am just offering up ideas for you guys to consider while performing a much needed update of the TTC section.

You know actually, I considered making such "bus terminal maps" a number of times for my website because TTC didn't have such a thing available on their own website. I never got around to actually making one, but I did collect a bunch of PDFs from various sources to help me with them. Maybe I should draw one up in Illustrator.

-Ryan

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Personally I'm against this idea. Not that listing where the buses would stop is a bad idea, just I don't agree with the principle that basically "fan-made" drawings should be a part of the wiki. There's very little quality control and standardization that can happen especially if a bunch of people decide to make their own ("oh look I can scribble on MS Paint!"), and there would be all sorts of problems with getting things done to scale, as well as updating the maps should changes occur and the original owner doesn't want to update it immediately (or if someone else tries updating it).

I think it would be good enough right now to list the bays either by number or stopping position. This is the procedure I've been using for the GO Stations.

There's many more projects on the Wiki that could use some attention first (as you mentioned M.Wright very few TTC subway stations have pages) and maybe those other projects should be tackled first rather than creating new ones.

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That's why we need teams to do different portions, like real life. Simple project management. Some people do the subway station pages, some people do the graphics for them, etc..until they're all finished. They must stay on their team duty. If they're not the critical path, then teams can start work on other things, but this only lasts until the critical path items are complete.

We have to stop completing some parts and leaving the rest to languish.

Instead of pilfering official graphics that people can see on official transit websites (what's the point?), we can make our own through a dedicated graphics team. People know that TTC graphics are not the most intuitive. We can work together at first to create standards, then work with those standards to create prototype graphics - tweak the design until it's accepted by democratic means.

A Wiki is meant to give information, and visuals are much better than words. This is why I'm against large, bulky paragraphs on Wikis - they're tl;dr. I'm not saying that we should replace every paragraph with pictures, but words should be used efficiently.

Just an example - I uploaded (a while ago) a graphic of the Sheppard-Yonge Yonge line platform walls as an experiment. What's anyone's takes on basic graphics like that?

Just my 2¢ when it comes to projects.

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That's why we need teams to do different portions, like real life. Simple project management. Some people do the subway station pages, some people do the graphics for them, etc..until they're all finished. They must stay on their team duty. If they're not the critical path, then teams can start work on other things, but this only lasts until the critical path items are complete.

We have to stop completing some parts and leaving the rest to languish.

Instead of pilfering official graphics that people can see on official transit websites (what's the point?), we can make our own through a dedicated graphics team. People know that TTC graphics are not the most intuitive. We can work together at first to create standards, then work with those standards to create prototype graphics - tweak the design until it's accepted by democratic means.

A Wiki is meant to give information, and visuals are much better than words. This is why I'm against large, bulky paragraphs on Wikis - they're tl;dr. I'm not saying that we should replace every paragraph with pictures, but words should be used efficiently.

Just an example - I uploaded (a while ago) a graphic of the Sheppard-Yonge Yonge line platform walls as an experiment. What's anyone's takes on basic graphics like that?

Just my 2¢ when it comes to projects.

I agree with specific people being assigned a task (ie. making station layouts) and only them being the ones designing and uploading it. If only one (voluntary) team is allowed to upload their work, that component will be standardized.

I also like the station wall graphic you made and I think it might be the what we should go with.

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I agree with specific people being assigned a task (ie. making station layouts) and only them being the ones designing and uploading it. If only one (voluntary) team is allowed to upload their work, that component will be standardized.

I also like the station wall graphic you made and I think it might be the what we should go with.

My problem is mainly with the junior members who just go "hey dis new route thingy doesn't have a map yet i'll do it so i can put something up on the wiki" and they draw something crudely using MS Paint and stick it up, without knowing any better. And since people very rarely read the Wiki section of the board...

I like the station graphics as well. Again though, not sure if we should go with the computer-made graphics or have pictures; I know there's a few members who have photographed every station's tile arrangement.

And as much as it would be an idea to have a dedicated team doing nothing but one project at a time, we do have to remember that the Wiki really is only voluntary work, and we can't force someone to finish. I'm a fairly dedicated editor IMO and I've been working on GO Station pages slowly but have only 4/7 lines done because it's time consuming and I have other more important things to do with my time (school work, for example, which I'm behind on now).

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So I've taken the time to draw up a map on AI of the bus/streetcar terminal at St. Clair West station (attached). The map design was based on one of TTC's PDF files of St. Clair West station. Any thoughts or comments on what should be added, removed, or modified are welcome.

TTC_StClairWestMap_v1.0.pdf

-Ryan

TTC_StClairWestMap_v1.0.pdf

TTC_StClairWestMap_v1.0.pdf

TTC_StClairWestMap_v1.0.pdf

TTC_StClairWestMap_v1.0.pdf

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Here are a couple of finalized versions of maps. These two are of St. Clair West and Don Mills stations (click to enlarge).

6210316804_ba50cd649a.jpg

TTC-StClairWestMap-v2.0 by R. Flores, on Flickr

6209802435_d38b6d7c0a.jpg

TTC-DonMillsMap-v2.0 by R. Flores, on Flickr

Not totally sure about the bus bay assignments for Don Mills. Please let me know if any corrections have to be made.

-Ryan

EDIT: Don Mills map fixed.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've created an upgrade to the TTC Station template based off of the current version M.Wright has made... it basically just has styling upgrades that are similar to the current signage style the TTC is using, and includes the station navigation templates inside the infobox similar to the GO Station template.

There's a few things that would work better with it - the subway logo (I can't find a nice clean version of it online) in the top box, a less pixelated Wheelchair logo and arrows that match the TTC's signage.

View the new template (it's formed for Bloor-Yonge now), comment/suggestions and if you guys like it, I can start implementing it and create a single-line version too - it won't take long to do.

