[Seeking Public Opinion] Argonath Government Bus Service

[KelviNC]

You have my full support. Would be nice to see the busses. Scripts aren't necessary but having em will be cool

Good luck man

[Matt_Hewie]

Shame that the route maps are gone with my old webhost, though.

Bugger! It would have been great to see what was working back then, and as you said, for the nostalgia too!

Later on, when RS3 was out, I got contacted by Gimli and was asked to plan official bus routes to Argonath. I did, but the project kind of froze back then, for whatever reason.

Well, I'm still in planning stage, especially with routes, so if you would like to help with routes given your experience with the server, that'd be great!

Although script support is not essential on this, it really boosts and encourages operation and makes it easier to run. It also affects positively on the amount of people using the bus service as they would get somewhat realtime information where the bus is heading.

That's one of the main reasons why the script assistance would be helpful, but as many have said, NOT essential!

If it matters or not, you got my support on this. And if needed, this old bus company CEO would love to give his helping hand on this project with anything from route planning/drawing and other graphical designing to actual, but limited to occasional bus driver vacancy.

Any assistance you would like to offer would be great, I'm hoping to get as much of the server involved into this as I can, even if people who would like to drive can only do it an hour a week or whatever, any help is great!

Also thanks to everyone for the amazing amount of support and well wishes, it's truely appreciated. 
Post Merge: June 28, 2013, 04:52:11 pmGood evening everyone, just an update into the setup progress...

At the moment, I have decided on 4 "main" bus stops. From these stops, all services for that area will depart / terminate.

Stop 1: Bus stop at Pershing Square, Los Santos, opposite City Hall and LSPD.
Routes from this stop: 1A. Los Santos to Disneyland, 2A. Los Santos to San Fierro, 5. Red County, 11. East Los Santos. (in planning: 3A. Los Santos to Las Venturas)

Stop 2: Cranberry Station, San Fierro.
Routes from this stop: (in planning: 2B. San Fierro to Los Santos, 4A. San Fierro to Disneyland, 6A. San Fierro to Las Venturas via Fort Carson, 7B. San Fierro to Las Venturas via El Quebrados, 21. East San Fierro, 22. West San Fierro)

Stop 3: Las Venturas Airport, LV.
Routes from this stop: (in planning: 3B. Las Venturas to Los Santos, 6B. Las Venturas to San Fierro via Fort Carson, 7A. Las Venturas to San Fierro via El Quebrados, 31. Las Venturas.)

Stop 4: Disneyland / Angel Pine, Whetstone, San Fierro.
Routes from this stop: 1B. Disneyland to Los Santos, (in planning: 4B. Disneyland to San Fierro.)

The reason there is no West Los Santos is because all of the routes coming in to LS cover most of it, and it is (from what i've seen so far) not as popular as the East. This is completly open for change should there be desire for it.
The East San Fierro bus line will follow the tram tracks, I have just yet to get into the server to map it.
Las Venturas at this present time has been determined to only need one bus line. As with all other routes, this is completly flexible and can change if demand calls for another one.

I will upload a route map once I have completed all 4 sets of routes.

[Manoni]

You have a very good idea here, stay strong for this it might help alot to the people IG as on RP. if you need any help in the future i'll be glad to help you with this, supported .

GOOD LUCK

[Skole]

At the moment, I have decided on 4 "main" bus stops. From these stops, all services for that area will depart / terminate.

Stop 1: Bus stop at Pershing Square, Los Santos, opposite City Hall and LSPD.
Routes from this stop: 1A. Los Santos to Disneyland, 2A. Los Santos to San Fierro, 5. Red County, 11. East Los Santos. (in planning: 3A. Los Santos to Las Venturas)

Stop 2: Cranberry Station, San Fierro.
Routes from this stop: (in planning: 2B. San Fierro to Los Santos, 4A. San Fierro to Disneyland, 6A. San Fierro to Las Venturas via Fort Carson, 7B. San Fierro to Las Venturas via El Quebrados, 21. East San Fierro, 22. West San Fierro)

Stop 3: Las Venturas Airport, LV.
Routes from this stop: (in planning: 3B. Las Venturas to Los Santos, 6B. Las Venturas to San Fierro via Fort Carson, 7A. Las Venturas to San Fierro via El Quebrados, 31. Las Venturas.)

Stop 4: Disneyland / Angel Pine, Whetstone, San Fierro.
Routes from this stop: 1B. Disneyland to Los Santos, (in planning: 4B. Disneyland to San Fierro.)

At this point, I highly suggest you to keep things as simple and on as easy-to-understand basis as just possible. There is no way that people are going to remember all those lines and main stops, etcetera.. I suggest you to do as we did back in the days - make Pershing Square the center of all routes. (This can show up bit tricky due to weird city infrastructure of central Los Santos, but I still believe it would be the most efficient solution.)

