Google Transit on Peru
Victor
Victor Pereyra
Chris Luth
Forward-thinking transit companies may jump at the chance; less-advanced companies might take a bit of prodding from many people. So the moral is: everyone write or call your transit provider (and/or those in cities you visit frequently and use transit in) and ask them to contact Google! (Transit providers can contact the Google Transit team at labs-trans...@google.com.)
Chris
Chris Luth
Transit Commission and Simi Valley Transit (the Southern California
transit agencies I use most often) and urged them to partner with
Google Transit.
I'll let you all know if I receive responses from them (positive or
negative).
Here are the talking points I used (feel free to plagiarize from me):
-Google Transit costs you nothing (except a little bit of time from
your IT department configuring your route/schedule database to export
to a Google Transit-readable format)
-Google Transit will drive more people to you, increasing your
ridership, as they discover how easy a trip using public transit can
be
-Even if you already have a route finder/trip planner, you will get
more potential riders by using Google Transit because it's popular,
ubiquitous and easy to use
-Google Transit helps people find out how to transfer between
different modes of transportation from different transit providers
(especially useful in the Los Angeles and Bay Areas, where three or
more major transit providers (Metrolink, MTA, OCTA, Burbank Bus, etc.
and BART, CalTrain, and MUNI, etc.) service a conglomerated area)
-You can contact Google Transit at labs-trans...@google.com
-You can visit Google Transit at http://www.google.com/transit
-You can read about Google Transit at
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/happy-trails-with-google-transit.html
-You can have your IT people see how to format your data for Google
Transit at http://code.google.com/transit/spec/transit_feed_specification.htm
-If you have connections with people at other transit agencies, please
let them know about Google Transit!
(The idea is to hook and intrigue them and then give them all the
information they need to get them started without having to research
it all from scratch.)
Most transit agencies have a "Contact Us" page. For those of you who
want to join me in urging Southern California providers to join Google
Transit, you can contact Metrolink at passenge...@scrra.net
(this is the email address I received a reply from when I contacted
Metrolink via their web form, and so I'm not 100% sure it accepts
emails directly) and MTA at customer...@metro.net. I don't know
what other transit agencies exist in the L.A. area (Burbank Bus and
OCTA, but those are already Google Transit partners--I'm not sure how
many cities have their own transit systems versus just relying on
LACMTA and OCTA).
If you have any connections to Ventura County and want to work on
them, Ventura County officials can be reached from this page:
http://www.goventura.org/home/index.asp?page=36 -- I picked the ones
that seemed the most like they'd be in the position to work on this
project (the technology people and the transportation planning
people).
My next project is the Bay Area (as I use transit in that area when I
visit), but I'm going to wait and see what the response is from the
people I've already contacted.
I hope this helps people get in contact with their transportation
officials and get more agencies listed on Google Transit!
On Apr 5, 2:42 pm, "Chris Luth" <chris.l...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The best way to do it is to do what I did: contact your transit provider and
> ask them to partner with Google. (As far as I know, Google doesn't charge
> transit providers for partnering--the revenue probably comes from
> advertising, like almost all of Google's other products--they just need
> access to the transit provider's route and schedule data.)
>
> Forward-thinking transit companies may jump at the chance; less-advanced
> companies might take a bit of prodding from many people. So the moral is:
> everyone write or call your transit provider (and/or those in cities you
> visit frequently and use transit in) and ask them to contact Google!
> (Transit providers can contact the Google Transit team at
> labs-transit_cont...@google.com.)
