Real Time BART Arrivals Visualization

Note: Java will ask you whether or not you "trust" the applet. You must choose trust or yes. (This allows the applet to retrieve data from BART's website and to use your graphics card. The data on your computer will not be touched.)

Above you should see all stations in the BART system (represented by black squares) and all estimated arrivals (represented by colored circles). You'll notice that the circles do not travel "along the tracks"—that is deliberate.

Click on a station name, and you'll see the trains about to arrive at that station. Each train is labeled with its estimated arrival time, but you can also estimate it by the speed of the trains's travel and how far away it is from the station. Once a train arrives at the station, its circle will continue on toward its final destination (e.g. Millbrae, Fremont, Richmond). Trains travel not "along the tracks" but on the angle between the next station and the final destination. So, by perceiving the angle, speed, and color of each train as well as the distance between it and the next station, you can quickly find the train you want, arriving at the station you want, and understand how much time remains until the train's arrival.

Navigation

Click on a station's name to see trains about to arrive at that station.
Click "All Stations" to see all estimated arrivals at once.

Press + to zoom in.
Press - to zoom out (and see more trains).
Press the arrow keys to pan up/down/left/right.
Press R to reset the view.

Built by Scott Murray using Processing and the ProXML library. Thanks to BART for providing this data on their website, and for nearly always being on time.