Hoboken Commuter API Reverse Engineering

The HOP

• Other examples of GUIs/API clients for passiogo

  • College
  • Python

• Real time bus info found at Passiogo

  • Built jQuery
  • shipped without minification
  • Useful stuff about the website implementation
    • global var buses holds info on each bus
    • bus objects have lat/long, bus name, and IDs
    • exposes Firebase cloud messaging (FCM) keys for some kind of real-time comms with server
      • not working in my browser due to privacy settings

• IMPORTANT NUMBERS:

  • Hoboken system: 466
  • Hoboken routes:
    • 46857, 47234, 47235 (green hop), 47233

• Look at types and comments in main.ts:passio-api to see what the raw API responses look like

• instead of ETA we compute estimated distance to next stop since it's easier

• TODO: build basic frontend with pure HTML and CSS

  • default to showing info for Red Hop 12th st and Green hop Trader Joe's
  • include drop-down selector to pick different lines/stations

• TODO: build up histogram to provide ETAs

  • Architecture: every time we check in record the current time, route, and bus location
  • SOLUTION 1: periodically compute time deltas + distance traveled during those deltas
    • compute as total distance traveled from previous node to current node
    • save as map from distance to list of time deltas
    • what happens then the bus goes way off course due to missed turns or road closures?
  • SOLUTION 2: check in often enough to capture many instances of bus being near a station (<0.25mi?)
    • Record all time deltas between adjacent keyed by time of day and day of week
    • any time we check in look up saved time to next stop to show ETA

• TODO: move types to JSDoc to eliminate build step

  • probably a huge lift and bun build is simple enough for now
  • split up into modules as described by comments once single file becomes unmanageable

NJ Transit Bus 126

• button to instantly swap from home view to PATH view
• connection opportunities with MTA