Google Transit….in Vancouver!

Mmmokay. So, I, like everyone I know, am obsessed with Google Maps. I just love ‘em. Love love love. Mmm, mmm, good.

Annnnnyways. I am all lookin’ up stuff about Google and their carbon neutral plans and I stumble upon Google Transit, which you all have probably heard about because you’re cooler than me. But whatever. It launched earlier in October. And I see that my one and only hometown of Vancouver BC is one of the cities searchable on Google Transit. So of course I look up my bus ride home (is dark and rainy, the bike is no more fun) and TA DA! It gets it right. What’s more, the search delivers the next three departures and is SO MUCH LESS ANNOYING than the Translink (Vancouver bus co.) trip planner.

(I’d show you the lovely map it generated, but then you would all know where I work AND live and that’s just creepy..and there are enough creepy people on the bus in Vancouver already. I mean really.)

Now you could be all BAH! other people have done this (like Hopstop) and ARG Google and their monopoly on the world!, but the goodness for me is that I already know how to navigate the Google map system. I am familiar with the interface and their directions. Also, they are particularly good at finding addresses when you type them in wrong. Maybe I am getting old, but I LIKE that. And the Google maps are so pretty. And handily movable with that hand. Oh that hand.

Also, they give you the total cost in public transportation tickets versus the cost of gas to drive. For example. If I wanted to go from Mountain View (home of Google) to a nice hotel in Union Square in Downtown San Francisco, it would cost $9.55 to take the bus/train/subway and $18.64 to drive. And that doesn’t include parking. Of course the public option takes twice as long and you can’t choose the radio station..but hey.

There aren’t many cities yet available with the system, as I think the individual transit systems have to make their data in some way compatible with the Google searchings. But more are being added. Like Duluth. And Tampa. And the whole country of Japan (I mean have you ever tried to take the Subway in Tokyo?). They are still missing some biggies - New York, LA (ha ha), Chicago, Boston, DC. Philadelphia, but they’ll succumb.