[HN Gopher] Show HN: I made a website to find best bus seat to a...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Show HN: I made a website to find best bus seat to avoid the sun
       while traveling
        
       Author : Amithv
       Score  : 854 points
       Date   : 2024-01-17 02:59 UTC (20 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (sitinshade.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (sitinshade.com)
        
       | fifilura wrote:
       | Congratulations! The idea and execution made me smile.
       | 
       | This must be an epitome of a hobby project!
        
       | chocoboaus2 wrote:
       | This would work for trains as well right? Overground trains i
       | mean
        
         | ygra wrote:
         | It seems they route along roads between bus stops, so you won't
         | get train routes that follow the tracks. But in principle the
         | solution should be very similar.
        
           | Symbiote wrote:
           | If the routing is done with an internal database (rather than
           | some roads-only API) it might be straightforward to use the
           | railway lines from Open Street Map [1]. Or even the public
           | transport routes recorded in OSM [2].
           | 
           | [1] https://openrailwaymap.org/
           | 
           | [2] https://www.openstreetmap.org/#layers=O
        
       | denysvitali wrote:
       | Your logo should be: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/two-guys-on-
       | a-bus
        
         | xlbuttplug2 wrote:
         | ... except reversed?
        
           | katella wrote:
           | Yes lol.
        
         | metflex wrote:
         | LOL
        
       | jorisboris wrote:
       | I need this for flights, not for the sun, but I somehow always
       | have fomo when having to choose between left and right side of
       | the plane on the seat selection screen
        
         | Jhsto wrote:
         | It would have to predict the model numbers of the planes
         | though: some newer ones I have been to (A350s) seem to have
         | automagic dimming windows. Getting on flights with such windows
         | is better even if you have to sit in the sun!
        
           | SwiftyBug wrote:
           | Boeings 787 also have this. There isn't even a lid to
           | close/open the window. And in some situations you can't
           | "undim" it. Kind of annoying when it's midnight and you want
           | to take a look at the moon and stars.
        
           | Toutouxc wrote:
           | You can usually predict the plane quite well if you know the
           | airline and their fleet and they show you the exact seating
           | plan.
        
           | dheera wrote:
           | I hate those windows, when fully dimmed they let through a
           | lot of blue light, and blue light is bad for sleep.
           | 
           | On the other hand though I detest window seat passengers who
           | insist on having the windows closed for take-off and landing.
           | I'd like to know when to expect a thud, thanks. The electric
           | shades are nice in that aspect because they are never fully
           | opaque.
        
             | badgersnake wrote:
             | Don't you have to have the blinds up for take off and
             | landing? You definitely do in Europe.
        
               | dheera wrote:
               | I don't know, it would make sense for the US FAA to
               | require that but I don't have the authority to ask that
               | of the window seat passenger, and most flight attendants
               | don't care.
               | 
               | They're more concerned that my seat back is not pushed
               | back by the 3mm that they move.
        
               | Symbiote wrote:
               | They are equally strict about the window blinds in
               | Europe.
               | 
               | I don't travel enough on other airlines to make
               | generalisations.
        
         | Amithv wrote:
         | I have a beta version for flight at
         | https://dev.sitinshade.com/flight
         | 
         | Search based on the destination and departure airport. Please
         | note that it is still in beta, so there may be some issues.
         | 
         | Currently, manual entry of flight duration is required.
         | 
         | Working on flight duration estimation, scenic side, and movie
         | recommendations based on flight duration : - )
        
       | aikinai wrote:
       | This is amazing! My kids get sick on train rides and I think a
       | lot has to do with the sun strobing through the trees. I'll try
       | this next time to at least not be on the sunny side.
        
         | sitkack wrote:
         | Strobing lights can trigger migraines, which can cause nausea.
        
       | schmookeeg wrote:
       | More and more, I really appreciate great efforts that make a
       | small but meaningful improvement in some under-noticed aspect of
       | living. It seems zen-like.
       | 
       | Bravo. :) What a great project and execution!
        
       | dn3500 wrote:
       | I recently took a bus over the Andes and was congratulating
       | myself on choosing a seat on the shady side. Then I realized that
       | in the southern hemisphere the sun is in the north and I had
       | outsmarted myself.
        
         | micw wrote:
         | Yes. There are is mnemonic phrase in german to tell where the
         | sun is in morning/noon/evening which contains "sun is never
         | seen in the north" - which just not work on the southern
         | hemisphere.
        
           | tppiotrowski wrote:
           | Interesting because the sun rises and sets from the north
           | (NE, NW) during the summer in the northern hemisphere. The
           | effect is more pronounced the farther north of the equator
           | you are and Germany is quite far north.
        
         | dheera wrote:
         | > Then I realized that in the southern hemisphere the sun is in
         | the north
         | 
         | That's not exactly true.
         | 
         | South of the tropic of capricorn, the sun is in the north at
         | noon.
         | 
         | Between the equator and the tropic of capricorn the sun could
         | be slightly towards the north or south or directly overhead at
         | noon depending on the season.
         | 
         | As for sunrise and sunset the sun could be just about anywhere
         | if you go south enough and the season is right.
         | 
         | At the south pole in summer, the sun just runs 360 degrees
         | around, floating slightly above the horizon, and daylight is 24
         | hours long. If you are standing 1km from the south pole, you
         | will see the sun in the south direction at midnight and in the
         | north direction at noon.
         | 
         | And if you go just further from the south pole, e.g. to
         | Patagonia in summer (i.e. now) the sun rises and sets _close_
         | to the south and goes around to the north at mid-day. Daylight
         | is close to 20 hours long. It 's similar to the south pole
         | situation except when the sun gets close to exact south it dips
         | below the horizon for a few hours and you have a short-lived
         | few hours of darkness. But you do see the sun in the southeast
         | at sunrise and southwest at sunset.
        
