Google trip planner adds five more cities

Google Transit, an interactive Web tool that allows customers to plan public transportation trips, has added five more cities to its coverage. Portland, which was the first city to participate in the search engine's Transit Trip Planner (launched in December 2005), is now joined by Eugene, Ore.; Honolulu; Pittsburgh; Seattle; and Tampa, Fla. Pittsburgh's Port Authority of Allegheny County is one of the six U.S. transit agencies participating in the program, at no cost to the agency. "The transit industry has been trying to standardize trip planning, and we believe this will be the standard," said Port Authority Chief Technology Officer Maureen Bertocci. In addition to supplying all relevant service information once a user provides starting and ending addresses for their trip, Google Transit combines mapping abilities to trip planning. Users see an overlay of the bus or rail route on a map and can also choose to view an overlay using satellite pictures of the area. Google Transit also provides useful ancillary information, such as the amount of time it will take to walk to the nearest stop. The transit agencies in the Google Transit Trip Planner serve a population of more than 6 million people, with more than 1 million transit trips per day.