colour stations on map according to bike availbility/free parking

[axelsimon]

To visually filter out more easily the stations on the map when looking for a bike or a parking space, it would be very nice to have the bike logos that represent the stations have a colour code.

For example (just an idea, clearly):
red: the station has no free bikes, no free spaces (ie: the station is out of order, basically)
green: the station has free bikes, free spaces
grey: the station has free bikes, no spaces (can happen even when the station is not actually full of bikes)
brown: the station has no free bikes, but has free spaces

I realise these colours are probably not the best, especially the grey and brown ones.

Another option is to use the bike logo in two-halves, ie: front wheel of the bike represents bike availability, back wheel represents free spaces.
Green front wheel, red back wheel: bikes available, no free spaces.
etc.

Last suggestion (I'm on a roll!), the colours could also be a gradient according to the number of free bikes on total number of bikes, and/or free spaces on total number of spaces.
Probably not very relevant info, but still a possibility.

Hope this helps!

[bparmentier]

Thanks for all your suggestions!

This is in my todo list. I was thinking of making the bike in two colors (red/green or whatever) to show the bike availability/empty slots (like a progress bar) and clicking on it would pop up a bubble with more information (see the osmbonuspack project for the bubbles).

[svennevz]

Hi,

What about a toggle mode bettween the to phases of a bike trip. Finding a Bike, the color or progress represents the availability of bikes. Finding an empty slot, the color or progress represents the slots availability.

Hope it helps.

[bparmentier]

What do you think of something like this?

There are four five states. The algorithm is as follows:

double ratio = freeBikes / (freeBikes + emptySlots);
if (freeBikes == 0) {
    // marker0
} else if (freeBikes >= 1 && ratio <= 0.3) {
    // marker25
} else if (ratio > 0.3 && ratio < 0.7) {
    // marker50
} else if (ratio >= 0.7 && emptySlots >= 1) {
    // marker75
} else if (emptySlots == 0) {
    // marker100
}

[svennevz]

I think it does the job, it's really showing the station state like a tank gauge. Having the marker25/marker75 steps at limite of 1 will force you to look at the detail, because very few slot/bike is a risky station to go to. But knowing your trip phase, you can focus on the 3 other safe states. I see 5 states, BTW.

[bparmentier]

I also added a sixth state (see. commit 50bfc7e) showing if a station is closed.

I personally prefer this method over a toggle mode, which adds an additional step.