           | Chilko wrote:
           | Yep, my bedroom has windows to the south and east, which
           | means here in New Zealand I should not expect any afternoon &
           | evening sun that room. However, currently in summer when the
           | sun is close to setting I get a few minutes of evening sun
           | through the southern window, due to sun setting slightly
           | southwest.
        
         | blowski wrote:
         | When I travelled to Brazil, I was confused as the North Star
         | (Polaris) had disappeared.
        
         | hawski wrote:
         | It is funny in my language as we have the same word for both
         | noon and south.
        
           | xico wrote:
           | Is it French (midi)?
        
             | mananaysiempre wrote:
             | South in French is _sud_ , while noon is indeed _midi_.
             | However, the two words are the same in Latin ( _meridies_ ,
             | lit. midday, as in p.m. = _post meridiem_ , etc.), so
             | probably in some of the other Romance languages they do
             | match?
        
               | jgrahamc wrote:
               | The south of France is known colloquially as "Le Midi".
        
               | rpigab wrote:
               | Midi is also a word for south in French, colloquially.
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_France
        
             | jgrahamc wrote:
             | I imagine he's talking about poludnie in Polish.
        
           | reddalo wrote:
           | Also in Italian. "Mezzogiorno" both means noon and south.
        
       | gitgud wrote:
       | Nice! This would be cool to integrate with "shademap", to
       | visualize the shade/sun during the journey.
       | 
       | [1]
       | https://shademap.app/@37.75153,-119.53737,12.65679z,16416003...
        
         | johnmaguire wrote:
         | Thanks for this link - I'm amazed to see it even has an
         | approximation for my city based on buildings (Detroit.)
         | 
         | This is really useful tool for photography. On Android, I also
         | use Sun Surveyor to determine when the sun is hitting the right
         | side of a building, but it doesn't show the shadows cast by
         | other buildings!
        
       | alabhyajindal wrote:
       | Very cool!
        
       | hsrada wrote:
       | Love it! Always wanted to build something like this. Glad you
       | made it first though!
       | 
       | Drop your Twitter in your profile. Would love to give you a
       | follow :)
        
       | jack_riminton wrote:
       | I entirely expect your motives to be non-commercial but I reckon
       | there will be bus or train ticket sites who would pay for this.
       | Which would also allow more people to benefit from it. Well done
       | on a great job
        
         | Amithv wrote:
         | Thanks
        
         | robertlagrant wrote:
         | Sunny-side pricing!
        
           | jack_riminton wrote:
           | Or the opposite!
        
       | prmoustache wrote:
       | That would have seem to be something trivial to think about for
       | anyone with a modicum of sense of orientation.
       | 
       | I guess most people don't have that.
        
         | ianschmitz wrote:
         | Not all routes are a straight line. The time of day also
         | matters...
        
         | yreg wrote:
         | Congratulations on your superior sense of orientation.
        
         | urbandw311er wrote:
         | Your comment comes across as arrogant and (embarrassingly for
         | you) you're wrong. There are more variables - the direction the
         | roads go in. The changing position of the sun during the
         | journey. The date and time. It's nothing like as clear cut as
         | you make out.
         | 
         | Try "London to Edinburgh" at this time of year and you'll see
         | what I mean - there's only 10% difference in sun exposure
         | between the two sides of the bus.
        
         | quickthrower2 wrote:
         | The sun doesn't rise in the East and set in the West though.
         | And a random short route I put in had about 30 turns and all
         | kinds of angles. Not everywhere is a US grid city :-).
        
       | kartoshechka wrote:
       | gosh, I've been thinking about making this for years, now I have
       | to generalize for planes
        
         | Amithv wrote:
         | Currently building for flights too. beta version -
         | https://dev.sitinshade.com/flight
        
           | elicash wrote:
           | How about trains?
        
             | Amithv wrote:
             | If the railway path and estimated time are openly
             | available, Certainly, it can be implemented.
        
       | qurashee wrote:
       | Twenty-three years ago, during my daily trips to the university
       | campus, I had the exact same idea. However, I became distracted
       | by calculating the position of the sun and delved into
       | astronomical algorithms, which led me to never complete it. Kudos
       | to you, that's really impressive!
        
         | addandsubtract wrote:
         | Getting lost on the 0.1% edge cases or improvements is why I
         | never finish side projects, either.
        
           | berkes wrote:
           | I don't always manage to adhere to my own advise here. But
           | talking to "customers" really solves this.
           | 
           | Half these customers can't be bothered by the edge cases that
           | I've been poring over for nights. The other half puts forward
           | edge cases that I've never been aware of. Some of which are
           | critical to their work-flow. Many are implemented in mere
           | minutes. "Wow. That saves us 30 minutes typing over prices,
           | every day!".
           | 
           | As an engineer I love to find solutions. But as an
           | entrepeneur I really must understand the problem and scope.
           | that 0.1% edge cases is hardly ever part of the success.
        
