Maryland Transit Administration + Google. What a Match!

I've just learned from the Baltimore Business Journal that our very own MTA has signed on to have Google Maps provide an extraordinary service: Online routes, alternates and times for local public transportation. This is big stuff. It's a really big deal.

While the program is still in a sort of testing Beta-stage, it already works and works very well.

Just go to the MTA website and enter your address and the address that you are headed for. And it will calculate the route, show you bus numbers, and show you a map...

But wait, there's more! You can plug in the actual time you want to leave your location or the actual time you want to arrive at your destination... and the program will give you options.

There are other interesting variables, some available now and others to be added.

I have to admit that I'm not a big user of public transportation in Baltimore. With this new information, that may just change. This is good for all. Please check this out and let the MTA know if this works for you.

Comments

[Kristin Sausville]

I've been reading your site for awhile (we're actually neighbors, it seems) and I really enjoy it.

I wanted to add that the public transit search is also an option on Google Maps -- if you go to Google Maps and search for directions in the Baltimore area, it will give you an option both for driving directions and for public transit directions.

[Stephen B.]

Hey there, Kristin!

Thanks for your post. And you are right, of course.

Being the rah-rah guy for all of downtown Baltimore, I try to give first credits to Baltimore agencies for adopting technology. It's cool to have the Google transit input boxes on the MTA's homepage.

Please let us know more about you. We have some of the best neighbors, and dear friends, in 21201.

SB

[Kristin Sausville]

Oh, I definitely agree with you -- the MTA website used to have a feature about five years ago where you could provide start and endpoints and it would let you know which buses to take. They took away that feature not long afterwards, so it's nice to have it back. I had just been excited because I had gone to Google Maps for some directions and they had given both driving directions and a public transit option.

My husband Justin and I have lived in the Park Charles for about 2 1/2 years now. Justin is a urology resident at the University of Maryland hospital, and I stay home with our nine-month-old.