>
> Chris
Chris Luth
Apparently there are a lot more bus services in the L.A. area than I
was aware of. I obtained the following list from the Metrolink Ride
Guide (check out Metrolink's new site--it's actually useful!). This
list is straight out of the How to Ride Guide (pp. 19-20). It doesn't
list Web sites, but it should be fairly trivial to find them:
L.A. County EZ Transit Pass Operators
- Antelope Valley Transit Authority (AVTA) (661) 945-9445
- Burbank Local Transit (818) 246-4BLT(4258)
- City of Commerce (323) 887-4419
- Culver City Municipal Bus Lines (310) 253-6510
- Foothill Transit (800) RIDE-INFO(743-3463)
- Gardena Municipal Bus Lines (310) 324-1475
- Glendale Beeline (818) 548-3961
- LADOT/DASH (310) 808-2273
- Long Beach Transit (562) 591-2301
- Montebello Bus Lines (323) 887-4545
- Monterey Park Spirit Bus (626) 307-7842
- Norwalk Transit (562) 929-5550
- Pasadena ARTS (626) 791-7200
- Santa Clarita Transit (661) 294-1BUS(1287)
- Santa Fe Springs Metro Express (562) 409-4572
- South Pasadena Gold Link (626) 403-7214
- Torrance MAX (310)781-6930
- Torrance Transit (310)618-6266
- MetroBus & Metro Rail
(Blue, Red, Green, & Gold Lines, www.metro.net
Metro Rapid & Metro Local) (213) 626-4455
In Orange County:
- City of Anaheim Downtown Rail Shuttle (714) 765-5277
-OCTA, all local routes (714) 636-7433
In Riverside County:
- Riverside Transit Agency (RTA), to/from Metrolink stations (800)
800-7821
- City of Corona, Corona Cruiser & Dial-A-Ride (909)
734-7220
In San Diego County
- NCTD Breeze at Oceanside (760) 966-6500
In Ventura County
- City of Simi Valley local routes (805) 583-6456
In San Bernardino County
- Omnitrans (800) 9OMNIBUS(966-6428)
- Mountain Area Transit (MARTA) from Big Bear to San Bernardino and
Rancho Cucamonga stations (909) 878-5200
In Los Angeles County
- City of Baldwin Park Pumpkin & Teal Shuttles (626) 337-1555
- City of West Covina at Baldwin Park & Covina (800) 425-5777
- City of El Monte Flair Park & Civic Center Shuttles (626) 580-2242
- City of Glendora at Covina (626) 914-8233
- City of Azusa at Covina (626) 812-5206
- Burbank Airport Parking Lot C/Rail Station Shuttle (818) 840-8837
or (818) 840-8840
OTHER RAIL & TRANSIT SERVICES
The following is a list of services available at some Metrolink
stations.
Additional ticket purchase from these transit providers may be
necessary
for travel. Call the numbers listed for more information.
- Amtrak (800) USA-RAIL(872-7245)
- Brea Dial-A-Ride (800) 581-7433
- Children's Court Shuttle (626) 458-3956
- Camarillo Dial-A-Ride (805) 988-4228
- Coaster commuter rail (to San Diego) (800) 262-7837
- Flexcar Car-sharing (213) 482-FLEX(3539) or www.flexcar.com
- Mission City Transit at Sylmar/San Fernando (800) 266-6883
- Moorpark City Bus (805) 529-6864
- Santa Monica Transit (The Big Blue Bus) (310) 451-5444
- South Coast Area Transit (SCAT) at Oxnard (805) 487-4222 or (805)
643-3158
- VISTA (Ventura) (800) 438-1112
- Walnut (City of) Dial-A-Ride (909) 594-1284
- Greyhound (800) 231-2222
Hope this provides a starting resource for getting in touch with these
agencies. Maybe a big letter-writing campaign is in order? :-D
Chris
On Apr 5, 7:24 pm, "Chris Luth" <chris.l...@gmail.com> wrote:
> OK, I just sent emails to Metrolink, Los Angeles MTA, Ventura County
> Transit Commission and Simi Valley Transit (the Southern California
> transit agencies I use most often) and urged them to partner with
> Google Transit.
>
> I'll let you all know if I receive responses from them (positive or
> negative).
>
> Here are the talking points I used (feel free to plagiarize from me):
>
> -Google Transit costs you nothing (except a little bit of time from
> your IT department configuring your route/schedule database to export
> to a Google Transit-readable format)
> -Google Transit will drive more people to you, increasing your
> ridership, as they discover how easy a trip using public transit can
> be
> -Even if you already have a route finder/trip planner, you will get
> more potential riders by using Google Transit because it's popular,
> ubiquitous and easy to use
> -Google Transit helps people find out how to transfer between
> different modes of transportation from different transit providers
> (especially useful in the Los Angeles and Bay Areas, where three or
> more major transit providers (Metrolink, MTA, OCTA, Burbank Bus, etc.
> and BART, CalTrain, and MUNI, etc.) service a conglomerated area)
> -You can contact Google Transit at labs-transit_cont...@google.com
> -You can visit Google Transit athttp://www.google.com/transit
> -You can read about Google Transit athttp://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/happy-trails-with-google-trans...
> -You can have your IT people see how to format your data for Google
> Transit athttp://code.google.com/transit/spec/transit_feed_specification.htm
> -If you have connections with people at other transit agencies, please
> let them know about Google Transit!