             | cdong wrote:
             | Thanks for posting this, honestly the 0.1% scare me
             | sometimes on technical project. I think you're right, just
             | gotta talk to my customers directly if they even care about
             | it.
        
           | ngcazz wrote:
           | Writing the level editor for my raycaster is why I never
           | wrote my raycaster
        
           | chippiewill wrote:
           | I don't think getting the position of the sun is an edge
           | case, it's a fundamental capability for the product to work
           | at all
        
             | 83457 wrote:
             | I believe they meant edge cases when dealing with sun
             | position calculations or maybe other things, not that the
             | sun position is an edge case.
        
             | im3w1l wrote:
             | You could probably make a lookup table that works "well
             | enough" in like a few hours.
        
               | madcaptenor wrote:
               | You could probably make it in a few minutes - the
               | direction of the sun is, to a first approximation, 15
               | degrees times the number of hours it is after midnight.
               | This leads to a trick for using an analog watch as a
               | compass:
               | 
               | https://www.citizenwatch-
               | global.com/support/exterior/directi...
               | 
               | https://www.watchaffinity.co.uk/blog/how-to-use-your-
               | watch-a...
               | 
               | This is more prone to errors closer to the equator and in
               | the summer
               | (https://possiblywrong.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/using-a-
               | watch...) but should be good enough for picking a side of
               | the bus.
               | 
               | (This is all in the northern hemisphere; in the southern
               | hemisphere the sun goes the other way, so change the sign
               | on everything.)
        
               | shagie wrote:
               | The equation of time gets in there too if I recall
               | correctly -
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equation_of_time
               | 
               | > The equation of time describes the discrepancy between
               | two kinds of solar time. The word equation is used in the
               | medieval sense of "reconciliation of a difference". The
               | two times that differ are the apparent solar time, which
               | directly tracks the diurnal motion of the Sun, and mean
               | solar time, which tracks a theoretical mean Sun with
               | uniform motion along the celestial equator. Apparent
               | solar time can be obtained by measurement of the current
               | position (hour angle) of the Sun, as indicated (with
               | limited accuracy) by a sundial. Mean solar time, for the
               | same place, would be the time indicated by a steady clock
               | set so that over the year its differences from apparent
               | solar time would have a mean of zero.
               | 
               | And _this_ gets into a neat part of the Clock of the Long
               | Now and a cam needed to keep track of that over 10,000
               | years. https://longnow.org/ideas/the-equation-of-time-
               | cam-keeping-g...
        
               | madcaptenor wrote:
               | The equation of time would be in there! But the largest
               | that gets is about 16 minutes, corresponding to a
               | 4-degree error in position, and there are much bigger
               | sources of error. But thanks for the link to the Clock of
               | the Long Now!
        
         | Amithv wrote:
         | The hard part was obtaining information such as solar azimuth,
         | altitude, declination, hour angle, etc without using external
         | APIs. Spent around 5 days implementing backend.
        
           | antgiant wrote:
           | Way too late now, but to help others this fancy Excel sheet
           | provided by NOAA is awesome! It implements all of these
           | equations in Excel and is pretty easily portable to your
           | programming language of choice.
           | https://gml.noaa.gov/grad/solcalc/calcdetails.html
           | 
           | P.S. Using this has made it clear to me how bad most
           | sunrise/sunset calculators actually are.
        
             | grecy wrote:
             | > _P.S. Using this has made it clear to me how bad most
             | sunrise /sunset calculators actually are._
             | 
             | That may just be a function of how you define "sunrise" and
             | "sunset". It is never as simple as "when the sun hits the
             | horizon", but something about some number of arc minutes
             | from something something.
        
               | wizzwizz4 wrote:
               | Dependent on the refractive index, which depends on air
               | density and temperature and humidity too; and we have to
               | integrate over the region between the horizon and the
               | upper atmosphere (diagonally, of course)...
        
           | Gorgor wrote:
           | Calculating the solar position is also pretty important when
           | simulating power production of photovoltaics plants. So, the
           | Python library pvlib has nice functions for working with
           | this: https://pvlib-
           | python.readthedocs.io/en/stable/reference/sola...
        
           | manchego wrote:
           | For anyone wanting to do this calculation yourself, this site
           | is really good:
           | https://www.aa.quae.nl/en/reken/zonpositie.html
           | 
           | I've previously used the formulas on this site to calculate
           | the altitude/azimuth of the Sun and all the planets from a
           | given lat/long/time on Earth.
        
       | 0raymond0 wrote:
       | When I travel, Before I pick a seat, I will think about the
       | direction of the bus or plane to decide which side(left or right)
       | seat I should select. Sometimes I like the sun while traveling,
       | sometimes I'm not. The method is simple, it needs three factors,
       | 1. The direction of this transportation tool way to your
       | destination; 2. The time range; 3. The direction of the sun in
       | the time range. So if I create this site, I need these variables
       | first: 1. Tell me where are you going(such as From, To). I can
       | confirm the direction of the transportation tool on Google Maps.
       | 2. Tell me the time, I can calculate the direction of the sun
       | based on the time range. After that, I can know which side seat
       | you should choose.
        
