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On the buses

November 28, 2006 Posted by Clare in : Digital Challenge, Bristol, Transport , trackback

I have been contacted by Dan C, via Underscore, with a practical idea to help Bristol become more digital. He saw a post on the Google blogs regarding Google Transit, where bus timetables have been added to Google Maps, so when you’re planning a route it will give you the public transport, walking and driving options for getting from A to B and will mark the routes on a map.
A few cities in the US are currently served (including California and Hawaii) and Dan was suggesting Bristol could be the first city in the UK to join in. I think this is a great idea - I know we are already talking to First Bus and Bristol City Council already has a journey planner on Travel Bristol, so this may be something we could pursue.

Any thoughts?

http://www.google.com/transit

Connecting Bristol is the city’s response to the Digital Challenge.

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Comments»

1. Benjamin - November 28, 2006

http://www.acislive.com/pages/nsbusnet.asp?sysid=3&mapid=24&mapLevel=1

Shows nice little red buses moving around the centre. Only 8, 9, 75, 76, 77, 902 & 904.

Other info at http://www.csm.uwe.ac.uk/~cjwallac/apps/bus/Background%20to%20the%20Bus%20Departure%20Board.htm

2. Philip - December 1, 2006

http://www.transportdirect.info/ does a rather better job than the traveline.org.uk site that "Travel Bristol" links to, including route schematics and maps (albeit without the route plotted, as in Google Transit).

Of course the big problem is that most Bristol buses don't run to the timetables at the times of day when most people want to use them, so the information isn't particularly useful (and as Chris Wallace's page points out, keeping track of all the buses would probably be prohibitively expensive).

3. Martin - March 9, 2007

Forgetting about the timetables for a moment - has anyone made a app using google maps that simply displays the bus routes?