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City Partners With Google to Launch Transit Trip Planner
Fredericton (December 3, 2007) - Catching the bus in Fredericton has never been easier than with the introduction of Google Transit, a public transit trip planning web tool that is a feature of Google Maps.
By entering departure and arrival addresses, Google Transit will plan the optimal transit trip. Users will be able to view a Google Map showing the transit route, and receive information on alternate transit routes (if applicable), departure times, bus stop locations, transfer information, and more. Reverse directions are merely a click away.
Google's transit trip planning feature is an enhancement to the existing traditional means of providing information to the customers of Fredericton Transit. Fredericton becomes the first city in Atlantic Canada to offer the tool, and only the third in Canada. Vancouver and Montreal introduced the application earlier this year.
"This is smart technology for a smart city," said Coun. Marilyn Kerton, chair of the City's Transportation Committee. "It gives our citizens a great new way to plan their trips on Fredericton Transit and adds to the balanced lifestyle residents enjoy."
The transit trip planner technology builds on the widely used Google Maps application, offering similar functionality. Work on building Google Transit for Fredericton began this past summer. The City of Fredericton information technology and transit divisions partnered with Google, Inc., to add their data to Google Transit.
Municipal staff converted the City's transit schedule information and transit route mapping into a format compatible with the Google Transit application. This data was uploaded to Google Transit where employees were able to view the City's transit information to try out various trip scenarios.
The testing phase is over and Google Transit is now available for transit users in Fredericton. The application can be accessed by logging on to the transit pages of the City's website at www.fredericton.ca or at www.google.ca/transit. Fredericton Transit provides service on seven routes, six days a week. The transit fleet consists of 28 urban transit buses, which carry more than one million passengers a year.
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Media Contacts: Wayne Knorr, Communications Coordinator, City of Fredericton, 506-460-2181, wayne.knorr@fredericton.ca . Elaine Filadelfo, Google Global Communications & Public Affairs, press@google.ca