       | Fbnkigffb66tfbj wrote:
       | Is it much more complicated than to prefer the predominantly
       | northwest side in the morning and northeast side in the afternoon
       | (for northern hemisphere)?
        
         | sksksk wrote:
         | Do you live in a city with a grid based road system? In a
         | country with more organic road networks, that wouldn't work
        
           | Fbnkigffb66tfbj wrote:
           | A glance at the driving route on Google Maps should show you
           | the typical vehicle orientation.
        
       | dylan604 wrote:
       | This just doesn't seem very POSH.
        
       | thrdbndndn wrote:
       | Cool project. Where does it get worldwide bus route info? Does
       | OSM have an API for it?
        
         | Amithv wrote:
         | Yes,OpenStreetMap has
        
       | pcwelder wrote:
       | Thank you for not having region based restrictions. It works for
       | any place and destination.
        
         | miyuru wrote:
         | If Google had made this, it would be US only.
        
       | dfgdfg34545456 wrote:
       | Love that this is a web page and not another app taking up space
       | on my phone.
        
       | Erratic6576 wrote:
       | Shady side is comfy but remember that 120 min of daily indirect
       | or direct exposure to UVB can protect your eyesight health.
       | 
       | Just 120 min a day under a tree during childhood.
       | 
       | Dolgin, Elie. 2015. The myopia boom. Nature 519: 276.
       | 
       | Williams, Katie M., & al. 2017. Association Between Myopia,
       | Ultraviolet B Radiation Exposure, Serum Vitamin D Concentrations,
       | and Genetic Polymorphisms in Vitamin D Metabolic Pathways in a
       | Multicountry European Study. JAMA Ophthalmology 135: 47-53. doi:
       | 10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2016.4752.
       | https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2016.4752
        
         | adav wrote:
         | Does the glass block lots of UV?
        
           | sitkack wrote:
           | Glass blocks 100% of UVB and 25% of UVA. So while you wont
           | burn, light through glass will still cause skin damage.
        
             | urbandw311er wrote:
             | Thanks - I learned something today.
             | 
             | Looks like some bus companies treat their windows to block
             | the UVA as well. Eg
             | https://www.valleymetro.org/blog/2022/07/how-valley-metro-
             | ke...
        
               | sitkack wrote:
               | We need a little UVB everyday to maintain melanin (skin
               | pigment) and skin thickness. If you work inside M-F and
               | then go hard on the weekends outdoors, you will receive
               | disproportionate damage from sunlight.
               | 
               | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3427189/
               | 
               | https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-
               | answers/item/rad...
               | 
               | If you are blocking UVB, you should be blocking UVA as
               | well. The bus folks are doing some good thinking.
        
       | bhakunikaran wrote:
       | Given the uniqueness of this idea, I'm curious about the
       | technical challenges you faced while developing "SitInShade."
        
       | j_leboulanger wrote:
       | It's not working for me :(
       | 
       | I'm trying a trip from the north of France (Paris) to the south
       | (Lyon) in the morning while the sun rises. So the sun is mainly
       | on the East (so left of the bus) and the app tells me to sit on
       | the left side of the bus.
        
         | qurm wrote:
         | At this time of year, during daylight, the sun is mostly in the
         | south in France. The journey is south-easterly and takes 5
         | hours, so the right side is sunny for most of the journey!
        
       | ReleaseCandidat wrote:
       | The idea is nice, the problem is that the route the app uses (it
       | uses for example a highway) isn't the one the bus would use.
        
         | yreg wrote:
         | Hmm, shouldn't the more shady side be the same in practical
         | scenarios (like not going the other way around the globe, etc)?
        
           | notahacker wrote:
           | There are quite a few bus routes that wind back and forth,
           | especially in urban and mountainous areas potentially
           | offering a lot of shade from buildings and cliff edges for
           | parts of the route anyway.
           | 
           | Whether these journeys involve long enough in direct sun to
           | matter is another question.
        
             | yreg wrote:
             | Yes, but I believe that the diff of sun(RIGHT_SIDE) and
             | sun(LEFT_SIDE) is the same, no?
             | 
             | Like the bus cannot get to the same destination by taking a
             | route where the sun shines on the other side more.
             | (Ignoring some fringe theoretical routes where you do a
             | massive detour over equator.)
             | 
             | edit: I was too fast with my reply to read yours properly.
             | Sorry.
             | 
             | > a lot of shade from buildings and cliff edges for parts
             | of the route
             | 
             | I don't believe sitinshade.com handles those anyway.
        
       | yellow_lead wrote:
       | This is working well! My only feedback is that I was checking a
       | location far outside my timezone (-12 hours). This means I have
       | to look up the timezone for that location. I would prefer to
       | always use the "local" timezone, from the starting location.
        
         | Amithv wrote:
         | Thanks for the suggestion. That would be a great addition.
        
       | thinkingemote wrote:
       | Would be great to have the best route with less low angle sun
       | facing directly into your face and blinding you when driving.
       | 
       | Another idea for a simple website would be to find the less icy
       | side of a street. Often south facing sides of streets have less
       | ice on them.
        
