We got scooped by News4Neighbors, but here it is: today Google launched a Transit Trip Planner, using TriMet as their first partner, so right now it’s a Portland exclusive.
My favorite part is the comparison of driving costs with the transit fare!
What this highlights is that TriMet has great data, and a real willingness to be innovative. Here at Portland Transport we’re very well aware of this. Tomorrow we’ll be launching a transit tool of our own, relying on TriMet’s data. Watch this space…
5 responses to “Google Transit Launches with TriMet”
My brother who will be visiting from Florida over the holidays has requested information from both TriMet and C-Tran via email about using the two systems for a single trip…he’ll be staying in Vancouver, but traveling most days to our father’s place in Portland. Both web sites indicate that you can travel without paying two fares (except for C-Tran Premium service), but then seem to contradict this in the details provided. At a time when the I-5 corridor is our most congested, it borders on criminal that these two transit systems make it more difficult and costly to cross the river/border between OR and WA without a car.
Hm, every search I’ve tried has just given me driving directions. What am I doing wrong?
Boy, the Google product is pre-beta. It took me many, many tries to get it to recognize my location, and then it gave me very bad advice (walking to Foster to catch a 14 in to town, when I’m starting a few yards from Holgate!).
But I do believe they’ll get it right over time.
THAT IS THE BOMB DIGGITY!
Sorry for the all caps. *ahem* yea. sorry, nothing to see here, folks. move along, move along, and go google your own bus!
[…] the civic data world is that what made open transit data work was an outside force: Google. When Google Transit launched in 2005, they worked with Portland’s TriMet to design a new, lightweight, web-friendly open […]