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iPhone Travel Apps / iPhone / San Francisco Travel / Public Transportation / BART / Augmented Reality / → All Tags

San Francisco's BART Enters the World of Augmented Reality iPhone Apps

Today is officially the first day of pre-orders for Apple's new iPad, and in honor of the day, we thought it appropriate to talk up another great iPhone Travel App, especially now that augmented reality is becoming more and more embraced.

The latest to make use of augmented reality with the iPhone 3GS is, to our delight, San Francisco's BART system. They've just released their app in conjunction with Junaio, to locate the closest BART station to you, and even see what and when is the next train is arriving. It works like most other augmented reality applications; you turn on the app, which opens up the phone's camera and utilizing the GPS to lay direction and transportation information over the scene you see around you, but on your screen.

But it's features go further. More, after the jump.

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Public Transportation / BART / → All Tags

City Wants To Know: Who BARTed?

This weekend we thought we spotted a new type of panhandler on Bay Area Rapid Transit, who appeared to be giving things out instead of asking for them. As she got closer we discovered she wanted something even cheaper than our change: Our opinions!

The new survey from BART is aimed at folks who use San Francisco's underground rapid transit system specifically for its airport access, asking the purpose of our trips (Picking up or dropping off? Business or pleasure?) and how we found out about BART. Interestingly, one question asked whether we had been given the opportunity to purchase a BART ticket when booking a flight to or hotel in the Bay Area--which we weren't, but it would have saved us the frustration of trying to make the BART machine at SFO give us a ticket under $20. (Note to security: We didn't really kick it! It was just a tap.)

Anyway, we can't find any information on the BART website about the survey, although it might be related to a proposal last year to drive up ridership along the stops close to SFO by offering special satellite airport parking lots. Cranky riders take note: The survey taker asked once, politely, and then backed off from anyone unwilling to take part.

Related Stories:
· BART Cards: Good For More Than Just BARTing [Jaunted]
· BART Pours Cold Water on Coffee Plan [NBC Bay Area]
· BART to Court SFO Passengers [SF Chronicle, via sanbrunobart.com]

[Photo: blmurch]