Huntsville, Alabama — Relentlessly aiming to expand its services to more and more city and countries, Google has added Huntsville Transit System to its transportation mapping service called Google Transit – a move that should make it easier for local riders to find and map bus routes.
Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle was advertising a new gadget dubbed as “Google Transit,” for bus riders to use, hoping it will attract more people to adopt public transportation in the city.
Huntsville city leaders consulted Google about joining the project two years ago. Now, if you want to catch a bus in the city, you can find out where to do that easily using a mobile device or computer.
Battle rolled a new feature on Google Maps that went live this morning — equipping people in the Rocket City an option to find the best available bus route to their destination using their computer, smart phone, or tablet. The feature has existed in other cities for years, but launched Huntsville’s routes for the first time Tuesday.
Huntsville is the first city to implement the system in Alabama.
Mayor Battle–Cutting Ribbon for the newest transit shelter, this one is in rear of Parkway Place Mall. (Image Credit: The Huntsville Times/Dave Dieter)
Transportation Director Tommy Brown is optimistic that the new aspects will attract new users to the system. “We hope young professionals, students, and other web-savvy folks will check out our bus feature and give us a try,” said Brown.
Google Transit will also present the users with alternate walking routes, bike paths, locations of bus shelters and even locations of restaurants, coffee shops and retail stores. City officials anticipate this will encourage new ridership and the use of bicycles to access the main Transit Center on Church St.
Mayor Battle asserts that the service will prove to be invaluable additions for bus riders, and hopefully will motivate more people to take a look at public transportation. “The bus system is sustainable, it burns less energy. It is cheaper, it is a dollar for a ride, fifty cents for a student, and to do this today opens up our bus system to a whole new market where we make it easier to get around.”
“This is a high-tech town and it deserves high-tech solutions to the everyday needs of its community,” said Mayor Battle. “We are the first city in Alabama to team up with Google Transit, and I am proud that we can offer this service, free of charge, to our residents.”
City officials opines that they average 1500 riders a day on a fixed route and are expecting to increase that number to 2000 by associating with Google using technology.
Regular bus riders speaking with WHNT News 19 Tuesday morning said the city’s bus system was well functional and that they were eager to try Google Transit.
Riders will be able to plug in a destination on their computer or smartphone and get up-to-date route and fare information. (Image Credit: The Huntsville Times/Dave Dieter)
“Everybody nowadays seems to have Google Maps on their iphones, on their smart phones, or on their ipads. And so it just makes it a lot easier for everybody to get the information they need to be able to ride the bus,” said Mayor Battle.
Brown commented he anticipates that the addition of bus shelters recently will be another allurement for potential riders.
“One of my campaign promise was to provide bus shelters at the most prominent stops in the city, and I am proud to say that we have now 74 shelters that are keeping residents out of intemperate weather during their daily commutes,” added Mayor Battle.
Here is how to use the new service: Visit maps.google.com or download the free Google Maps app to your phone or device. Use your device’s location tool to pinpoint your current location (or enter another your starting point in the map interface), then enter your destination, and click “by public transit.”
Google will then give you detailed directions on how to best use public transit to get to your destination. The return search will display routes, times of departure and arrival, how much the ride will cost and stop-by-stop directions using a Transit Navigation feature for Android users.
Bus fares are $1.50 for seniors and students.