3 messages in com.googlegroups.googletransitRe: San Diego and Reno now live on Go...| From | Sent On | Attachments |
|---|---|---|
| Tom Sly | 25 May 2007 17:35 | |
| Chris Luth | 28 May 2007 21:17 | |
| DHofmann | 12 Jun 2007 20:45 |
| Subject: | Re: San Diego and Reno now live on Google Transit! |
|---|---|
| From: | DHofmann (dere...@gmail.com) |
| Date: | 06/12/2007 08:45:04 PM |
| List: | com.googlegroups.googletransit |
If you can figure out who pays 511.org (instead of someone inside 511 who doesn't want to lose his/her job), you might be able to sell them on Google Transit. Maybe the individual transit agencies that cooperate with 511.org (do those agencies pay 511.org?), or your representatives in the California State Legislature.
On May 28, 9:17 pm, Chris Luth <chri...@gmail.com> wrote:
Very, very, very cool--I just spent a half an hour trying different combinations of routes around San Diego to try it out. Awesome!
It reinspired me to pursue trying to get other agencies (particularly in California) to come onboard. I've already contacted most of the major agencies in Southern California (although I contacted CalTrans again to let them know of the addition of San Diego and to see where they're at in having Amtrak California and Caltrain join), so I decided to focus on Northern Cal.
However, it looks like they've got a pretty good system at 511.org going (it even has a feature that might be welcome to implement in Google Transit: a way to click on a point on the map and make that the starting point for transit, useful if you're a visual person but don't know the name of the street or intersection). It might be difficult to convince them to also invest in a system which basically competes with 511.org.
Thoughts on this? Is it worth trying to get them to "jump ship"? There are a lot of little transit agencies connected to 511.org. While a nationwide comprehensive Google Transit system is the eventual goal (a one-stop shop for everyone to figure out how to get from anywhere to anywhere without using a car), it seems we should focus on major systems that will help get the critical mass going that will make Google Transit as essential and as well-known as Google Maps is today.
Currently, you can see driving directions and transit directions both from within Google Transit. I assume that eventually Google Transit will come out of Google Labs and be more fully integrated with Google Map so they will end up being one product: people searching for driving directions between, say, Fresno and the Marina District in San Francisco (using Amtrak, BART and the Muni bus) will also see the transit option presented to them--this way, people who may never have considered using transit will see that it's available and may end up using it. Once that happens, perhaps the critical mass will be reached and agencies at that time will have no choice but to join or be left behind.
On May 25, 4:36 pm, "Tom Sly" <thom...@gmail.com> wrote:
Reno's RTC RIDE & San Diego MTS live on Google Transit!