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Google Uses TriMet Data to Map Trips

Posted on: Friday, 9 December 2005, 21:00 CST

By Mike Rogoway, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.

Dec. 9--Google Inc. is hopping on board Portland's buses, streetcars and light rail.

The company behind the Internet's most popular search engine said Thursday that it has decided to make TriMet the guinea pig for a new version of its online mapping site.

Still in its experimental phase, the new site -- dubbed "Google Transit" -- launched this week with suggested travel routes and up-to-the-minute arrival and departure times for public transit in the Portland area. Google Transit reports fares for each trip and estimates what it would cost if users drove instead, using the Internal Revenue Service's allowable deduction of 40.5 cents per mile.

Google eventually hopes to offer similar details for transit systems all over the world. It chose to start with Portland because TriMet already collects a lot of information about routes and its vehicles' locations, and was happy to share.

"The combination of great people and great data made Tri-Met the ideal partner," Google project manager Avichal Garg wrote on the company's blog.

Much of what Google Transit reports is already available directly from TriMet's own Web site. TriMet uses global positioning system technology installed on vehicles to report exactly when they will arrive at each stop, and it makes that live information available on the Web or by phone.

Google Transit is still a work in progress, and the routes it recommends are sometimes longer, less convenient and more expensive than those suggested by TriMet.

Bibiana McHugh, a TriMet manager, suggested Thursday that riders not rely on Google Transit to plan their trips until that site improves. But she said Google's work -- and efforts by other Web developers, such as Seattle's busmonster.com -- are valuable because they offer detailed maps and a standard format that make it easy for out-of-town travelers to navigate a new city's transit system.

"From the customers' perspective this is really great, especially customers who are not familiar with the Portland area," McHugh said.

Google, based in California's Silicon Valley, is increasingly active in Oregon. The company is building a data center in The Dalles, and in October it donated $350,000 to help state universities develop open-source software.

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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GOOG,

Source: The Oregonian

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