Boston's Buses Live on Google Maps

With TransitSpy you can follow Boston's MBTA buses live on Google Maps.

Using the sidebar you can select any combination of MBTA bus routes and view in real-time the position of the buses on those routes. As well as the live buses all the stops on a route are displayed on the map. If you click on a bus-stop's map marker you can see how long you will have to wait until the next bus arrives.

TransitSpy MBTA

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Tube Directions Now On Google Maps

Public transport directions for London has been added to Google Maps. If you want to get around in London you can now get transit directions that include the London Underground, DLR, buses and trams.

To get public transit directions in London on Google Maps you just need to select 'Get directions', type in your starting point and destination and click on the train icon that appears in the side panel.

The resulting direction will then tell you which underground station you need to go to and even which tube line you need to catch.

Official Google Blog

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Munich's S-Bahn Live on Google Maps

I'm a great fan of live real-time maps of city transit systems. There is something about watching trains moving in real-time on a map that really appeals to my inner geek.

This real-time Google Map of Munich's S-Bahn shows the transit system's trains live as they move around the city. Each train is represented on the map with a numbered map marker indicating which line it is travelling on.

You can click on any of the train markers and view its next stop and its destination station. It is also possible to click on any station on the network and view the times and destination of the next trains scheduled to arrive.

S-Bahn Munich: Real-Time Map

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Planes, Trams & Automobiles

NextBus's real-time transit map of San Francisco lets you view the live position of the city's historic cable cars.

You can select to view any of the cable car lines in San Francisco and view the cable cars moving on a Google Map in real-time. Each of the cable cars is represented by it's own map marker. Each marker displays the unique livery of the selected cable car.

From the map sidebar you can select which routes you wish to view. You can also click on individual stops on the map to view real-time arrival predictions for that stop.

NextBus




Mibazaar has created a Google Map that allows you to view Twitter messages posted from a number of U.S. and international airports.

Using the map you can view real-time messages from Twitter users as they land or arrive at the selected airports. The U.S. airports include Chicago, Atlanta, New York (JFK), San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston and Detroit. You can also view Tweets from London Heathrow, Amsterdam and Cairo.

Airport Tweets Mapped



In the UK the Royal Automobile Club is using Google Maps to show the range of offers and discounts available to its members. The offers include discounts on car products and services, on hotel stays and at restaurants.

To find discounts and deals near a location simply enter a postcode. You can also refine the deals and offers shown on the map using the map key.

RAC Members Offers

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London Bus Planners on Google Maps

There are around 7,000 red buses in London transporting passengers on over 700 different routes. BusIt London is a bus route planner that can help you navigate London's extensive bus network.

To plan a route just click on the Google Map to select your start and end points, or use the search box to find locations. BusIt London will then display your route on the map. If more than one route is available you can select from the alternatives given.

The sidebar explains where to catch your bus and which number bus you should get on. If you need to change buses on your route the stops where you need to change are also displayed in the sidebar.

BusIt London

Also See

• What Bus? - a Google Map of all London bus lines
• On a Bus - enter a London bus number and view the bus's route on Google Maps

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Google Maps Now Has Live Transit Times

Google Maps now has live real-time transit times for four U.S. cities and two European cities: Boston, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, Madrid and Turin.



If you click on a transit icon on Google Maps in these six cities you can now view live departure times and service alerts for the selected station or stop.

The live transit data for the six cities is available in the latest version of Google Maps for mobile, as well as Google Maps on all supported desktop and mobile browsers.

Via: Official Google Blog

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Greece Taxi Fares on Google Maps

Taxi Fare Calculator

This very clever Greek taxi fare calculator can work out the potential cost of any taxi fare in Greece.

Perhaps the most clever thing about this app is that it uses a traffic forecast model that updates the trip duration / taxi cost depending on the hour of day. The model predicts the amount of traffic on the roads at different times of the day and uses this to help work out potential taxi fares.

To work out a fare you can enter a starting point and a destination, or you can just right-click on the map twice to work out a fare. An interactive graph at the top of the map displays an estimation of the duration of the journey at different times of the day. You can also use the time-line slider to work out the potential journey cost at different times.

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The Real-Time Toronto Transit Map

TOTransit

TOTransit displays the real-time position of Toronto's streetcars on a Google Map.

