BUSVIEW

Wondering if you still have time for one more phone call before catching your bus? Busview is a Java applet that runs on your computer. It tracks buses throughout King County and displays bus positions on a map in real time. Now you can sit comfortably in your home or office and make that phone call while waiting for your bus - without worrying about where your bus is. Busview helps make travel less stressful.

This page should automatically launch Busview for you. If a separate frame like the image below does not appear when the applet is launched, check the System Requirements below.

For more information on using Busview, see the User Help page. For conditions of use, please refer to our Disclaimer page.

System Requirements:

Below are the browser requirements for running Busview. Irrespective of browser, screen resolutions down to 640x480 are supported, but 1024x768 is the minimum recommended.

Windows:

(Updated 9-16-2003)
Busview requires both a browser and a Java virtual machine. Busview works properly with either the Sun or Microsoft VM. However, Microsoft will be discontinuing support for their VM, starting Jan. 2004. For this reason, we rec ommend using the Sun Java Plug-in (currently version 1.4.2).

NOTE: There are issues with Busview not working properly with the Sun Java plug-in version 1.3. The symptom is that the applet will seem to start, the map will be displayed, but no data will be received. If this occurs, try upgrading the Java plug-in (to 1.4.x).

Netscape Communicator 4.5-4.8
These older versions of Netscape have a built-in Java virtual machine. No separate plug-in is required.
Netscape 6/7
These versions of Netscape require a Java plug-in, which is offered as an option when you download Netscape, or is otherwise available from Sun.
Current versions of Netscape (now 7.1) are available here.
Mozilla
Mozilla requires the Sun Java Plug-in.
Current versions of Mozilla (now 1.4) are available here.
Microsoft Internet Explorer, versions 4.01 to 6
Versions of IE prior to 6 included the Microsoft Virtual Machine, which does work with Busview. Version 6 does not include a Java virtual machine (though if you upgrade from an earlier version of IE, you will likely already have the Microsoft VM, which version 6 can use. If you install version 6 of IE and you do not already have the Microsoft VM, it is suggested that you download the Sun Java Plug-in, which will also work with Internet Explorer 6.
Current versions of Internet Explorer (now IE 6, Service Pack 1 ) are available here.

Macintosh:

We do not have newer Macs available, and so we are not able to test Busview on current versions of the Mac OS. However, users have reported that Busview works fine under OSX 10.3.5, with Java 1.4.2, using Safari 1.2 or Mozilla 1.7.
(User reports are welcome--send to busview@its.washington.edu)

The following notes pertain to older Macs and browsers on which we have tested Busview.

Busview DOES work on the Mac with Internet Explorer 4.5 but only if you use the Apple 'Mac Runtime for Java' (MRJ) version 2.1 and NOT the Microsoft Java virtual machine that used to ship with IE. (MRJ2.1 requires a PowerPC with 32 MB of RAM and Mac OS 7.6.1 or later.)

Busview does NOT work with any current versions of Netscape Communicator/Navigator (through 4.6/4.08). Netscape does not support the necessary version of Java. A future release of Netscape is expected to include support for the Apple 'Mac Runtime for Java'. This should make it possible to run Busview under Netscape on the Mac.

Latest Version

The latest version of Busview is labelled 07-12-2004. To check the version number of your downloaded Busview applet, start Busview and select Help|About Busview from the main window to read the version number. For details on the new features included in this version and a complete history of Busview releases, please see the Busview History page.

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(July 8, 2002)