       | Symbiote wrote:
       | I tested with London to Paris -- if it's easy with your routing
       | system, you should add the Channel Tunnel as a fake road. I'm not
       | sure why it chose a ferry so far off the shortest route.
        
         | ballooney wrote:
         | Both sides are pretty good for being well shaded from the sun,
         | in the Channel Tunnel, in my experience.
        
           | Symbiote wrote:
           | The routing takes the Portsmouth-Cherbourg ferry, which is
           | not the way any bus would go. They take either the Channel
           | Tunnel, or one of the shortest ferries like Dover-Calais.
        
         | Amithv wrote:
         | Currently, it uses OpenStreetMap routing.Planning to change to
         | the Google Maps Routing API.
        
           | jackdh wrote:
           | Check the prices on that, it can get exorbitant
        
             | throwaway91920 wrote:
             | The site could probably charge extra for better quality
             | results.
             | 
             | Perhaps they could split it into a free version using open
             | street data, and a paid version with actual transit routes
             | and other relevant data (tunnels could be marked as 0% sun
             | coverage if they are able to find a data source for it)
        
       | ulnarkressty wrote:
       | Oh man, I had this idea a long time ago when I was still
       | commuting to work during sweltering hot summers in trams with no
       | AC. Glad to see someone implemented it.
       | 
       | If you want to take it to the next level, use GIS information to
       | account for building shadows and waiting times in stations and at
       | traffic lights.
       | 
       | I just started using the metro instead :)
        
         | Moru wrote:
         | I never got the idea because our busses had a sort of plastic
         | bar tied to some plastic fabric that you could pull down over
         | the windows. Worked pretty well for blocking the sun. Ofcourse
         | this was way before internet became popular so I guess the
         | ancient knowledge has been lost to humanity by now. The long
         | distance busses also had some sort of air cooling function that
         | they sometimes started up if it was a very warm day.
         | 
         | Todays busses don't even have heating in the winter. If I can't
         | bike, I'm taking the car nowadays. Can't sit in a bus when it's
         | -20 C outdoors and -18 indoors.
         | 
         | :-)
        
           | swores wrote:
           | > _Todays busses don 't even have heating in the winter_
           | 
           | Reminder that not all busses are the same, and your
           | experience is extremely localised to you - even different bus
           | companies (or bus models used by a single company) in the
           | same city can be completely different, yet alone different
           | parts of the country, yet alone different countries.
           | 
           | Near me, for example, pretty much all busses have heating for
           | the winter, and maybe half (random estimate) have AC for
           | during hot weather while the other half just have
           | windows/vents to open or shut.
        
       | iercan wrote:
       | Nice idea
        
       | pb060 wrote:
       | When I was a kid I used to take a bus from East to West coast of
       | Italy in Summer. Despite my best efforts to calculate the side
       | with minimum sun exposure, I always ended up on the sunny side.
       | This also happened when doing the opposite of my predictions. An
       | app like this would have helped me a lot, but it would be nice to
       | have the possibility customize the route.
        
       | selimco wrote:
       | At least one Turkish website (obilet) also offers this info. I
       | consider this whenever I purchase a ticket.
        
         | thret wrote:
         | Makes sense, it would be good if bus and train companies
         | integrated this into seat selection. It really does make a
         | difference.
        
       | pknerd wrote:
       | UI is confusing. As someone who is living in Pakistan, I do not
       | know what to put on location fields.
        
         | Titan2189 wrote:
         | What's your suggestion then? How do Pakistanis tell Google maps
         | where they want to go from and to?
        
           | pknerd wrote:
           | My bad. I thought it does not work internationally but it
           | does!
        
       | AymanB wrote:
       | I asked myself the same question a couple times, but never
       | thought of make an app out of it. Well done!
        
       | makingstuffs wrote:
       | Really nice idea and it works to an extent, but it doesn't seem
       | to use the bus routes -- just sent me the quickest route via the
       | motorway.
       | 
       | Not sure how much of a ball ache that would be to implement
       | though as I guess you would need to pair a lot of APIs or pay
       | google out the backside
        
         | Amithv wrote:
         | Currently OpenStreetMap routing API, would have to be replaced
         | with the Google Maps Transit API.
        
           | fazlerabbi37 wrote:
           | OpenStreetMap routing API should provide routing with Car,
           | Bicycle and Foot profiles. You might have to modify the API
           | call to change the profile.
           | 
           | PS: There might be other free alternatives to using the main
           | osm.org API which will be more reliable.
        
           | julesvr wrote:
           | Would be great to offer this as an option, even if we would
           | have to fill in our own API key. The train tracks in my
           | country differ quite somewhat from the roads when I try it
           | out. Also. busses take defined routes and not the shortest
           | path. Google Maps provides all these routes.
        
         | dmurray wrote:
         | Would you get significantly different results? I'd expect this
         | would work OK even if you assumed travel in a completely
         | straight line - unless you're tacking like a sailboat, you're
         | going to spend most of your time travelling close to the
         | overall direction of travel.
        
           | gunalx wrote:
           | At least i do. Tried my regular commute, but it has a bridge
           | witch is dedicated for buses and emergency cars. So would be
           | a nice addition, but the added complexity of using something
           | like travel api in google maps, witch would cost more. Really
           | liked the idea, and usually seems to work ok.
        
