Find: GoTriangle Joins Google Transit

Transit and wolfline on google, and available for mobile apps. Ben. 


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GoTriangle Joins Google Transit

I just got a very interesting press announcement. The partnership between these two will make navigating our Triangle-wide bus systems much easier!

Google and the GoTriangle family of services are pleased to announce that the Google Transit trip planner (www.google.com/transit) now includes all local transit schedules and routes for the Triangle region. The GoTriangle family of services include Capital Area Transit (CAT), Cary Transit (C-Tran), Chapel Hill Transit (CHT), Durham Area Transit Authority (DATA), North Carolina State University Wolfline, and Triangle Transit.   The addition of GoTriangle trip planning services to Google marks the beginning of the full regional technology program, GoLive, which will also include a regional real-time system and an open-source data warehouse.

In 2003, GoTriangle launched a Transit Trip Planner at gotriangle.org so that transit riders can find a best match for their next trip.  Triangle commuters can enter destination information in "from" and "to" fields from the GoTriangle.org home page. Using all of the local transit schedules, the trip planner calculates the length of time the trip will take and suggests the quickest, most efficient route. Customers can select not only transit but also a combination of biking and walking.

With Google Transit, Triangle visitors and regular transit users can now plan their trips using familiar technology while on the go with Google mobile apps, allowing for searches on smart phones such as the iPhone and Droid.  By utilizing Google search, riders have more options for starting and destination points, making for a smoother trip planning experience and easier integration into a transit-oriented lifestyle.

As part of the GoTriangle's commitment to openness and providing resources to Triangle commuters, all bus system data will be available as GTFS (General Transit Feed Specification) files. These files will be available late January 2011 on GoTriangle for developers to create useful mobile phone apps.



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