For would-be Transportation Czars who have grander ideas for the buses and trains in your town, Transitmix helps you draw a fantasy transit system for your city that's specific down to the block. And it's got a bunch of real-world features that can help you calculate everything from ridership to operating costs.
A group of Code for America fellows built the tool, which works for any city on the planet. Using a mapping tool, you can draw your route, adding stops and extending the distance until your best bus line ever is complete. I added a much-needed loop for my neighborhood here.
What's great about Transitmix is all the variables. You can control frequency during five different time categories, like peak, evening, weekends. Not only that, the app draws from actual transit data to give you information about ridership and operating costs, making it a more real-to-life planning tool.
If you've played the subway-planning game Mini Metro, this will be familiar territory, but I'd offer that where Mini Metro is just a fun diversion, Transitmix could be potentially very useful for a city trying to install its first-ever transit system and trying to get a sense of the scope and costs.
My only complaints are that you can only get bus data and you're limited in creating routes that follow streets exactly—no subways, trolleys, or light-rail, for now—but hopefully those will be added in future updates. Right now, it's fun to play, and dream about the new bus stop down the street. [Transitmix]