       | g0ran wrote:
       | Good job!
        
       | danilor wrote:
       | Thanks!! I always try to imagine in my head where the sun will be
       | before I book a ticket ;) Now this is more accurate!
        
       | avhon1 wrote:
       | I'm surprised that so many posts are people saying they want
       | this. I've never felt a strong preference for shady seats while
       | traveling. Why do (many) people prefer them?
        
         | andy_ppp wrote:
         | I'm fine with sun for a few minutes but it get's distracting
         | and makes it difficult to sleep and work on a laptop.
        
         | mattrighetti wrote:
         | Well, last year I was doing a 1hr commute on a bus in Italy
         | with 35 degrees outside and with broken AC :) It's not fun to
         | have the sun pointing at you for 10 minutes straight I can tell
         | you that
        
       | andy_ppp wrote:
       | This is brilliant, one thing I would say is making the "Preferred
       | Side" value red leads my eye to believe red = negative/not
       | good/don't so I was searching for something else without
       | thinking. Probably better to make the affirmative/do this/sit
       | here colour green not red.
        
       | dainiusse wrote:
       | I love HN community :) Congrats for just making something and
       | putting out there!
        
       | odiroot wrote:
       | I would gladly use "sit in the sun" version of this.
        
         | fjfaase wrote:
         | It shows the percentage of sunshine for both sides. Simply
         | choose the other side than the one that is recommended for
         | shade.
        
       | tutfbhuf wrote:
       | Another solution is to wear sunglasses and/or a hat and to use an
       | E-Ink device when traveling. I have tested it multiple times,
       | works quite well.
        
       | _bax wrote:
       | The same is useful to place the baby in the car in the better
       | side on a long trip
        
       | moctarhaiz wrote:
       | Great idea. I'm wondering how dis you computed the sun postion in
       | every area of the eath ?
        
         | defrost wrote:
         | Back in the 1980s when doing this we used a Naval Almanac - the
         | US Navy navigation | star position formulas and data are all
         | open source (as products of the US Government).
         | 
         | These days you can tease similar information from Celestia,
         | Stellarium, and other astro projects.
         | 
         | Sun angle wrt a smooth perfect ellipsoid is one thing .. actual
         | sun angle + shadows in the presence of mountains, valleys,
         | forests, tall buildings, etc is a whole other ball of fun.
        
         | 7373737373 wrote:
         | No idea how OP did it, but libraries like astropy make it very
         | easy:
         | https://docs.astropy.org/en/stable/generated/examples/coordi...
        
         | Amithv wrote:
         | Calculation based on azimuth of bus and sun considering change
         | in time and movement of bus.
        
       | 6R1M0R4CL3 wrote:
       | will someone think of the vampires ?
        
       | aronhegedus wrote:
       | worked instantly! Where is the explanation for the calculations?
        
       | ddano wrote:
       | This is the level of creative thinking the industry needs! :D
       | 
       | Kudos for the idea and execution, it's awesome :D
        
       | siddheshgunjal wrote:
       | This is so interesting and the fact that it works anywhere in the
       | world is awesome buddy! And kudos for finishing your side project
        
       | unobatbayar wrote:
       | Simply well done.
       | 
       | The look and feel of the Submit button is cherry on top.
        
       | abrarsami wrote:
       | Damn, this one hit the spot. Nice idea
        
       | franzkappa wrote:
       | Posh!
       | 
       | > A popular folk etymology holds that the term is an acronym for
       | "port out, starboard home",[4] describing the cooler, north-
       | facing cabins taken by the most aristocratic or rich passengers
       | travelling from Britain to India and back. However, there is no
       | evidence for this claim
       | 
       | [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/posh]
        
         | mrjh wrote:
         | This reminded me of the fabulously British song from Chitty
         | Chitty Bang Bang... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BzjPukTLoY
        
       | amitmahbubani wrote:
       | Excellent stuff! I do this manually right now for flight/bus
       | journeys.
        
       | devon_c wrote:
       | Please post this to /r/SkincareAddiction
       | 
       | Sick project!
        
         | dkekenflxlf wrote:
         | good one!
         | 
         | like it since im blonde
        
       | h1fra wrote:
       | Love it, I constantly try to pick the right seat on the bus and
       | always fails to do so. I wish it was a feature in google maps.
       | 
       | Not sure if I'm the only one, in the bus I try to avoid the sun
       | but I'm looking for it in the train/plane.
        
       | saevarom wrote:
       | Seems to work, I'm located in Reykjavik Iceland and the website
       | tells me there is no sun :)
       | 
       | Left Side: 0.00% Right Side: 0.00% No Sun: 100.00%
        
         | WinstonSmith84 wrote:
         | Suppose when you live in Iceland or other similar latitudes,
         | and the sun starts to appear on the horizon, the preferred
         | seating is the sun side to see hours long sunrise / sunset
        
           | dghughes wrote:
           | That's a big assumption that the sun can even be seen lol
           | it's always cloudy here in SE Canada it seems. It's nearly
           | 8am the sun supposedly is up but the clouds are so thick it
           | may as well be 5am.
        
