Google Adds Transit Icons to Maps
Thursday, June 14, 2007 5:06 PM
If you're in Honolulu and you want to know how to get from Waikiki Beach to the Ala Moana shopping center by bus, just go to Google Maps.
Starting June 9, Google has put transit station icons on its maps in 12 cities.
Go to the link google.com/transit. You'll see a list of cities that are participating, including Honolulu, Duluth, San Diego and the only Texas city - Austin.
Click on the city, then type in your origination point and destination. You'll get detailed directions on how to travel via the local mass transit system. You'll find departure times, what lines run through the stations and a link to the local transit agency.
For example, I clicked on Austin. Then I typed in from "Austin airport" to "University of Texas." Three options appeared: Trip 1, Trip 2, and Trip 3 with three departure times.
It's so detailed, it told me it would take 47 seconds to walk to the lower level of the airport. It told me to take Capital Metro Bus 100 for 28 minutes and arrive at Congress and 18th St., then walk to UT. When I clicked on "walk," a detailed city map popped up showing me my nine-minute route to the campus.
Plus it told me that the trip would cost 50 cents versus $4.08 driving.
Capital Metro has partnered with Google Maps since March 8 after a Google rep chatted with the chief information officer at a conference. The Austin transit agency wanted it on-line before its big musical event, South by Southwest in March when hundreds of visitors flood the city.
"Right away, we had some great feedback," said Misty Whited, a spokeswoman at Capital Metro. "A TV crew wanted to do a story on it. We have a trip planner, but visitors to Austin may not know about our transit agency. Google is putting us out there and giving more information to the public."
And then there's the cool factor of Google. "It was another great way to get Capital Metro involved in the ‘google' generation of young transit users," said Whited.
Check it out. It's really fun to use. Google's product manager Christoph Oehler blogs about it at Lat Long Blog.