Can trip-planner default to using your location?

[Tabeth Nkangoh]

Hi all! 

I was wondering if it could be an option (maybe another URL) to have https://www.mbta.com/trip-planner use your current location? 

Currently I bookmark it and saving a few clicks would be nice :). 

[Tabeth Nkangoh]

Ideally it would work so that you could set it to use your location by default (in the URL) for either the From or To address. 

[Developer at MBTA]

Hi Tabeth, thanks for getting in touch. Sorry for the delayed response — this fall we changed our internal process for responding to inquiries like this (including onboarding a new team member), and we're now getting up to speed.

This is an interesting question! Just wanted to let you know that your inquiry has been shared with the team, and I'll follow up as soon as I know more. 

All the best,

Developer@MBTA 

[Developer at MBTA]

Hi again, I have an update! 

Firstly, we do have opt-in geolocation by the browser, but it wouldn't persist to the URL. This might be your best bet if you're on the go.

Otherwise, you can use the /from parameter in the URL to automatically populate the "from" field with a specific location (and then you could save that URL as a bookmark). For instance, if you often plan trips from Commonwealth Books, you could use the URL < https://www.mbta.com/trip-planner/from/commonwealthbooks >. You can also use a latitude and longitude value (easily found by dropping a pin on Google Maps) like so <https://www.mbta.com/trip-planner/from/42.357382,%20-71.057339>. The same principle apples for the /to parameter.

I hope that's helpful! Thanks again for writing in. We're currently working on improvements to the Trip Planner, and we expect to continue working on an improved trip planning experience over the coming months. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions in the future.

All the best,

Developer@MBTA