Minimal Blue Bikes Philly

About

Minimal Blue Bikes Philly (Originally "MinimalIndego") displays station status for the Indego Bike Share in Philadelphia. There is NO MAP, NO GPS, and works on Android 2.3+.

Why Minimal?

Indego Bike Share in Philadelpha launched in April 2015. I have a 5 year old phone running Android 2.3 and I wanted a quick and light app to find stations, bikes, and docks. I know the city fairly well and didn't want to wait for a map to load on my slow phone. I also keep GPS off to save battery so I didn't want to require GPS to find "nearest" stations. The only required permission is Internet access to access the station data.

Concepts, Features, and Getting Started

• Station List View The main view displays:

  • the Station Name and Distance from Current Station
  • Direction Arrow - bearing from Current Station
  • Bike Icon. Darker blue = fewer bikes. Lighter blue = more bikes. Red = Empty. Yellow = Almost Empty. Grey = Inactive
  • Number of Available Bikes
  • Number of Available Docks (Magenta/Red to indicate almost full / full)

• Home Station Long-press a station to select a station as your home station. Home stations are displayed in bold and always display in the "Favorites" view

• Current Station Long-press a station to select a station as the "current" station. Current Station is marked with a red "bullseye" icon. The Current Station is used as the origin for "Sort by Distance" and "Sort by Direction". Current Station always displays in the "Favorites" view

• Favorites can be selected from the station detail view (tap a station in the list, the select the favorite star). In the Station List view, select the favorites icon or menu item to toggle between all stations and favorite stations.

• Statistics View Shows the overall system status -- number of available bikes and docks, inactive/active stations, and how many stations are full/empty.

• Station Detail View Select a station in the Station List View. Displays the address and the location hint.

• Station Location Hint Shown in the Station Detail View.

• Sorting Select the sort icon or menu item. The station list can be sorted by Distance, Name, Number of Bikes, Number of Docks, and by Direction

• Distances are in Manhattan (Taxi) Distances All distances are in pure rectangular grid distances aligned to the Center City grid (tilted 9.9 degrees from true north). This will overestimate if there is a diagonal street (Ben Franklin Parkway, etc). and will underestimate if you have to cross a river or are in a weird area like Northern Liberties or Mantua

• Direction Arrow is also aligned to the city grid, not the compass.

• Manual and Auto Refresh By default, By default, data will "Auto Refresh" every 5 minutes. Auto Refresh can be turned off or set to 1,2,5,10,30 minutes in the Settings. Data can be manually refreshed at any time with the menu / action bar item.

• Stale Data Warnings By default the last refresh time text will turn Yellow after 3 minutes and Red after 5 minutes. The Warning time can be turned off or changed to 1,3,5,10 minutes in the Settings

Helpful Hints

• Use the "Current Station" feature (long press a station)to find stations near your destination, or to find available bikes or docks near a desired station if full
• The Settings screen allows for selecting the default sort type (distance is recommended) and whether the Home or Current station is set at app startup.

Acknowledgements

• Uses Android GeoJson by Jonathan Baker
• Statistics View inspired by Bike Share Map by Oliver O'Brien
• Bike Station REST API at https://api.phila.gov/bike-share-stations/v1
• Open Data Philly