Laketran joins hundreds of cities in the U.S. who are providing transit routes data to Google Maps. For those who are not regular bus riders, and may need to find a way to work or to school, they can now go to the popular site and view their transit, walk or bike trip on a map from a computer or smartphone.
“People who are familiar with Google Maps, but not necessarily transit, will love this new tool,” said Ray Jurkowski, Laketran general manager. “Riders don’t have to sort through timetables to plan a trip, just enter your trip origin, destination and travel time and Google Transit does the rest. Everyone is used to Google Maps and it works on the same platform.”
“Easily accessible information on transit options improves the overall quality of Laketran’s service to all Lake County residents and encourages casual users, visitors and social service agencies as well as regular transit riders to make greater use of our transit services,” shares Brian Falkowski, board president of Laketran.
With expectations of visitors to the area for the RNC, the Google Maps features helps passengers that may be unfamiliar with their destination or the area with “zoom-in” satellite view, a 3-D Earth view, and a street view of bus stops and the surrounding area. Other features include an easy-to-read itinerary that includes inter-agency and RTA transfers, trip time, distance, and fare information.
Laketran routes appear on Google Maps in same color scheme as they are printed in paper schedules and the Laketran website to easily identify each bus route.
“We believe that not only our customers will be very comfortable with this new technology, but new riders as well,” said general manager Ray Jurkowski, “Google Transit directions are displayed in step-by-step directions that help take the confusion out of planning a bus trip. Google Transit displays transfers, RTA connections into Cuyahoga County and the bus fare.”
Later this year, Laketran will be offering additional trip planning tools on laketran.com that will integrate the Google Maps technology and feature individual bus stop locations, bus locators and real-time arrival information.
