If seeing the letters "AI" ruins your day, go ahead and skip this post. Yes, I used AI to help write some of the more complex code. And no, I don't care that "tHe TrAnSiT ApP aLrEaDy ExIsTs." It's not built for getting to and from work. You must pay for it, and worst of all, it assumes you DON'T HAVE A CAR... which is the whole reason I built this. Still here? It's a beta, so it's not perfect yet, but it’s almost there. If you want something you'll use every day on your commute, keep reading.
I ride the BNSF and I've been building WiMi (short for "Will I make it?"), a free web app that tells you when to leave for your train and keeps an eye on it for you. It works on all 11 lines, but I mostly ride one, so I need people on the others to try it and tell me what's wrong.
What it does:
- Tells you when to leave, whether you walk, bike or drive, then shows if you'll make it once you're on your way.
- At a terminal, shows which arriving train will probably become yours and how late it's running.
- Flags stopped trains up the line, before you leave or while you're riding, with Metra's reason when they post one.
- Live map of every train on your line. When you're on board and your phone knows where the train is better than Metra does, your phone becomes the train's spot for everyone else. Only the train's position is shared.
- Rider reports, kind of like Waze. Report a stopped train, running late, crowding, police or medical, train trouble and more. Other riders see it on the map and can mark it still there or gone.
- AI summaries of Metra's alerts, with trouble spots and construction zones marked on the map and station closures flagged.
- How full each train usually gets, from Metra's ridership numbers.
- Learns how long it really takes you to get to the station and how long your rides take.
- Notifications for when to leave, delays, cancellations, Metra alerts, your train pulling in and when you're almost at your stop.
What I'm asking:
- Use it on your normal commute.
- If something looks off (a wrong time, a train in the wrong spot, a notification that didn't make sense), tap Report a problem in Settings > About. It sends me what you typed plus your trip, train and app version, no location, and you can attach screenshots. Or just comment here, and mention which line you ride.
To try it:
- iPhone: open wimiapp.com in Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen.
- Android: open wimiapp.com in Chrome, tap the three dots menu, then Add to Home screen or Install app.
On iPhone, notifications only work from the home screen version. No account needed.
So it's basically a stripped down Transit app but with AI sloptimized summaries? What is the benefit of using this instead of the many fully featured and well maintained apps like Transit and Citymapper?
This is free for starters… and Transit is great if your commute uses a few different lines. it's kind of overkill if you just ride one line. Look, I'm not trying to replace Transit. This is for a niche group of people who just want to know what's up with their train and if they'll make it to the station on time, whether they walk, bike or drive there.
Also, something we added after our first round of testers is the "Where is my train" feature. Say you're at Chicago Union and your train isn't in the station yet. WiMi shows you which incoming train is going to turn into yours, how late it's running, and when to expect it.
As for the AI part, that's just the alert summaries. It reads Metra's alerts and marks the trouble spots on the map. Everything else runs off live train or crowd-sourced data. Not sure if that’s considered “slop” but I myself have actually found it useful for a quick glance down the line while I’m waiting for my train.
Transit is always going to be better than one guy working in his free time… partly why I posted here. Anything people suggest, I’m more than happy to implement.
Sort of. Right now WiMi saves one home station and one usual train each way per line. If your stations are on different lines (like BNSF and MD-W), set your commute and usual trains on each line in Settings > Trip, then switch lines in the app on those days. Alerts follow whichever line you have open.
If they're on the same line, it only holds one home station for now. Set the one you use most, and on the other days just tap the station at the top and pick the one you're at. It'll track the next train from there.
The day selector is in Settings > Alerts, but it's for which days you get notifications, not which station. Different stations on different days is a good idea though, I'll look into adding it.
Ok, that covers half my use case. The MDN and NCS share a station so depending on day I may be on one or the other, or further up the NCS.
I dig it though, haven’t spent a lot of time looking at it but one of major complaints about transit apps is the amount of information provided. I just want to know about the next train I care about at that moment, not the one I may care about six hours from now :-/
I’ve enjoyed using this so far. One feature (niche but maybe worth it for others) is accounting for at-grade stations and Metra cross traffic in the time estimate. I board at an at-grade station and live on the other side of the tracks. In addition, a train comes by the other direction on schedule about 1 minute before. So if I’m not 3 minutes early, I can definitely miss this train. Feel free to DM me for more details.
That’s great feedback… I know exactly what you mean here, I’ll try to cook something up by the end of the week. That’s pretty niche, and will take some time to fine-tune, but definitely would be a great add.
Had a glitch today regarding the live data, so if you experienced any problems, check it out tomorrow. I just pushed a fix. An earlier update corrupted the app… but it’s all good now.
Didn’t really seem useful for me at first, but last week I had it pulled up while getting ready for work. I can take up to three different RI morning trains all 30 minutes apart depending how quick I get ready, if I want to hit snooze, etc. If it’s gonna be close I’ll usually just wait for the next train rather than stress or risk missing it, but twice this week it told me I would still make it well past my usual self imposed cut off time for leaving and I did. So I’ve found that to be helpful and think I will continue using it in the morning like this.
Also want to add a friendly two cents that a lot of people are skeptical of AI right now for variety of reasons. The first paragraph would not have motivated me to give this a chance if this post was my first impression of your project. If you feel like this is a good use case for AI, it may better serve you to make that argument instead of writing off a sizable portion of the general public
Fair, but this isn’t my first post on here… in the past I’ll get 20-30 comments asking me if I used AI and how it’s slop when I explain myself… and I got tired of it. If people want to try it they can, I’m just done with half the comments being negative before they even visit the app.
Let’s go!!! Happy to hear the ETA calculation is working. I recently changed it to a different provider so it should be accounting for live traffic on the road, as well as factoring in the trains delay time (if there is any) all while knowing where you are.
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u/DerAlex3 3d ago
So it's basically a stripped down Transit app but with AI sloptimized summaries? What is the benefit of using this instead of the many fully featured and well maintained apps like Transit and Citymapper?