             | jonasft wrote:
             | SE Canada is like France, though. We're talking Iceland
             | here, which is way north compared
        
               | dghughes wrote:
               | Oh I know Iceland is about the same as northern Labrador
               | or even south east Nunavut. But here in SE Canada
               | especially Newfoundland the warm Gulfstream and Labrador
               | current both meet here so it can be quite foggy. Plus it
               | seems we are like the tailpipe of North America every
               | weather system seems to end up here even hurricanes.
        
           | avgcorrection wrote:
           | More like there are two modes: no Sun or sunlight directly in
           | your eyes.
        
         | emsixteen wrote:
         | I get the same result[1], and I'd have expected that if I still
         | live in the Arctic, but I'm a lot further south and see the sun
         | out the window right now.
         | 
         | [1] https://i.imgur.com/92jfFGy.png
        
       | gregorvand wrote:
       | Just pick a seat with no sun
        
       | threesmegiste wrote:
       | Once a bus firm in Turkiye used this method
        
       | wkjagt wrote:
       | What a cool idea! Well done! One feature suggestion: it would be
       | cool if it asked you if you prefer the shade or the sun. I'm in
       | Canada, and during winters I love to sit on the sunny side of the
       | bus.
        
         | reportgunner wrote:
         | You need a feature to tell you to sit on the "wrong" side ?
         | There's just two sides !
        
           | wkjagt wrote:
           | Well, I don't _need_ it of course :-) Just saying it would be
           | cool.
        
             | lostlogin wrote:
             | Cool? Or warmer?
        
       | Fricken wrote:
       | hot dog/not hot dog
        
       | moontear wrote:
       | Works. Beautiful. Also works internationally. Good job!
       | 
       | It would be splendid if you used 24 hour format per default
       | instead of AM/PM or at least let me choose. You correctly figured
       | out I am at UTC+01:00, but we don't use AM/PM here.
       | 
       | I'm not perfectly happy with the colors in the final map. You use
       | blue to represent right, yellowish for left and dark gray for "no
       | sun". Your suggestion on top for preferred seating uses red. To
       | me the preferred seating color should correspond with the
       | left/right colors.
        
         | Symbiote wrote:
         | It says 13:31 for me, and it's just a <input type="time" ...>
         | element. Is your browser using an AM/PM locale?
        
         | Amithv wrote:
         | Thanks for the suggestion.
         | 
         | Time selection relies on the default settings of the
         | browser/system.
        
       | linuxalien wrote:
       | This is the kind of tool I like. Not sure what kind of edge case
       | I've hit though. Trip from Perth to Exmouth in Western Australia,
       | leaving 1:13pm UTC+1000, ends up suggesting the wrong side.
       | 
       | Preferred Seating : Left Side 1250 km / 776.41 miles :14h 40m 33s
       | Sun Exposure Data Left Side: 49.62% Right Side: 7.94% No Sun:
       | 42.44%
        
         | wizzwizz4 wrote:
         | Left side sun exposure < 50%, at a guess.
        
       | yangxiaobo wrote:
       | This is really an interesting feature, haha!
        
       | dkekenflxlf wrote:
       | sell it to apple!
        
       | Igor_Wiwi wrote:
       | what is the tech stack you used to build this site?
        
       | fdgjgbdfhgb wrote:
       | This is very cool, congrats OP!
       | 
       | I wish it would let me select some other cities the bus passes
       | through, since as another commenter said it just uses the
       | quickest way by car - though I guess that would not impact the
       | seat selection too much, since the general direction of travel is
       | still the same!
        
       | wigster wrote:
       | genius. works for my trip to dudley castle!
        
       | larodi wrote:
       | Whats the technology behind this? Is it spatial SQL or some other
       | python-based spatial analysis? I suppose the map is either open
       | layers or leaflet, but the other part is more interesting. Sorry,
       | didn't find it on the page or here, please take excuse if already
       | answered. Thanks
        
         | Amithv wrote:
         | Backend: Node.js Calculations are performed based on the
         | azimuth of the sun and the bus, taking into account the
         | movement of the bus and change in time.
        
       | amelius wrote:
       | Please extend this with the position of the Sun in your window.
       | 
       | I don't mind the Sun if it's coming from the back, for example.
        
       | meehow wrote:
       | Are you a vampire?
        
       | flykespice wrote:
       | Ineffective because a bus isn't stationary and can change
       | orientation as it travels.
        
         | Amithv wrote:
         | It considers the bus's movement, orientation and the changes in
         | time.
        
         | ibrarmalik wrote:
         | I'm assuming this is taking that into account. Otherwise why
         | would it compute a route?
        
       | pinglin wrote:
       | This is what I really need! My eyes are very sensitive to
       | sunlight. Good stuff.
        
       | mezi wrote:
       | Great stuff :D I traveled too much between the ages 10-20 and I
       | would have loved a site like this :D
        
       | madcaptenor wrote:
       | Another use case: seating in stadiums for outdoor sports.
       | (Whether you want to be in the sun or not will depend on the time
       | of year.) You'd need data on how stadiums are oriented though.
        