- all three (maximum of four) routes arrive to and departure from Pershing Sq, the unquestionable center of the state of Argonath (SA) (This doesn't actually encourage people on visiting new places such as Disneyland, etc, which might disappoint some, but people don't want to be told where they need to go; most of them clearly have made a decision to spend their time in major cities' centrals and in between them.)

- bus stops should be placed besides the most visited and attractive spots, (ie. Ganton, LV Strip, SFFD..) but also near less commonly visited, interesting locations. (ie. Disneyland, Dillimore, Montogmery, etc.) Also, places where people usually tend to get stuck without vehicle should be somewhat covered. (This might be bit tricky to actually get done properly without wasting too much resources from other principles.)

- if people want to go from LV to SF, they will have to switch line in Pershing Sq, LS (Not the most efficient nor the fastest solution, but it keeps the system simple.) Casual people who choose to add little RP to their journey want it to be as fluent and easy as possible, they don't care if i takes four or nine minutes to get from LV to SF - as they would already have been there with a car anyway)

- what I mean here; you should not spend your resources on planning route 8Y from Disneyland to SF, (as an example) but instead spend it on keeping the system and routes as easy-to-understand & remember and as attractive to casual citizens as possible.

- for example: LS (non-stop local line), LS <> SF, LS <> LV. That's it. Departures approx. hourly from each city. Pretty easy to remember and reach; from Pershing Sq. you can travel to both major cities, and vice versa. Of course, there can also be special lines dedicated to events and for example Disneyland, scheduled to run only on fridays, or so.

- fixed fee of example $5 per ride (kilometer based usually scares people off and yet again, complicates things - point here is not to make profit)

Hopefully my points of advice come in handy. I'm not saying that the list above would be the absolute and only right way - it's just my honest opinion mixed with bit of experience. You should always think as the customer would, emphasize them and most importantly respect them. After all, they decide if it's gonna be succesful or not.

Thanks, and I'll try to contribute this in more practical way some day when I'll get on my PC.

Keep up the good work,

[Matt_Hewie]

I understand your points completly, and I do realise they may be confusing right now, but once some proper planning and topic design is done (when i start the actual company's topic when Gandalf gives the go ahead) I feel it will be a lot less confusing than it is now.

Idealistically, someone looking to travel from LS > LV would look at the routes that run from LS. There will be a post in the 'official' topic dedicated purely to the system / routes in LS, including a map. When someone looks at that, they will only see the routes that operate from LS, 1, 2, 3 and 11.

The letters are not part of the "official" route number, they are purely just direction notes (possibly for use with the /route script I had in planning. This is just behind the scenes and will not be publicly visible.

/route 2a - shows as Route 2: Los Santos to San Fierro
/route 2b - shows as Route 2: San Fierro to Los Santos

If you don't understand my point (i'm not the greatest at explaining things) then let me know. This is because both directions use the exact same route.

Whilst you do make good points, I think a "web" setup would work better than a central hub. Trying to convince people to use the bus SF-LV wont work if they need to go SF > LS > LV. It's very uneconomical.

Fixed fees have been set up, $4 for local services and $8 for inter-city services. Again, this can (and hopefully will be) reduced with increased passenger numbers or funding, to cover fuel / wages.

[S1mon]

I fully agree with that idea, and I am ready to invest around 20k

The price is also a factor, as buses are not the fastest, so people want lower price like a compensation for the speed.

The Coach (new-style bus) is actually the fastest public driver's vehicle, even if it looks slower due to it's handling.

[Matt_Hewie]

I fully agree with that idea, and I am ready to invest around 20k

Great! Just still waiting on Gandalf for the go-ahead, then the whole system will go into full swing. 

The Coach (new-style bus) is actually the fastest public driver's vehicle, even if it looks slower due to it's handling.

If you can get a driver who knows his Coach well enough, it performs really well. Granted speed limits were followed, the only time buses or coaches are slower than any car is the highways.

[MR_SAIF]

supported and good luck with it bro .

[TiMoN]

Count me in! If you'd ever need financal suport, just contact me.

[Manoni]

Too bad that for the moment the staff is busy handling the servers situation in the meantime lets see if you get more help from other members as i said if you need any help you can count me on this  , Good Luck and hope to see this working very soon 

[Matt_Hewie]

Hi all, another night's update, the first draft of Los Santos routes is complete!



Questions, comments, suggestions are welcome, I will make a larger post later tonight, but just uploading the map right now. Enjoy!

[Alexander_Rijav]

Good luck

[Xelent159]

Seems Intresting,Good Luck. (Y)

[Janar]

This is awesome! I would certainly roleplay a bus driver, if admin duties allow me to RP (calm time and/or enough other admin team folks online)

[Alfreddo.]

Supported
Love this idea.