Google Does Public Transit
by Justin Thomas, Virginia on 12. 9.05
Google recently launched a new service called "Google Transit". The service is intended to make it easier to navigate public transportation systems. It cuts through the hassle of wading through various timetables and maps. Instead, you can just type your start and end addresses (and a time, if you like). In response, the system will tell you where to walk and what buses or trains to take. Right now, it only covers Portland, Oregon. But Google says other cities will be added soon.
WorldChanging reports:
It has the schedule & route data of Portland's TriMet (the local transit system). It tells you where to walk to, what lines to take when, plots it all out on the map (both walking and riding, with flags to differentiate), and tells you how much it will cost. It even compares the cost of your trip to the cost of driving (for instance, going from the airport to downtown costs $1.80 by transit and $4.27 by car!)
:: Google Transit via WorldChanging
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- New iPhone 2.2 Update Rewards Car-Free Commuters
- Green Listening for your Public Transit Commute
- Will the Next New Deal be Transit-Based? Three Plans to Rescue the Economy and the Earth with Public Transportation
- Think Eco-Logical Pushes IT Sustainability Home with Businesses
King Coal Rules Down Under - And Over Here, And ...
|
Instant Survey: Recognizing Celebrities with Green Ideals
|
I'm so glad the fine people at Google have implemented this feature; I've been waiting for it for a while. The driving directions are pretty useless if you don't have a car! I just can't wait until they get more cities up.
In the Northeast, we have Hopstop.com already for this.
Point to point directions + maps using public transit + walking for NYC, Boston and DC.
Will even send them directly to your cell phone as a text message. You can specify more or less street walking, more subway transfers, buses. Gives transit times that are pretty accurate too. The walking directions are great for people new to the city as they include the first couple streets you're going to cross so it's less confusing when you come out of the subway.
Oh, and free free free!
We're going to try and get Toronto's public transportation system included!
I know that Chicago has a very simple and user-friendly site which does the same thing, including the walking directions, and lets you plug in the arrival/departure times so that it returns relevant results. It would be useful if Google included public transport routes on its regular city road maps and satellite pictures (it's almost impossible to find a map that shows both, in detail), but this service is not going to be much help unless it also keeps track of delays, route changes and closures etc.
For Bay Area residents, my BARTsmart BART Widget is a handy tool for BART train schedules and news. I ride BART daily and wrote it so I would always know when the next train was coming.
Some really nice features, anybody in seattle who hasn't already should check out busmonster.com same idea, but a gmaps mashup, rather than an official google project. The coolest thing on busmonster, it has the actual locations of the buses, draws them as little arrows on the route, i think this is possible because the seattle transit agency has the bus tracking already. But if google could integrate stuff like that it would be rad. if you have internet, you know when the bus is actually coming, not just when it's supposed to.
just to thank you for this amaizing job. i have allways dreamed ti find a place like yourd. it is a pleasure to receive dayly news and valuable information obout this importan matter. so please keep going on, and i wish you all, the best for this season and the 2006 year. thanks again. raul g garza
It's good that Google is doing this--the more transit information that's out there the better. But many transit agencies have this kind of trip planner on their website already, Google would just be providing another place to find it.
It would be a great advance if transit information appeared on Google maps. At least fixed rail and ferry stations, I'm sure they can do that. Actually, given the massive quantities of information that Google moves i think they could gradually strip in bus lines too.