       | Davidzheng wrote:
       | Lmao can you just bring a poster paper and cover the windows
        
       | adam-nmth wrote:
       | Love the idea + really nice website! Fun fact: There are some
       | trains from Berlin to Munich which go through Leipzig, where they
       | come out of the train station the same way they go in there, so
       | both your ride direction and window side switches, which can be
       | very annoying. ("luckily" there isn't much sunshine in this area
       | most time of the year, haha)
        
       | Congeec wrote:
       | Have I found a bug? I entered JFK and Heathrow, it resolves to
       | correct airports but the map shows a route between London and
       | Lisbon.
       | 
       | Addresses used:
       | 
       | John F. Kennedy International Airport, JFK Access Road, Queens,
       | New York, 11430, United States
       | 
       | Heathrow Airport, Cranford Lane, Hatton Cross, London Borough of
       | Hillingdon, London, Greater London, England, TW6 2DN, United
       | Kingdom
        
         | Amithv wrote:
         | I think you used standard bus route search with JFK and
         | Heathrow. OpenStreetMap suggests Lisbon since the departure and
         | destination are on different continents, providing a route in
         | close proximity to the destination with access to the sea.
         | 
         | If you prefer the flight path, you can visit
         | dev.sitinshade.com/flight [beta].
        
         | burkaman wrote:
         | This is an OpenStreetMap issue, that's what it gives you when
         | you ask for driving directions across the Atlantic: https://www
         | .openstreetmap.org/directions?engine=fossgis_osrm....
         | 
         | I'm not sure exactly what's going on, even if you provide a US
         | address in the middle of the country it will only ever give you
         | directions for the European side. If you replace Heathrow with
         | a different continent, like Africa or Asia, it correctly says
         | it can't find a route. My best guess is that the algorithm sees
         | there is a water crossing, but then finds the ferry from France
         | to England and says "ah ok all good". Maybe there is a special
         | case to handle Europe to UK that is causing the problem? If you
         | put in JFK to Dublin it will find two ferries, France to
         | England and England to Ireland, but still nothing on the North
         | American side.
         | 
         | Edit: No nothing to do with the ferries, I think Europe just
         | has some special status. For example, try Brazil -> Morocco vs.
         | Brazil -> Spain.
        
       | eythian wrote:
       | You should team up with the people who wrote
       | zonopjebakkes/seatsinthesun, which is used for finding bars and
       | cafes that have terraces that are still in the sun, mostly useful
       | in late summer afternoons as the evenings are getting shorter and
       | cooler.
        
         | tppiotrowski wrote:
         | https://jveuxdusoleil.fr/ is another fun one.
        
       | Tempest1981 wrote:
       | Cool project!
       | 
       | I'm having occasional problems with autocomplete of city names:
       | 
       | Try typing "Sacramento" slowly... it shows 0 results as you type
       | letters 6..9, then suddenly finds it on the last letter
        
       | ballenf wrote:
       | In a related vane, has there ever been a map/routing app that
       | included weather forecasts visually on the map? Like, a storm
       | cloud on route ahead that is based on the forecast for that
       | position at the estimated time you'll reach it.
       | 
       | I feel like routing apps have completely stagnated basically
       | since the Waze acquisition by Google.
        
         | totoglazer wrote:
         | It's common in boating, for sure!
        
       | uticus wrote:
       | Great work! Two questions on this related to extended trips that
       | I can't find obvious answers to, even after using: [answered]
       | does it calculate exposure for points on trip moving, or is
       | exposure for all points calculated for same time? (Moving south-
       | north for two hours before noon would be exposure on right/east
       | for first half, on left/west for second half in northern
       | hemisphere).
       | 
       | Secondly, does this have any difficulty with trips that encompass
       | certain times that often serve as "reset" markers? Such as trips
       | that include midnight, or multiday trips?
       | 
       | [edit: example for nothern hemisphere clarification]
       | 
       | [second edit: looks like it does for first question, ref Oklahoma
       | City to Wichita KS starting an hour before noon]
        
       | Solvency wrote:
       | I need this combined with Alltrails or some other trail map data!
       | My 4mo old absolutely hates direct sunlight which makes finding
       | good walks/hikes in a carrier very challenging.
        
       | AtNightWeCode wrote:
       | Next project can be a service for planning a walk in a city based
       | on how much time one would like to spend in the shadow or in the
       | sun.
        
       | squidbot wrote:
       | This is a great idea! I see others have mentioned ferries,
       | however when I put my route in (Bainbridge Island to Seattle, WA)
       | it chose roads not the ferry. Any way to force it to use my ferry
       | route rather than the 3 hour road trip it chose?
        
       | Xerox9213 wrote:
       | As someone who suffers from EPP, thank you!
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythropoietic_protoporphyria
        
       | arcastroe wrote:
       | Also try to sit towards the middle of the bus too, so that you
       | don't get sun exposure from the front or back windows.
       | 
       | When I read the title, I was expecting the site to give you an
       | optimal "seat" (13A), but I suppose for this would need to know
       | the exact bus make and model.
        
       | dhritzkiv wrote:
       | Found a bug on the first search I ran, where the right side is
       | preferred, despite having more sun (10.55%) vs. the left side
       | (6.64%). Not sure how. All other searches gave more expected
       | results.
       | 
       | Parameters: - Toronto to Montreal at 3:21PM EST.
        
       | 29athrowaway wrote:
       | Perhaps we should take genes from Deinococcus radiodurans and put
       | them in humans.
        
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       (page generated 2024-01-17 23:01 UTC)