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View the new template (it's formed for Bloor-Yonge now), comment/suggestions and if you guys like it, I can start implementing it and create a single-line version too - it won't take long to do.

Minor suggestion: Instead of the Presto row and then saying enabled or (I assume) disabled, would it be possible to change it to Presto-enabled, and then have it as a Yes or No?

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I've created an upgrade to the TTC Station template based off of the current version M.Wright has made... it basically just has styling upgrades that are similar to the current signage style the TTC is using, and includes the station navigation templates inside the infobox similar to the GO Station template.

There's a few things that would work better with it - the subway logo (I can't find a nice clean version of it online) in the top box, a less pixelated Wheelchair logo and arrows that match the TTC's signage.

View the new template (it's formed for Bloor-Yonge now), comment/suggestions and if you guys like it, I can start implementing it and create a single-line version too - it won't take long to do.

I'd also like to mention that the colour for the YUS line on the template is more of an orange, not yellow.

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I've created an upgrade to the TTC Station template based off of the current version M.Wright has made... it basically just has styling upgrades that are similar to the current signage style the TTC is using, and includes the station navigation templates inside the infobox similar to the GO Station template.
You do realize that the template isn't fully mine. I just took the information that was located at the majority of the stations, made it a template, and added a bit of style to it according to how the rest of the TTC Wiki templates are formatted. This is after all, the entire purpose of a wiki.

Also I would recommend reducing the width, I'll use my current computer settings as a example.

Existing:

Existing_template.PNG

Proposed:

Proposed_template.PNG

As you can see, it becomes quite intrusive and that width is quite unnecessary. If you were hoping to make the page any shorter by also putting it one lined for the multiple lines, the added width eliminates that since it forces the rest of the text to extend the length of the page.

Do remember not everyone has the same computer settings, which is why I don't use the maximum most settings. But being a wiki we need to take into account the people who have minimum settings.

I don't know what would be wrong with reducing the width a bit, I just did so and did a preview and it looks fine.

Proposed modifications:

Proposed_modification.PNG

As for editing it, I don't care, this is a wiki after all. You are more then entitled to edit it. If I didn't want you editing it, then I would of not posted it.

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I'd also like to mention that the colour for the YUS line on the template is more of an orange, not yellow.

The colours used on the YUS line navigation template (and the other 3 lines for that matter) are actually the incorrect ones; I went to a TTC colour swatch document and used an eyedropper tool to get the correct colours which is what appears on the template.

You do realize that the template isn't fully mine. I just took the information that was located at the majority of the stations, made it a template, and added a bit of style to it according to how the rest of the TTC Wiki templates are formatted. This is after all, the entire purpose of a wiki.

I'm attempting to build through consensus on the fourms so we don't have editing wars going on.

Also I would recommend reducing the width, I'll use my current computer settings as a example.

(pics removed)

As you can see, it becomes quite intrusive and that width is quite unnecessary. If you were hoping to make the page any shorter by also putting it one lined for the multiple lines, the added width eliminates that since it forces the rest of the text to extend the length of the page.

Do remember not everyone has the same computer settings, which is why I don't use the maximum most settings. But being a wiki we need to take into account the people who have minimum settings.

As for editing it, I don't care, this is a wiki after all. You are more then entitled to edit it. If I didn't want you editing it, then I would of not posted it.

I do recognize (and did while editing it) that the template is wider than the other one (500px instead of 400px on the older one). Unfortunately the width is necessary, as Sheppard-Yonge is a terminus and it should remain one-lined to be consistent with TTC signage (which was the whole point of making it like this). I'm not a fan of the current navigation templates which is why I put them in the infobox.

Two solutions: creating four boxes (or two for single-line stations) with a direction in each one, or just reverting to the old navigation templates (which I'd then spruce up to look like this).

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I do recognize (and did while editing it) that the template is wider than the other one (500px instead of 400px on the older one). Unfortunately the width is necessary, as Sheppard-Yonge is a terminus and it should remain one-lined to be consistent with TTC signage (which was the whole point of making it like this). I'm not a fan of the current navigation templates which is why I put them in the infobox.

Two solutions: creating four boxes (or two for single-line stations) with a direction in each one, or just reverting to the old navigation templates (which I'd then spruce up to look like this).

You are right when it comes to that as I just tried that, as shown below.

500px wide

Sheppard_Yonge_500px.PNG

400px wide

Sheppard_Yonge_400px.PNG

300px wide

Sheppard_Yonge_300px.PNG

But I do agree that we should upgrade the current navigation templates to this style as this would look nice as you have done a good job with that. But it doesn't belong in the Station Infobox. As everything else is just fine.

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I do like the looks of that template! Width could be reduced, as long as the text doesn't get squished. :rolleyes:
Just what I was suggesting. I too, like the look of it. But since reducing the width ruins only the navigation on it, that is why I like Articulated's idea of upgrading the navigation bars at the bottom of the page to this style and leaving the navigation out of the infobox. As shown with my 300px example, everything else reduces just fine without squishing any text.
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As per popular demand, I've remade the Navigation template so they imitate the platform headers. There are also corresponding versions noleft and noright that have a blank space on the left and right sides respectively in order to serve properly for termini.

Opinions and thoughts before they're implemented (particularly from the narrow-monitor crowd)?

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If you want, I can upload a copy of the subway map with a pure black background so it blends in with the rest of the template.

That'll work better, I just grabbed one quickly that didn't have as much info crap surrounding it. Thanks.

Not a fan of the subway map in the middle; I can barely see it in my 15" laptop.

Instead I'd rather see the Yonge-University-Spadina Line wording where the map is currently placed.

The only reason it's on there is to imitate the actual signage to have a true® representation of the sign.

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