metro map
[tech]
posted by tom / September 24, 2005 / 
One of the reasons for my recent relatively light blogging has been a little science project I've undertaken: a google maps version of the Metro. Yeah, I know, it's been done. Not as well as this, though, I don't think. You can have a look here.
I've got plans for this — it should evolve soon into something more useful (and at a different domain, so please don't publish the link yet). But for now, if anyone feels like clicking through and reporting any errors you come across, I'd be grateful. I'm particularly interested in how it works (or doesn't) in Safari. To all the IE users: I know it's dog slow and has transparency problems. Not much I can do about that, unfortunately. But if you experience other weirdness, let me know.
Comments
Nice project. Gonna pushpin the actual station exits later?
That's the plan. The first release will probably be as is, though, with some functionality allowing users to add their own markers to the map (then reference it via a specially constructed url) thrown in. Geocoding metro exits and elevators is frustrating and tedious. I'll get to it eventually, though.
Since you're working within the Google Maps API, do you know a quick way to pull the latitude and longitude of an arbitrary point off of a Google Map?
The quickest way is to go to mapbuilder.net and use their app to find lattitudes and longitudes.
If you're trying to get it within the context of a script, the answer is to add a click event handler to the GMap object. That event handler gets passed the GPoint where the click occurs, and you can then echo out its x and y properties. There's an example on the google maps documentation page (they use the GPoint to place a marker instead of to explicitly output its coordinates, but the principle is the same).
Did you see this...
http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,68967,00.html
Yikes. Thanks for the link. I'm not too worried, though. Unlike the ipod map guy, I didn't use any of WMATA's graphics -- I just reproduced them. And you can't copyright facts, e.g. the location of a subway stop or what color it's called. As the second half of the article mentions, I guess they could use trademark law to go after me (if they've registered it), but I'm doubtful.
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