| Google Transit FAQ |
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About Google Transit Trip Planner
About Google Transit Trip Planner
Do you live in or near a city? Want to go someplace—to the airport, to dinner, to work every day—and not worry about the hassles and expense of driving and parking? Google Transit Trip Planner enables you to enter the specifics of your trip—where you're starting, where you're ending up, what time of day you'd like to leave and/or arrive—then uses all available public transportation schedules and information to plot out the most efficient possible step-by-step itinerary. You can even compare the cost of your trip with the cost of driving the same route! At the moment we're offering this service in a number of areas. Check out our most up to date list of included regions. Frequently Asked Questions
1. How do I use Google Transit Trip Planner? You use Google Transit Trip Planner to get directions, just as you would with Google Maps. Google Transit provides directions using public transportation rather than driving directions. With Google Transit Trip Planner you can get the most useful possible schedule by filling in the following information:
Example Searches 2. What cities are included in the Google Transit Trip Planner? We have coverage for numerous cities and regions around the world, listed below. Whether or not we currently offer this service in your area, you can play with the product, and rest assured we're working on making Google Transit available for you. If you have any feedback for us, we'd love to hear it! Just send us an email at: labs-transit_feedback@google.com Included Regions
3. What cities will be covered and when will they be added? Sorry, but we don't yet have any definite plans for which cities will be added and when. 4. My agency has public transportation data for my city; how can I get it included in the Google Transit Trip Planner? If you're at a public agency that oversees public transportation for your city and would like your data to be included, please contact us at labs-transit_content@google.com. You can learn more about the process in the Google Transit Feed Specification, which describes how to provide transit data in a format that Google Transit Trip Planner can use. 5. How do you estimate the cost of driving? Cost of driving is based on the average mileage for the shortest route between your start and end addresses multiplied by the cost per mile (48.5 cents) that the IRS allows businesses to deduct. According to the IRS, these rates "are based on an annual study of the fixed and variable costs of operating an automobile. Runzheimer International, an independent contractor, conducted the study for the IRS." However, this is only an estimate and doesn't include things like tolls, parking fees, or variations in gas mileage for different types of cars. 6. Why isn't this product a part of Google Maps? Google Transit Trip Planner is currently a Google Labs product. We haven't integrated it with Google Maps because we wanted to develop the product further by learning, through user feedback, how people really use public transportation data, and thus how Google Transit can be improved to be as useful as possible. 7. I can't get the maps to work. Is it my web browser? We're sorry that the maps in Google Transit Trip Planner aren't working properly for you. We recommend the following web browsers: We also provide a plain-HTML version of Google Transit Trip Planner. This version should load automatically if you aren't using one of the supported browsers. To view the plain-HTML version, try using this link: http://www.google.com/transit?output=html. If you still can't get Google Transit to work, please let us know by emailing us at labs-transit_feedback@google.com. 8. Google Transit Trip Planner isn't doing what I expected. Who needs to know? If you notice any problems with the service or have ideas on how to make it better, please email us at labs-transit_feedback@google.com and let us know what you're seeing, or what you'd like to see. Your feedback is crucial to our efforts to continually improve Google Transit. 9. Why don't the walking instructions make sense? Google Transit Trip Planner does not yet offer detailed walking directions. Directions to and from transit stops are currently plotted as straight lines instead of following roads and paths. Unfortunately some of these lines cross rivers, highways and hills. Don't forget to look at the alternate trips we found. As we continue to add information to Google Transit Trip Planner and our modeling improves, we will improve walking directions. 10. Why do some legs of my transit route look like they skip over roads or water? The path between two stops may appear to be a straight line instead of following the actual route a bus or train might take. This happens when we have precise information about the time and location a bus or train stops, but do not know the path it takes between stops. In a few cases the route actually uses a boat. 11. Why isn’t fare data available for my city? How do you calculate fare information? We work with local transit agencies to ensure that fare data and route information are as accurate as possible. Fare information is currently available for some cities only. For areas where we do have fare information, Google Transit Trip Planner bases calculations on the standard adult fare. Transfer costs are also taken into account. We will continue to work with local transit agencies to get you transit information. 12. How can I find different routing options? We try to find the four best routes based on the information that you enter about your trip. If there aren’t a lot of transit options for your route, you’ll probably see the same route with different departure times. When more transit options are available for your trip, the list of departures may include different ways of getting to your destination. For example, one route may use the train instead of a bus. To find out more about each suggested route, click the blue-underlined departure time for the route to see it displayed on the map. |
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