Google Transit Versus TransLink Trip Planner

A few days ago, Amy wrote about Peter
Smith's petition to persuade Google to suggest routes for cyclists on
the Google Transit web site. A lot of people that I've talked to weren't
aware that Vancouver has been added to the growing list of cities
where Google Transit (www.google.ca/transit) can provide trip
planning information.

First introduced in 2005, Google
Transit is a Web service that displays route and schedule options to
people who provide their trip's start and end points. For cities
where there is no existing online route finding service, Google
Transit is a big improvement over cross-referencing maps with bus
schedules. However, some cities already have their own online
route-finding service, and I was curious to know how Google would
compare. I tested Google Transit against the Trip Planner service of
TransLink, the organization responsible for public transit in
Vancouver and surrounding cities (tripplanning.translink.bc.ca).

Entering addresses is a multi-step
process on Trip Planner. Users are instructed to enter only the house
number and main part of the street name without directions (east,
west), road type (avenue, street), or the city. The site then
provides a set of possible matching addresses to choose from.

Google Transit allows users to enter
full addresses, or even just a postal code. Like Trip Planner, it
will provide a list of possibilities if you enter a partial address.
Google Transit also gives directions on how to walk to the closest
transit stop from your address, though it warns that the walking
information isn't always correct and users might be directed to walk
across water and eight-lane highways.

One advantage that Translink's Trip
Planner has over Google Transit is that Trip Planner allows you to
request trips where the buses are equipped with bike racks or are
wheelchair accessible. The Google Transit site does not do this, so
cyclists could be directed to take a bus or a train at times when
bikes are not permitted. In some cases, Trip Planner did direct
riders with bikes onto trains when they would really not be
permitted. When I pointed out this problem to TransLink, they said
that this was an error that would be corrected.

For now, Google Transit comes out ahead
when finding a route between street addresses. But TransLink's Trip
Planner is better when you need to know that you can bring your bike
or wheelchair with you.