Los Angeles — MapQuest, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL Inc., in an attempt to make it easier for people to walk to their destinations, on Thursday announced the availability of both walking directions and transit directions on its service that generates routes for pedestrians.
Interestingly, it has taken so long for MapQuest to unleash such features, though to be fair, previously, MapQuest walking directions was only available on its MQ4Mobile and Mobile Web apps for a while. But now they are available on MapQuest.com, too.
The rail service is available in D.C., Chicago, New York, Boston, Philadelphia and San Francisco.
Previously, directions and maps presented by Denver-based MapQuest defaulted to auto routes, meaning that the directions did not always give the best routes for those on foot. Walkers are routed down one-way streets, along pedestrian malls, through parks and designated paths.
The transit directions are available for the NYC, Chicago, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Boston, and Philadelphia metro areas. These are integrated with the walking directions.
“Walking directions will guide you down the most efficient paths and through parks, often avoiding vehicle traffic,” says MapQuest’s Scott Steinke. “To use the feature, just click Get Directions, select the ‘walking man’ icon above the Start field, and enter your locations. It is as simple as that!”
For instance, a car-oriented set of directions might not indicate a one-way street heading in the opposite direction that would be the fastest route for a pedestrian, or it might show a freeway route off limits to foot traffic.
Furthermore, MapQuest Thursday unfurled a rail-transit mode showing public-transportation rail routes in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and Boston, reaching roughly 90 percent of the nation’s rail ridership.
“To utilize the transit feature, just click on the train icon (right next to the walking icon), enter your locations, and select the time and date of your trip,” says Steinke. “Your route map will show walking and transit segments in different colors, with icons indicating the mode of travel, station locations, and transfers. Timing information will be included in your step-by-step directions in the left column.”
“The new MapQuest routing features for walking directions and transit can work separately or together to meet customers’ preferences,” Ann Koerner, MapQuest’s director of consumer products, said in a statement. “MapQuest has always listened to our customer needs. The pedestrian mode and rail transit option are a direct response to one of the top requested features from our customers, and help us continue to be the trusted source for all types of maps and directions.”
With more U.S. individuals have now settled in urban settings rather than suburban or rural, there is an even greater need to provide appropriate information and routing to MapQuest’s growing city contingency. MapQuest said its goal is to meet the needs of the more than 1.1 million folks in the D.C. metro area who use public transportation for part or all of their commuting needs each day.
“MapQuest is in the business of getting people where they need to go,” said Christian Dwyer, senior vice president and general manager, MapQuest. “We are excited to launch both the nationwide pedestrian mode and the new transit routing option on MapQuest.com to reach urban commuters who rely on alternative modes of transportation.”
On average, some 14.7 million people use metro public rail options in the six launch cities:
- New York
- Washington D.C.
- Chicago
- Boston
- San Francisco Bay
- Philadelphia
On par, MapQuest receives more than 1 million inquiries for directions each day. The new pedestrian routing and rail transit attribute add layers of environmentally conscious features to MapQuest’s ever-ballooning suite of world-class routing solutions.
MapQuest collaborated with San Francisco-based, geospatial data and mapping company, Urban Mapping, to generate its transit option, and has plans for additional city content in 2011.