Translink is a “one-card to rule them all” approach to replace the existing system monthly passes, paper tickets, magnetic strips and exact change. The system was proposed back in 1993, and and is currently in place for AC Transit, MUNI, and Golden Gate. Twenty-Eight transit systems each with their own schedules, fares and terminology for passes (Eco Pass, EZRider, Fast Pass, etc) doesn’t really make riding transit easier.

Recently, BART hinted that they might be ready to roll out TransLink as soon as a year from now, which would put that in mid-2010. London’s had a system-wide Oyster Card in 2003 and Hong Kong’s Octopus Card launched to the public in 1997.

Lawsuits and vendor issues have stalled BARTs adoption of Translink, and it seems like the recent launch BARTs own EZRider smart card will only serve to confuse riders. Recently, the issue of fare revenue “float” has led to the establishment of a BART specific “e-purse”. (Will I need an “e-purse” to ride “E-BART“)

Hopefully BART will get TransLink rolled out by the Oyster Cards 10 year anniversary and before the next siginificant fare payment technology replaces RFID. Rumors are flying around that a “Soft launch” of TransLink on BART may happen soon, meaning it might just start working without them telling anyone about it.. We’ll post an update here with our results if this happens.

To our loyal blog readers – this isn’t quite ready for production, but I wanted to explore BART’s new open data feed and do something fun.

Comments, thoughts, appreciated. A few known issues:

We’re still working on getting the real time feed up. Soon.

The design isn’t great. We’ll be rolling out new ways to visualize the data soon, and include an extra layer showing stations.

Apple may be known for its advertising prowess, but this little marketing coup is going to go down as one of the most hilarious ad placements in recent history. doubleTwist, the company co-founded by renowned software reverse engineer DVD Jon, has managed to place a banner for its product directly next to the main entrance to Apple’s flagship San Francisco store.
Read the rest on TechCrunch

In San Francisco, there is a BART entrance right below Apple’s flagship store. Its one of the more urban BART station entrances, it reminds me more of something you’d see in New York or London than SF with most stations having entrances in the middle of the sidewalk instead of embedded into a building.

Apparently, the window of this BART entrance hasn’t been used before for advertising, but with buget cuts, I’d imagine transit agencies are looking for new sources of revenue and every surface is a potential ad space. This space must be particularly valuable and I find it very impressive that the first ad that got put there was for a product that will allow moving of an itunes library to a non-apple device.

The ad is well done and blends nicely with the Apple store, i wonder how many Union Square shoppers will visit doubletwist.com thinking it has been sanctioned by Apple.

Paris

New York

London

San Francisco BART

See many more at Fakeisthenewreal.com.

I’m not really sure what that line is heading down Market St diagonally in the western section of the BART map, but either way it appears to be larger than all of the others. I wonder what all of these maps would look like if you included commuter rail lines as well.

Thanks to the Transportationist for pointing these out.

Stop the presses! BART is now twittering. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t know that you could ride the train all the way to Black Rock City.