News4Neighbors reports that the Google and TriMet collaboration that I reported on back in October has officially launched. “Google Transit” is in beta and you can read more about it straight from the horses mouth on the Google Blog.
No sign of bike-specific route planning…but then again, we’ve got a local grassroots effort well underway. And loyal readers know Google has worked with Metro on a bike-mapping project in tandem with Google Earth.
Why launch this tool with Portland’s very own TriMet? Here’s what Google says:
“We chose to launch with the Portland metro area for a couple of reasons. Tri-Met, Portland’s transit authority, is a technological leader in public transportation. The team at Tri-Met is a group of tremendously passionate people dedicated to serving their community. And Tri-Met has a wealth of data readily available that they were eager to share with us for this project. This combination of great people and great data made Tri-Met the ideal partner.”
I can just imagine all the transportation junkies downtown jumping up and down at what great PR this is for the city. Congrats Portland!
[via Portland Transport]
Thanks for reading.
BikePortland has served this community with independent community journalism since 2005. We rely on subscriptions from readers like you to survive. Your financial support is vital in keeping this valuable resource alive and well.
Please subscribe today to strengthen and expand our work.
Every search I’ve tried has just given me driving directions. I wonder if I’m doing something wrong?
Just make sure you’re at http://www.google.com/transit
Sorry…hit return too fast. If you are at the transit section, I’ve noticed that you might get driving directions when mass transit is too far away for walking and google perceives it’s faster to drive. I recall someone here at work entered a case where they got driving directions only.
There…that’s better.
-Joel
I wonder how Metro is doing with Google…
Just FYI, I posted something about that back in mid-August.
Bike There map and Google Earth
Thanks, Joel; It seems that was the problem, but now I get the following incredibly annoying message:
“Unfortunately, Google Transit doesn’t currently support the Safari web browser—but we’re working on it! In the meantime, we recommend Firefox for viewing Google Transit on the Mac”.
Jerks.