Trip Planner, A low-profile technology that changes all

Dear all,

This letter is dedicated to the Public Transit Planner group (foxring etc.)

Recently I've been using a LOT of public transportation website in US. I'm REALLY, REALLY, REALLY touched by some great website. Since I'm planning my visit in Houston, San Francisco, Seattle, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia, I get to familiarize with some of the city's trip planning website.

They all have the similar interface: users can choose their starting-ending location, or find transit stations near an location, or get bus/train schedules. And they all display several results, sorted in either ticket price/duration/arrival time/departure time/number of transit/walking distant.

Among them, my favorite one is San Francisco's 511.org trip planner. Their interface is a bit complicated, but the detailed navigation from point to point (adding info such as luggage restriction and relevant prev / next schedule), and a great button that let you send home your itinerary really make one's day. Nevertheless, it is sometime frustrating to find your location not stored on its database, thus cannot really get the exact itinerary (you have to choose a POI near your location)

Interface of 511.org, San Francisco public transportation trip planner

Houston's metro trip planner did a good job integrating its huge Metro bus system and its LightRail system (kind of like MRT in Taipei). I'm most familiar with this trip planner, but really annoy by the fact it don't let you select "the longest tolerable walking range to the nearest station". If you look into the map, you'll notice in some of the recommended trip, you'll have to wait for an hour for a bus that travel only 0.5 miles down the road. Not smart at all.

Seattle's website is rather simple compare to the two systems above. Not much to say about it. It's just there, and it works.

As a traveller without a car, public transportation is all I've got. And being a complete stranger in an unfamiliar city, it is easy to be intimidate by all different system of transport (for example, in San Francisco: CalTrain, Bus, Bart...) Having one single interface that can done all the tedious job, that's really something. If I don't have these website, I'll be either walking / bicycling along my way, or stay home be a Zhai-Zhai.

I notice Google seems to put interest into this market. Their Transit planner website already cover a wide range of area. Maybe YCTai or Hanwen still have interest in digging into the topic? :P

I'm just too excited to experience the impact of this technology. Wish you all the best :-)

-Daniel