MetroRiderLA

Two days ago I said, We want our Google Transit!

I wasn’t alone. The consensus from the 20+ comments the post received was that MetroRiders are ready for a better trip planner. What’s more, the post caught the eye of some blog-savvy Metro employees, who in defense of their employer, let fly with some very good news.

Google Transit is on its way to LA!

Metro bus data is ready to go, and Metro rail data is in the process of being added as I type. Once Metro compiles all the information, hopefully by this summer, Angelenos will have to option to “Take Public Transit” every time they search for directions on Google Maps. Why summer at the earliest, and not right now? Setting up a transit feed with Google Transit is a time consuming process that requires a lot of unglamorous grunt work, and inputing rail data is even more taxing. But what matters is that it’s been confirmed and is coming soon.

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Image courtesy of PhotoDu.de.

According to Permanent Campaigns, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is investing $24 million to expand a pilot program that provides real-time bus tracking data to its customers via web and digital signage at certain bus stops. The program, called the CTA Bus Tracker, has provided real-time date for one bus line (the #20 Madison route) since 2006. The expansion will make real-time data for all 154 CTA bus routes available on the Bus Tracker by spring of next year. Starting next week, 13 bus routes will be added, with the rest coming incrementally.

I loaded up the Bus Tracker to check out the interface and it’s very nice – bold and simple, with no fluff. Metro has implemented a similar interface, for non-real-time bus tracking called NexTrip Beta, and the CTA Bus Tracker, aside from actually being real-time, blows it out of the water in terms of interface design. The CTA interface is still a pop-up, which sucks, but it removes one superfluous element that Metro’s interface has… the need to input your destination stop. The CTA Tracker has 3 inputs: choose your route, the direction of that route, and the bus stop you will be starting at. The CTA Bus Tracker instantly updates with an easy to read list of the routes, bus numbers, and estimated arrival times. The interface is far more responsive than Metro’s NexTrip, which seems to have a unnecessarily long load periods after a selection is made. The CTA Bus Tracker also has a map option, which shows your bus stop on a map and the locations of the buses on your chosen route, updated in real time! It’s really cool to see the buses move along the map toward your location.

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