Wednesday, January 5, 2011

STA Launches Google Maps Trip Planner

There's something new for you bus riders. On January 1 Spokane Transit launched a new trip planner through Google maps. You can access it either through the main page of their website, here or directly from Google Maps by just typing in a start and end point for directions and checking “by public transportation”.

It's pretty cool really. I typed in a couple different destinations, and for each it told me where I needed to walk to for a bus stop for the route I needed (plus how long it would take to get from my starting location to that bus stop), how soon until a bus on that route comes again, and exactly where to get off the bus to reach my destination. In one case, a walk was required to get where I was going once I got off the bus, and it even told me how long it would take to walk there.

4 comments:

Mallory said...

It would only take me 19 minutes to get from SRTC to Lincoln Heights Shopping Center on the South Hill (soon to be home to a Trader Joes!) by catching the 44 at Stevens and Sprague. It's cool to compare that to driving, which Google Maps estimates would take 11-12 minutes. Too bad I only have a 30 minute lunch break...

SRTC Staff said...

We have a public meeting out at Northern Quest Casino later this month so I put that in just to see what my options are. Riding the bus it would take 28 minutes, but driving would take me anywhere between 13 and 19 minutes because the search came up with three different routes I could take. This is fun! I could do it all day. Except that I have other work to do :(

Anonymous said...

For real fun you can drag the Point A and B markers around the map and as you drag it will calculate new route options right before your eyes!

SRTC Staff said...

Holy cow Anonymous, you're getting all wild and crazy on us! I'll have to give that a shot.


About SRTC

SRTC is the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Spokane County. Urbanized areas with populations exceeding 50,000 people are required to have an MPO. SRTC was formed to address the county's transportation planning needs. It provides coordination in planning between the public, cities, small towns, the county, the state, transit providers, and tribes.

SRTC offers services including transportation monitoring, transportation modeling, census information analysis, travel demand forecasting, historical traffic count analysis, geographic information systems, and trip generation rates.