When I say travel, you say airplanes, right? But in reality, plane journeys are a short portion of any trip. It’s the getting in between places, from one bar to another and one restaurant, or attraction, to another which make up the nuts and bolts of a trip.
Google is making it easier than ever to navigate mass transit in 100+ countries, as it partners with more than 1,000 transit organizations. Here’s how it might help your next trip, and how to use the new tech.
Google Now Covers 10,000 Transit Agencies
If you’ve used Google Maps during times of transit in the last few years, you might’ve seen a few cool features. Among my favorites: the little buzz of the phone telling you when its your stop in a foreign city, signaling time to get off the train, or hop onto the next transit stop.
Over time, things like which platform a train will be arriving on, and even which end of the platform to stand on to avoid crowding , also became common place in around 200 cities. Google’s latest change makes 200 feel like chump change.
Here’s a live preview from Google of what to expect…
Google Maps new handy tips for avoid mass transit congestion now extend to over 10,000 transit agencies in over 100 countries. In a time when social distancing is more function than fashion, the timing couldn’t be better. The integrations even spell out which subway or train cars are the most crowded on your specific train.
The travel savvy helping commuters is gathered from people self reporting their status, and automatic pings from the millions of people anonymously dropping data points. It all flies under the ‘crowdedness’ area of Google Maps. Historical data is analyzed to predict future trends for each minute, hour and day of the week.
Google Travel Trending
Google Travel is kind of trending right now. New features for Google Flights and Google Hotels are becoming a force in the booking world, and this seamless entry into every day transit, or navigating a new city is massive.
After some jet lag, I’ve found myself listening to tunes and aimlessly looking out the window of a new city many times, only to have a little buzz on my phone from Google Maps tell me “next stop.” Phew.
Being able to not only get better directions, but now also better places to stand or times to avoid, to avoid crowds is a step further. With these Google Maps updates, navigating your next city is easier today than it was yesterday, so the question is all about where to go, tomorrow?
