Apple Expands Maps Transit Data to Additional Cities in Ohio

[MacRumors]

Apple is continuing to expand the availability of transit directions in the Maps app, today adding transit support in several cities in Ohio, including Cincinnati, Akron, Dayton, Canton, Athens, and some areas of Cleveland.

Transit directions in these cities come following the introduction of transit information in Columbus, Ohio, which was added in September.

Public transit options in Ohio encompass bus and light rail routes available in each city, including the Cleveland RTA, Cincinnati Bell Connector, Akron Metro, Dayton RTA, Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, the Stark Area Regional Transit Authority, and more.

Apple first added transit directions to Maps in 2015, as part of iOS 9. At launch, transit information was only available in a small handful of cities around the world, but Apple has been working hard to expand the feature to additional locations.

Transit data is now available in more than 30 cities, along with dozens of places in China.

Article Link: Apple Expands Maps Transit Data to Additional Cities in Ohio

 

[RickeshPatel]

Macrumors already knows it's "Ohio Against the World!" Go Tribe!

 

[dontwalkhand]

Still waiting on Phoenix.

I still believe that they should have kept google maps where all this stuff worked from the get go.

 

[b1wils1]

Why?

 

[Xavier]

Why?

Because people live in Ohio. As a Columbus resident and a frequent visitor to Cleveland and Cincinnati, I welcome this!

 

[Phoenixx]

Wow this is great news. At this rate we will have transit data in places like Wellington, New Zealand sometime around 2056.

Isn't it great that Google already has this, so at least we have something we can use in the meantime.

 

[2457282]

Is Apple building its own database which is causing such a painfully slow roll out? Or is it that they are slowly adding servers? Because if they are buying this data you would think they could buy it a whole lot faster.

 

[miknos]

Apple could do partnership with Moovit. Works great worldwide.

 

[Steve.P.JobsFan]

...and Toledo is left out.

Then again, everybody forgets about Toledo.

 

[sudo1996]

It took a while, but they finally added transit directions for Berkeley a few months ago, and I've been satisfied with it. I can finally dump Google Maps.
[doublepost=1477946722][/doublepost]

Still waiting on Phoenix.

I still believe that they should have kept google maps where all this stuff worked from the get go.

Maps on iOS never had any of these features, nor did it have turn-by-turn navigation, while it was powered by Google. And there was no Google Maps app. Google didn't end up making a fully functional Google Maps app for iOS until Apple dropped them and brought some competition. Now we have options.

IDK about Phoenix, but in the two places I use navigation, LA and the Bay Area, Apple Maps data is actually noticeably better. Actually, it was maybe the same in Cave Creek, AZ when I was visiting my family. I was surprised. But I don't doubt that Google has far better data for the rest of the world.
[doublepost=1477947000][/doublepost]

Is Apple building its own database which is causing such a painfully slow roll out? Or is it that they are slowly adding servers? Because if they are buying this data you would think they could buy it a whole lot faster.

Yeah, I don't get why it's so slow either. Don't they have $200G or something sitting in the bank?

 

[simonmet]

Apple has been working hard to expand the feature to additional locations.

Apple needs to work harder!

 

[PizzaBoxStyle]

...and Toledo is left out.

Then again, everybody forgets about Toledo.

I know. Such a sad story.

Nobody likes us. Nobody cares about us. But we still exist anyway.

 

[Nevaborn]

If Transit data is your biggest worry with Maps then your laughing. Where I am in the UK the maps are about 7 years out of date including major inner city developments which consisted of whole new road networks and traffic systems.

I ask Siri about things in my area and I may of asked one of my cats !

Apple has the best services going. Looks, ease of use and generally content but the rollout is abysmal so outside the states and even then just the few special locations nobody can ever take full advantage of it.

 

[Gasu E.]

Is Apple building its own database which is causing such a painfully slow roll out? Or is it that they are slowly adding servers? Because if they are buying this data you would think they could buy it a whole lot faster.

I can assure you Apple has no shortage of servers (I am closely connected to some of the people who have supplied a good deal of their server farm). Most likely their problem is normalizing and integrating the data. Integrating data from multiple sources that is SUPPOSED to be similar but differs in format, terminology and completeness is no picnic. It is a highly manual process that requires a lot of (human) analysis.

I work with a product that is similar, although on a much smaller scale. Apple's problem is exponentially (literally!) bigger. Especially if they tried to do it all in parallel on different data sets, since a lot of the effort is in trying to apply consistency between the different data. It's much more tractable if a cohesive team approaches the data sets serially.

And keep in mind, for any city, it's not a one-time extraction; transit maps change, so every data source must be revisited periodically. This means, after analyzing the format of each source, someone has to write a script for each source to extract the data, so that each city can be updated automatically.

And note, there are no standards for this, so each city is done individually. Except, apparently, in China.

 

[robjulo]

Wow! A whopping 30 cities.

 

[Smigit]

The rollout has been slow, but on the plus side it does seem to have sped up of late.

 

[Creek0512]

Wow! A whopping 30 cities.

You seem to not be counting any of the hundreds of cities Apple supports in China and Japan. Apple's transit directions must be pretty good when the only complaint I ever see about about them is that Apple is not adding more cities fast enough.

A big advantage over Google is that Apple includes every station entrance and exit when they add a transit system, including if the entrance is for only one or both directions, and if it has stairs, escalators or an elevator for accessibility. The also accurately map all the route lines, so it's easy to see where the routes go and what is near them. On the other hand, Google's transit directions will still send you to the Inbound subway entrances when you are travelling Outbound, because despite having transit directions for much long, Google still thinks every station has only one entrance, even if it is for only one direction of travel. And no help if you need to find the accessible entrance.

 

[robjulo]

I was quoting the article and since I don't travel to Japan and sure as heck wouldn't travel to China, I couldn't care less what has or has not been added to either of those countries.

You seem to not be counting any of the hundreds of cities Apple supports in China and Japan. Apple's transit directions must be pretty good when the only complaint I ever see about about them is that Apple is not adding more cities fast enough.

A big advantage over Google is that Apple includes every station entrance and exit when they add a transit system, including if the entrance is for only one or both directions, and if it has stairs, escalators or an elevator for accessibility. The also accurately map all the route lines, so it's easy to see where the routes go and what is near them. On the other hand, Google's transit directions will still send you to the Inbound subway entrances when you are travelling Outbound, because despite having transit directions for much long, Google still thinks every station has only one entrance, even if it is for only one direction of travel. And no help if you need to find the accessible entrance.