You can select which routes you want to view on the map in real-time. The marker for each streetcar displays its current direction and if you mouse-over a marker you can view the streetcar's number.

The streetcars' positions are updated every ten seconds.

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Real-Time Train Tracking on Google Maps

NahverkehrsKarte

This Google Map shows the near real-time movements of trains and subway trains in Stuttgart and the position of buses in Reutling.

The map was inspired by the Swiss trains live tracking map swisstrains.ch. Like swisstrains.ch this Google Map shows the position of the public transit system based on timetables rather than track the vehicles in real-time.

It is possible to click on any of the moving map markers to view the vehicle's next stop. You can also click on any of the mapped stations or stops to view the times of the next arriving trains and buses.

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London's Red Buses on Google Maps

London BusMapper

London BusMapper can tell you which London bus you should take for your journey. London's huge public bus network is a great way of getting around the city. However, with so many routes, it can be difficult to work out which bus you should catch.

With London BusMapper all you need to do is click on your starting point and destination on a Google Map and the app will show you which buses you can take. All the different options are immediately displayed on the map and the locations of the bus-stops you need are clearly shown.

On a Bus

On a Bus is a Google Maps mashup of London bus routes. To use the site just enter a London bus number and On a Bus will show the bus's route using Google Maps (try '1' if you are not familiar with London Bus numbers).

The bus route is shown on the map with a polyline and all the bus-stops on the route are indicated with map markers. If you click on any of the map markers on the route nearby points of interest are displayed in the side-panel.

What Bus?

What Bus? is a Google Maps mashup of all the London bus lines. It is possible to search the map by postcode or by just panning the map. The bus routes are shown on the map by coloured polylines. Clicking on any of the bus routes will take you to an individual route just for that line.

What Bus? is also available as an iPhone app.

Bus-Tops

Bus-Tops is a fascinating public art project in London. Bus-Tops will be installing screens on the roofs of bus shelters across London, creating a medium for artists to show their work. Currently the Bus-Tops team is asking Londoners to choose which bus shelters they would like Bus-Tops' screens to be installed on.

If you want to suggest a bus stop shelter in London for a Bus-Tops screen you can do so by simply entering an address or postcode on the Bus-Tops Google Map. Once you enter a address you can view bus shelters near that location. Clicking on a bus top marker will bring up more information on the shelter.

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Christchurch Buses on Google Maps

MetroMate

Now you never need to miss a bus in Christchurch again. Merging the official Christchurch bus stops and routes with Google Maps this application provides an invaluable tool for commuters.

Using the application you can view all the bus routes and bus stops on a handy Google Map. Place name searching allows hard-to-find bus stops and other places of interest to be tracked down easily. The application even provides a Street View of each bus stop on the map.

To find a bus, stop, eta or timetable, either enter a street / shop in the search box in the top left white box or zoom in on the map. Click on the icons to display the next bus's arrival times plus timetables. Favourite bus stops can even be stored for quick easy access next time you visit the site.

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Real-Time Snow Ploughs on Google Maps

The City of Calgary - Road Conditions Map

The City of Calgary are using the Google Maps API with custom map tiles to provide citizens with the latest road conditions in the city.

The map shows the priority routes in the city for snow ploughing and even shows the real-time locations of the city's snow ploughs. It is also possible to view the city's traffic cams so you can check for yourself that the roads have been ploughed.

The controls at the top of the map allow the user to zoom in and out and pan the map.

Hat-tip: Mapperz

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Real-Time Streetcars on Google Maps

Where is my Streetcar?

This Google Map shows the real-time position of streetcars in Toronto.

Using the map you can find out how long you will have to wait for a streetcar at any of the city's stops. You can select your stop from a drop-down menu at the top of the map and you can choose to view either westbound or southbound streetcars or both.

The real-time position of the streetcars are then displayed on the map with arrows that display their direction of travel. The map uses City of Toronto Open Data, using feeds provided by NextBus and the TTC.

The whole project is open source, so if you think you can improve the map you can view and edit the source.

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Travel Times on Google Maps

Mapnificent

Mapnificent is a Google Maps mashup that shows how far you can travel on public transport for any given time period in a number of worldwide cities. The Berlin map has been around for a while but Mapnificent now works in London, a large number of US cities, in Auckland and in Perth.

