new septa website advertised

I saw a sign in 1234 market yestedray claiming the website is being revamped to include schedule images in PDF format instead of XLS. our calls have been answered. I can't wait to start taking advantage of this improvement... and just think SEPTA should be able to save paper making an overabundance of schedules now, especially for all the times the route times don't even change much or at all but I always get a new one, "just in case."

Having managed a schedule site (now in its 12th(!) year--our original edition actually used the GOPHER protocol, which predated the web), I'm not so wild about the decision. PDF files tend to be slow to download and slow to load, and they can be harder to find the information on.

PDFs have some advantages in that you can save them for offline use, but printing them usually isn't helpful, because they're left in their native long-sheet size. Certainly it's less work for SEPTA to make PDF files (one click on a Macintosh) than set up and maintain the existing database-driven system, but it's less beneficial to the customers.

Once we're to the point that we can assume everyone has a broadband connection and a fast and reliable PDF viewer, then I'll rethink things. After all, we don't use GOPHER any more....

I actually rather hate the setup SEPTA currently uses for producing its schedules online. It looks really unprofessional compared with what other transit agencies do (but of course, so does the whole website). When I'm in Pittsburgh, my secondary residence, and make use of their system, I rather like the fact that their schedules are presented in both HTML and PDF.

Now, perhaps it's that I have a good connection and can download them quickly, but I prefer the PDF over HTML. The Port Authority's (here in Pittsburgh) schedules are legible when shrunk down to letter size. Having never used SEPTA paper schedules, I'm not sure that that would be the case, but I can say that there are designs for paper schedules that print well off the PDF.

If the file is made well, it really shouldn't be any harder to find the information than on the paper schedule on which it is based. And if its made really well and you have a good viewer (I don't use the usual acrobat) you get some nice layer features and regardless of viewer "find" (ctrl-F or cmd-F) should work.

-asg

LAUNCHman wrote:I saw a sign in 1234 market yestedray claiming the website is being revamped to include schedule images in PDF format instead of XLS. our calls have been answered. I can't wait to start taking advantage of this improvement...

WHAT IN GOD'S NAME IS WRONG WITH YOU??? PDFs suck!! It is a step backward rather than an improvement!!

There's nothing wrong with them using PDF's in principle.

On the other hand, printing those schedules out is going to be a pain in the cojones, because I don't know about you, but I'm fresh out of 20x10 paper...

Oh... I love PDF's lol...