Getting Toronto on Google Transit
EDITED TO ADD! Joy! At Web 2.0 summit today (November 26, 2008 circa 1pm) in Toronto City Hall, Mayor David Miller committed to putting Toronto on Google Transit by mid-2009!
As of today (November 12, 2008), the Hamilton, ON Hamilton Street Railway has become the fifth Canadian city to feature route planning on Google Transit, joining Ottawa, Montreal, Vancouver and Fredericton in beating out Toronto's glacial progress in this area by a wide margin.
According to our TTC Commissioner's Office, Toronto is "in discussion" with Google and "working towards" a solution, and we can expect to get this service sometime next year. But these discussions have been underway for five years now, so I'm not holding my breath for 2009. AAARRRRRGGGHHH!!
Direct quote from the TLCHamilton blog article on this: "Hamilton is the fifth city in Canada to receive this treatment. Ottawa, Montreal, Vancouver and Fredericton were first. How did Hamilton get the service before Toronto? Google spokesperson Tamara Micner says the city of Hamilton was "very co-operative" in the partnership."
See the fruits of my prior expressions of frustration on this subject, below. WTF, TTC?
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Sent: Monday, October 06, 2008 5:11:03 PM
To: TTC Chair; minister@mto.gov.on.ca
Cc: mayor_miller@toronto.ca; mintc@tc.gc.ca; msnider@globeandmail.com;
torontonewsdesk@metronews.ca
Subject: Please get Toronto listed on Google Transit!
Dear Mr. Giambrone and Minister Bradley,
I am writing to you as a citizen of Toronto, a citizen of Ontario, and as someone who uses Toronto Transit and GOTransit every day, to ask you to take action and get our city - and eventually our province - listed with Google Transit.
This resource would be a revolution for Torontonians in finding the best TTC routes to get where they want to go, and would make our city instantly more navigable for tourists and visitors of all kinds. Not everyone knows where to find the TTC website, or how to use it, especially if English is not their first language - the whole world knows Google.
For GOTransit riders in the province, an alternative to the existing, extremely hard-to-read GO train and bus schedules would be a welcome change.
I read the Staff Response to the Commission Inquiry about Google Transit Trip Planner put forward in December 2005, and can see that the obstacles to participation were "costs incurred by the TTC to prepare the back end of the data conversion / ongoing link to ensure that the latest information is being made available" and that the TTC was waiting "until Google is in a position to provide the system requirements to the TTC" and that at that time Google Transit was "still a work in progress".
These objections have since been answered - Google has made it infinitely easier for cities to participate with their Transit FeedSpecification toolkit . Just follow the instructions, fill in the blanks, and voila! You have a Google Transit feed.
Private citizen efforts to map our transit onto Google, such as those by Ian Stevens and Greg Smith, started in 2006, which makes me wonder why an "official" version of a Google Transit map wasn't immediately forthcoming.
I am not alone in feeling this way: the online conversational thread on the Google Transit group page expresses some fairly negative and despondent views about the responsiveness of Toronto Transit to the desire of its citizens for this online resource to become reality.
In Canada, Vancouver, Fredericton, Ottawa and Montreal have all joined in to link their city's transit options to a Google Transit feed. Why is our city not participating in this amazing project? Has any progress at all been made on this file since 2006?
- Vancouver, BC TransLink
- Fredericton, NB Fredericton Transit
- Ottawa, ON OC Transpo
- Montréal, QC AMT, STM, RTL, STL, les CITs
Thank you.
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Responses to date:
1. From Councillor Giambrone
Date: Thu, Oct 16, 2008
TTC staff have been in discussion with representatives from Google and are working towards incorporating the TTC into Google Transit. Simultaneously, TTC staff are in the process of preparing our own trip planner which will be incorporated into our new website. This feature will not only provide route directions, it will also include the estimated length of time for travel along the route specified and updated information if there are route diversions or delays.
2. From Ministry of Transportation, Transit Policy Branch
Date: Mon, Oct 27, 2008
(No mention of Google Transit here whatsoever)
Thank you for your e-mail of October 6, 2008, addressed to the Honourable Jim Bradley, Minister of Transportation, and Adam Giambrone, Chair of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), regarding Google Maps’ public transit trip planner. I am pleased to respond on behalf of the Minister.
I have read your comments with interest, and believe you may want to hear about an initiative being spearheaded by Metrolinx - the regional transit agency created by the ministry to develop a transportation plan for Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA), and eventually be responsible for GO Transit.
Metrolinx is planning to collaborate with GO Transit, TTC and other transit and transportation providers across the GTHA to implement a web-based integrated transit trip planner. The trip planner will allow transit riders to key in an origin and destination point, and access departure and arrival times, connection opportunities, fares and route maps.
I have taken the liberty of sending a copy of your e-mail to relevant staff at Metrolinx, so they will be aware of your concerns.
3. From Councillor Giambrone's Office (Special Assistant)
Date: Tue, Oct 28, 2008
I agree with you that trip planning is an important function for many TTC patrons.
I am pleased to let you know that the TTC is currently developing a trip planning feature that will be available on the TTC's website mid-year next year. This trip planner will be able to provide riders with available routes as well as the amount of travel time expected on a given route. Additionally, the trip planner will provide information to riders if there is a significant delay or route diversion that will impact their trip.
At the same time as TTC staff are working on the trip planner, we are also working with Google to incorporate the TTC onto their Google Transit site and expect that you will be able to use Google Transit for trip planning on TTC routes next year as well.
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