DCist: WMATA On Google Transit: "Not In Our Best Interest"

monkeyrotica

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 11:08:45 -0500

I woulda said "a load of fetid dingo's kidneys" but, yeah, "piece of failure" works, too.

Fluxgirl

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 10:49:57 -0500

Well, of course this happened. Google is a successful company, and WMATA is just another piece of failure.

Mainland

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 07:29:17 -0500

@ out_on_an_island It's probably best to say Metrorail tries to keep to a schedule. Metro does post rail schedules, but just not for rush hours. I know Chicago and NYC will at least tell you the interval of trains during peak hours, rather than using tons of space to show every schedule. Instead, Metro just tells us: "Due to the high frequency of service, timetables for peak hours (weekdays 5-9:30 a.m. and 3-7 p.m.) are not available." During rush hour on the red line it just becomes the race to turn around the trains the quickest, then worry about keeping them 2-4 min apart with the Grosvenor/Silver Spring trains once they're running again. As for keeping to the posted off-peak schedule, of the few late nights I actually remembered to check the schedule before leaving, the train was almost on time (+1-2 min).

littlewings

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 01:54:48 -0500

Thanks, fromcali. What's even more amazing about sites like that is that the network in Tokyo consists of public and private train and subway lines. Not only is all the information integrated online, but it's pretty easy to transfer between them as well. Oh, and the trains/subways actually run on time... most the time. If only metro were even half as punctual.

Bethesdaist

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 20:30:43 -0500

More and more with each and every day, Metro makes me want to stab myself in the head for not having a car.

monkeyrotica

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 12:22:44 -0500

why isn't this information being integrated onto google transit's site? Because they're f***ing idiots. Go to their precious website and try and find something REALLY complicated like which bus leaves ANY Metro station. What do you see? A link to a useless Acrobat file. You have a system that's capable of delivering real-time data and all they're using it for is to push stale, dead Acrobat files that were generated from a Word document. All I want to know is which bus leaves which station, and they can't even deliver that. Why? Because none of these overpaid c***suckers even USES THE FREAKING METRO, let alone will they defile their precious buttocks by taking a bus. Now, I'm not saying these bootlicking toadies should be rounded up and sent to re-education camps where their bones can be ground up into fertilizer, but.... Sorry, I don't know how to end that sentence.

IMGoph

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 11:01:54 -0500

the thing is, you can see maps of a lot of bus routes right now on the nextbus website showing live, updated locations of each of the buses on the route, and what time they should make it to each stop. i'm looking at the map for the G2 bus right now, and it's showing (at 11:00 a.m.) a bus at the howard terminus, an eastbound bus a P and 22nd, and a westbound bus at P and 16th. why isn't this information being integrated onto google transit's site?

HCE

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 10:53:04 -0500

WMATA doing something that is ignorant, arrogant, and shortsighted? No way, it can't be!

out_on_an_island

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 09:37:07 -0500

As someone who rides the Red Line every weekday, I can tell you that it was indeed messed up this past week. Trains were super-crowded. Service on the Red Line is never great, but this week seemed to be pushing the limits of the system. Regarding schedules: do Metro trains operate on a schedule? I would have a hard time believing that they do. I ride from Shady Grove into the city, and trains never depart that station on any kind of set interval. Basically as soon as a train arrives, it fills with people and departs. Occasionally they will bring up a new train from the yard, but that's rather rare.

fromcali

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 07:08:42 -0500

Regarding Japan, check out one of the most amazing private websites over here: jorudan.co.jp/english/ Punch in something like "Meidaimae to Kawagoe" to see the level of complexity and information it offers: no bus, but all subways, private rails, bullet trains, even airplanes. When I come back to the US and use the public trans, I want to weep. Oh, and it's available on your cellphone, too. With last train route-mapping and prices home from the bar. AMERICA?!!!!!!!

monkeyrotica

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 20:39:30 -0500

Translation: we have yet to find a way to turn this into a 37 gigabyte Acrobat file. WMATA needs to step back and literally F**K ITS OWN FACE. We do not negotiate with terrorists.

littlewings

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 19:40:30 -0500

It's sort of ironic that Japan's public transportation information is one of the few international locations available on Google transit -- considering that Yahoo! is beating out Google by leaps and bounds over in the land of the rising sun (and a lot of cell phone users look up transport schedules using special service provider-specific applications anyway).

perkinsms

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 19:35:13 -0500

Garlic: Google asks that transit agencies package their data in an XML format called "Google Transit Feed Specification". There are translation software packages that will work to translate from WMATA's Trapeze database into GTFS. Google won't post on Google Transit unless an agreement is signed between the agency and Google. I think it was at that stage that WMATA started to balk.

Urban Garlic

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 19:02:41 -0500

Surely WMATA schedules are public, aren't they? Why does WMATA have to cooperate with Google, can't Google just grab the public data off the site and do whatever they want with it?

glasswindow

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 18:42:58 -0500

Allow me to point to exhibit A: wmata.com It's newly redesigned. It sucks.

RJ

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 16:41:55 -0500

I always WMATA mobile quite useful and accurate for buses and trains.

jacobko

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 16:21:43 -0500

Just because the Valley Transit isn't as awesome as WMATA doesn't mean that you have to pick on it... The Valley Transit is Walla Walla's (barely extant) public transit system. In case you wanted to know, Walla Walla is in south-eastern Washington state.* * Full disclosure: I'm from WW.