I am curious what map display you expected on, or linked from, the timetable pages. An individual stick map for the route? Stop locations plotted in Google Maps? The entire line in Google Maps?

I think an ideal implementation would make every stop in the timetable a hyperlink that brings up a little popup map (Google Maps, Bing, or OpenStreetMap) that highlights the stop location and route alignment. The user could click a “full screen” link to go to a larger interactive map. They could also link to this from the timetable page.

The short answer as to why we didn’t do this is lack of budget. We’re working on a way to automatically generate timetables (a la http://redwoodtransit.org/schedules/weekday/north/), that is generalized, so we can apply it for most agencies. But again, we just didn’t have time and budget to implement for this particular project.

As to your question as to whether Google Maps transit directions will become oriented entirely around metropolitan areas instead of rural areas: I have not seen any indication of this occurring. Further, I would strongly doubt that Google would would abandon serving rural areas with transit data when the company has demonstrated their commitment to broad coverage with other features (for example, Street View), when Google have an active user base in the rural areas, and when Google has already invested a significant effort in welcoming many rural, micro-urban, and intercity transit services to participate in the Google Transit Partner Program.

This is a great website! Is Google Transit still focusing on rural areas and implementing it in rural areas? Some folks in Colorado seem to believe they are not going to be continuing this and will only focus on metropolitan fixed routes.

Secondly – I expected to see a map of each route when I clicked on the timetable to orient myself visually. Is there not one because the stops are difficult to map? You might have answered this in the post above but I didn’t catch it.

Noelle

My first and so far only prediction for 2012 is that we’ll FINALLY see a major grocery chain introduce some sort of find-your-food app.

Thanks for your great comments.

• I removed the extra “zone” headings on the fare schedule page. They were confusing and unnecessary.
• The AM/PM is left out in the print timetables, but since we don’t have the same space constraints online I thought that I’d leave it in. This makes the design less clean, but it eliminates any confusion or effort related to a timetable note (“PM times are bold…”, etc.)
• I’ll bring your question about what happens when start and end points aren’t in the same table with the agency (two routes are required). My assumption is that the fares are added together.
• I really like the idea of a fare calculator. We thought about doing this, but the budget just didn’t allow this. I wanted to make sure that whatever would be implemented would be inexpensive and easy to maintain.
• Good point about the lack of a link to the Weaverville Shuttle schedule on the main page. The service is likely to be eliminated soon, so it was left out in anticipation.

Many thanks for looking into it.

Jon