Bus schedules displayed here are now outdated. Unfortunately, we don't have time to keep them up-to-date. We still keep this page and the applet available for demonstration purposes.
Description
ShuttleClock is a real-time bus departure visualizer that uses the new SpiraClock technique. Its displays itself on a computer desktop as a regular computer clock. ShuttleClock has been designed for regular bus users of the University of Maryland, as a useful complement to their traditional schedule tables.
ShuttleClock contains the schedules of Schuttle-UM from monday to friday as displayed at the Shuttle-UM website.
ShuttleClock Applet
You must see the applet on the top of this page. If it is not the case, you may need to download the latest version of Java Plug-in or the Java Runtime Environment v1.3. If SpiraClock is displayed but empty, it's because it's week-end, or it's too late in the evening !
What is displayed on the clock ?
Like every SpiraClock application, ShuttleClock displays upcoming events as colored sectors inside a time spiral. For more details on how to read SpiraClock, check the tutorial on the SpiraClock home page.
ShuttleClock displays the schedules of Shuttle-UM, the shuttle of the University of Maryland. For more details on their services, check their web site. In ShuttleClock, a schedule is a list of bus departure times for one stop (e.g. stop #3) inside one service (e.g. greenbelt service). ShuttleClock contains schedules of 10 shuttle services, and a total of 62 stops. The colors and numbers we use are those of Shuttle-UM time-tables.
The bus user can choose one or several schedules he is interested in. He can also use stop pairs (e.g. stop#1 -> stop#7) to form a compound schedule showing starting and arrival times.
As an example, the applet above shows two different schedules. Green sectors show greenbelt departure and arrival times from #leave stop to #7 stop. Red sectors show silverspring departure times only, at #leave stop (the first stop). The user has configured red sectors to appear five minutes before bus departure time, which is the time he must leave its office to catch the bus. Users can adjust offsets of both starting and ending sector times to account for stop distance, preparation time, traffic variation, etc.
You can choose your own schedules by clicking on the Choose schedules... button.
How to use SpiraClock ?
Showing event info: Keep mouse cursor on an event.
Looking ahead/backward in time: Drag the minute hand.
Fast looking ahead/backward: Drag the hour hand.
Resetting to current time: Move the mouse out of the applet. (to lock time, release the mouse out of the applet after dragging hand.)
Changing time extent: Drag the spiral toward its center or its border.
Resizing the clock: Drag applet's background toward spiral's center or
outside.
Showing/hiding the digital clock or current date: use the contextual
menu (right button in Windows).
ShuttleClock Application
ShuttleClock is best used on your desktop ! See readme file for installation instructions.