To navigate to a city just click on its map marker. Next click on any location in your chosen city, set the length of time and the map will add a layer to the map showing the areas that you can travel to in that time from your location.

This map is an amazing resource for anyone who is looking to buy a property and wants to work out the areas within a set commuting time from their work place. As an added bonus you can use OSM map tiles instead of Google Maps or you can view a 'night' view created with the Google Maps API V3 Styled Maps function.

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Toronto's Transit Planners on Google Maps

TTC Trip Planner

If you live in Toronto you are lucky enough to have two public transit route planners, the TTC's own TTC Trip Planner and MyTTC. Both trip planners will help you plan the best route on Toronto's public transit system and display your route on Google Maps.


MyTTC

In a straight fight between the two trip planners MyTTC wins out on usability. MyTTC places the journey details of a planned trip beside the Google Map. The TTC Trip Planner however places the details above the map which means that you need to scroll your browser window to compare each stage of the journey to its location on the map.

Simply placing the trip details beside the Google Map means that MyTTC is far easier to follow. Each bus-stop or station listed in the trip details can be easily located on the map. Stops on the journey in the details can even be highlighted on the map simply by hovering over the station name.

MyTTC has also integrated Street View into its trip planner. This can be very useful just for getting a picture of the exact bus-stop you need to get off at. This is particularly handy if you have never visited an area before.

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Real-Time University Bus Maps

Transloc - Transit Visualization System

Transloc TVS have produced a large number of real-time Google Maps showing the locations of buses on a large number of US university transit systems.

Using a Transloc map students can view in real-time the position of buses on a campus map. The maps show the buses in real-time actually moving on the map. Each map also includes the bus routes and the position of stops on that route.

Using the map sidebar you can select to view any route or any combination of routes on the map. Transloc is also available as an iPhone application.

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Finding Speed Traps with Google Maps

PoliceTraps.com

This iPhone app uses Google Maps to show you the location of speed cameras and traps near your current location. The website also includes a Google Map so you can check for the locations of the latest speed traps before you leave home.

Traps mapped on the map have been submitted by other PoliceTraps.com users. Users can report traps or road incidents and earn karma for their submissions. It is possible to report a trap from your phone or from the website.

The map itself uses different map marker icons for the different types of submissions. The markers indicate if the report is of a speed camera or a speed trap.

Also See

Trapster

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Taxi Fare Calculations with Google Maps

Taxi Auto Fare

Taxi Auto Fare is a Google Maps based taxi fare calculator that works for a large number of cities in India.

To calculate a fare just enter a starting point and a destination and Taxi Auto Fare will plot the route on Google Maps and work out an estimated cost for the journey. One really nice feature of Taxi Auto Fare is the inclusion of draggable routes. If you are unhappy with the route plotted by Google Maps Driving Directions you can drag the route to alter it.

The Taxi Auto Fare team are also planning to soon extend the service to more cities in India.

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Leicester City Traffic on Google Maps

Leicester Live Traffic & Travel Map

Leicester City Council in the UK have produced a Google Map to provide live traffic information for the city of Leicester and surrounding towns.

Using the Incidents and Roadworks tab it it is possible to view all the local hold-ups affecting traffic. It is also possible to view all of the city's traffic cams directly from the map to view current road conditions. The map also contains information on all the city's car parks, including how many parking spaces are currently available.

Public transport users can use the map to find the nearest bus stops and to view live departure times of buses (where available).

All-in-all the map provides a very comprehensive service for Leicester drivers and bus users but the map does have one glaring omission. The Leicester Live Traffic and Travel Map doesn't include the Google Maps API Traffic Layer.

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Dublin Journey Planner on Google Maps

Hit the Road

Hit the Road is a route planner for Dublin that shows you how to get between any two points in the city by bus, Luas and DART routes.

It is possible to find a route by either dropping map markers on the map to show your start and finish points or by entering addresses in the search boxes. Possible routes are then displayed on the map and the steps on the journey are displayed in the map side panel.

Alternative routes are indicated by numbered icons in the side panel. If you roll over one of these icons the alternate route is automatically displayed on the map. All the suggested routes tell you which number buses to take and give the estimated journey time.

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