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Google Transit Now In Beta
KIondike writes "Google's introduced Google Transit, a new Lab product where users (or, "people") can map trips around their city using public transit. From the Google Blog: 'With it, commuters will be able to easily access public transit schedules, routes, and plan trips using their local public transportation options. This first release covers only the Portland, Oregon metro area, but we are working to expand our coverage very soon.' The amount of data they give seems very comprehensive, including time you'll spend walking to the bus or subway, and the amount of money it would cost compared to driving."
Transport for London Journey Planner
Quite cool; allows you to plot a journey on several different types of public transport. Even includes the amount of time it takes to walk to the station, which makes it really really useful.
By summer it was all gone...now shesmovedon. --
It does have some new ideas, like price compared to driving, but otherwise it's not.
The Danish site Rejseplanen covers all public transportation in Denmark, from anywhere to anywhere, including address to address, along with estimated times for walking from Point A to Stop B.
As for people entering data into it? Well, that's also new compared to Rejseplanen, but why would you need it, when the site has access to every single itinerary in the country?
We do not live in the 21st century. We live in the 20 second century.
Tried this out today. The directions weren't too bad, although it didn't seem to be including the MAX trains in its calculations, at least not logically.
After recently moving to Chicago I've become quite used to utilizing the CTA's trip planner, which also accounts for the maintenance work to tracks and bus schedule changes.
My major concern would be that if the CTA's database is private, Google will not be able to ascertain that, and with all mapping software there will be huge problems with the data being up to date. What's the benefit of this over what's already out there? Is there a major city that doesn't already have a trip planner set up on their own?
Seems to be reinventing the wheel.
If by Google you mean Yahoo!, then no, there's nothing Google can't do.
(English guide to aforementioned service)
For more information, click here.
No route, timing, or cost information appears when using Safari... I wonder why that is?
I tried out Google Transit and was like "that's not very useful... it's the same information as Google Maps gives you"
Using Firefox I can see what the BFD is.