>
> (The idea is to hook and intrigue them and then give them all the
> information they need to get them started without having to research
> it all from scratch.)
>
> Most transit agencies have a "Contact Us" page. For those of you who
> want to join me in urging Southern California providers to join Google
> Transit, you can contact Metrolink at passengerservi...@scrra.net
> (this is the email address I received a reply from when I contacted
> Metrolink via their web form, and so I'm not 100% sure it accepts
> emails directly) and MTA at customerrelati...@metro.net. I don't know
Chris Luth
Transportation Commission. It's good news! Let's hope MTA and
Metrolink are as responsive...
Here's his response:
Chris,
Thank you for your suggestion, we think its a good one but one that
will have to wait a little bit. We talked to Google about three months
ago and received instructions on how to input our information and the
data format it needs to be in. Unfortunately, its going to take us
some time to convert all of our data into the right format and once
its submitted to Google there is no set schedule on when they will
publish it.
But the good news is we're working on it!
Thanks so much for your interest and support.
Steve DeGeorge
VCTC Director of Technology
I also received a reply from the MTA saying that my message has been
forwarded to the webmaster. I've heard from others that they haven't
been very responsive. Perhaps we need to mount a letter-writing
campaign to them--I'll let you know what the response I get from them
is.
Chris
> > them, Ventura County officials can be reached from this page:http://www.goventura.org/home/index.asp?page=36-- I picked the ones
Chris Luth
So far, I think I've gotten responses from all of the agencies I've
contacted.
I didn't receive a response directly from the Anchorage (Alaska)
PeopleMover, but I did see that someone from PeopleMover posted to
this discussion group (alas, nobody posted a response; hopefully they
did find out what they needed).
I believe I forwarded (Los Angeles County) MTA's response to the group
here, but here's what they said again: "As a follow-up to our earlier
response, you may be pleased to know that our Webmaster has advised
that our staff has met with Google about their product and will be
working to provide Google with the tools to add Metro to the list."
Metrolink responded with a human-written email that they had forwarded
the info to the proper personnel.
Amtrak (nationwide) said they'd forwarded the info to their
webmasters, who are always looking at improvements to the site (just a
generic form letter, but at least they responded), and I just got a
very encouraging note from someone in Caltrans Division of Rail (which
operates Amtrak California and the CalTrain):
"Thanks for the lead. This is something I've been interested in for a
long time. Right now, I do this, but without a lot of the detail
necessary to create comfort in the user. I've written the lab to ask
about the program. Right now, the only California Transit providers
listed are Burbank and Orange County, so it's not too useful on a trip
from Fresno to the Marina District in San Francisco or to Griffith
Park in Los Angeles.
We'll see where this leads. It's a great concept, especially tied to
Amtrak service."
He's caught the vision of how useful this would be--I love his example
of easily finding out how to get from [say, a branch office in] Fresno
to [the company headquarters in] the Marina District in the City.
That's what Google Transit is all about.
Now, let's hope the Google guys can find time to really work with this
and make California (their home state!) a shining example of how
Google Transit can help transit companies serve their customers and
increase ridership!
Chris
> > > them, Ventura County officials can be reached from this page:http://www.goventura.org/home/index.asp?page=36--I picked the ones
Chris Luth
(California) County Transit. It's a good eye into what many smaller
agencies are facing:
===
Chris,
Thanks for your input, its always welcome. Just to let you know, I
had talked with Google directly and have reviewed the format that they
require. Conversion of our data to Google's format is simply an issue
of time but that issue also applies to updates and changes and we're
just not staffed at this time to keep up with the changes. A lot of
smaller agencies are finding this same issue to be true. Thousand
Oaks transit hired a consulting firm to convert their data for Google
and will now have to retain the firm for upcoming changes.
On that note, Simi Valley Transit would not be included in our Google
package but there has been a good deal of talk about how we can do
this for the entire region and keep the data up to date. I think
you'll see a major push to move everybody to Google by the fall.
===
His last words are encouraging, though!
> > > > them, Ventura County officials can be reached from this page:http://www.goventura.org/home/index.asp?page=36--Ipicked the ones
> > > > that seemed the most like they'd be in the position to work on this
> > > > project (the technology people and the transportation planning
> > > > people).
>
> > > > My next project is the
>
> ...
>
> read more ยป
DHofmann
for Google and will now have to retain the firm for upcoming changes."
They should ditch that firm and find one that will automate the data
conversion so Thousand Oaks can do it themselves whenever the data
changes.