Google has recently detailed an update that may benefit those in Salt Lake City, New York City and Washington DC. The update deals specifically with mass transit and means access to live departure times and live service alerts. The catch here, these two additions will not be available for all users. Basically, the departure times are for those in Salt Lake City and New York City and the service alerts will be for those in Washington DC.
Breaking this down a bit further and we have live departure times for seven of the lines on the New York City subway system and also for buses and trams in the greater Salt Lake City area. The service alerts will be for riders of the Metrorail system in Washington DC and will offer the service alerts as well as details of unplanned delays and scheduled track work.
New additions aside, the transit information from Google Maps now includes everything from pick-up locations and fare amounts to departure times and your estimated travel time. This information is now available for more than 800 cities across more than 25 countries. Google notes that means “information for 100 million miles of daily public transit.”
Those rocking an Android device will likely already have Google Maps installed, however the latest version is of course — available by way of the Google Play Store. All said and done, Google appears to be taking away some of the annoyances that are often associated with using public transportation.
[via Google Maps Blog]
