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Apple Maps Expands Transit Data to San Diego and British Columbia

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Apple recently updated its Maps app to include transit information in San Diego, California and British Columbia, Canada allowing iOS users in those locations to incorporate public transportation options when seeking directions through the Apple Maps app.

In San Diego, Apple Maps will now offer up routes that include transportation by the city's Trolley, which connects the east and south counties with the Downtown area. The Trolley is San Diego's light rail system and sole public transportation option besides buses.

applemapstransit.jpg

In Vancouver, Victoria, and other cities in British Columbia, Canada, Apple Maps directions now incorporate the SkyTrain and other rail lines. Transit directions should be a welcome addition in Vancouver, which is Canada's third-largest metropolitan area.

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

Transit data is now available in more than 20 cities around the world, along with dozens of cities in China.

Article Link: Apple Maps Expands Transit Data to San Diego and British Columbia
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2016/07/25/apple-maps-transit-san-diego-british-columbia/
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BobRon said:
Probably the fact that Apple didn't take the time to let a computer do the work, and they have a team of, like, 15 interns manually charting everything.
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The thing is, most major cities in the developed world have digital schedules that are updated constantly. Either Apple is tapping into those, or they're not. If they ARE making use of digital schedules, then most major cities would've been available almost instantly. If they are NOT making use of digital schedules, then their info will be next to useless, since schedules and routes are constantly changing.
 
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As someone who lives in the suburbs of San Diego, this is nice, but public transportation is pretty poor and not widely utilized here.
 
unobtainium said:
The thing is, most major cities in the developed world have digital schedules that are updated constantly. Either Apple is tapping into those, or they're not. If they ARE making use of digital schedules, then most major cities would've been available almost instantly. If they are NOT making use of digital schedules, then their info will be next to useless, since schedules and routes are constantly changing.
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Apple definitely is tapping into digital schedules. Google definitely has way more issues even tapping into the same information. As an example, here in Denver, Google gives no obvious information about the reroutes for the Civic Center Station closure, which is very odd considering Apple and Google are pulling from the same sources (The A Line to Denver International Airport is misspelled as "nver Airport" in both, so I'm guessing their both pulling the same misformatted information.) Additionally, look at the difference in how Union Station in Denver is formatted between Google Maps and Apple Maps. Apple Maps actually shows you which lines are leaving from the commuter part of the station and which are at the light rail, additionally, it shows you which gate you'll need to go to in the underground bus terminal. Someone is doing a good job of rectifying the data and making it a lot more usable.
 
What about Phoenix? It worked just fine when Google transit was out on iPhones. Apple Maps just killed it all and now they have lesser cities than they had before. Hardly an upgrade this Apple Maps crap was.
 
Transit directions are great in tandem with the AppleWatch. I know where to get off by waiting for the tap on my wrist.

I wish iOS would allow you to change "Time To Leave" in your Calendar appointments to transit travel time, instead of car travel time which is the only option and not very useful for city dwellers.
 
kbotc said:
Apple definitely is tapping into digital schedules. Google definitely has way more issues even tapping into the same information. As an example, here in Denver, Google gives no obvious information about the reroutes for the Civic Center Station closure, which is very odd considering Apple and Google are pulling from the same sources (The A Line to Denver International Airport is misspelled as "nver Airport" in both, so I'm guessing their both pulling the same misformatted information.) Additionally, look at the difference in how Union Station in Denver is formatted between Google Maps and Apple Maps. Apple Maps actually shows you which lines are leaving from the commuter part of the station and which are at the light rail, additionally, it shows you which gate you'll need to go to in the underground bus terminal. Someone is doing a good job of rectifying the data and making it a lot more usable.
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Just looking at the list of supported transit systems, it is likely that Apple's feature is curated and validated by humans; while Google is using some kind of AI to both identify the systems and figure out how to pull the data.
 
unobtainium said:
"Transit data is now available in more than 20 cities around the world"

Honestly that sounds so sad. What is the holdup? Seriously?
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Once again the bashing is so ill informed. Each of the "cities" covered are actually large metropolitan areas with over two hundred million people and over a thousand cities. Apple could turn on entire countries right away like Google did, but as they have explained, they are customizing each area for a better user experience, something Google declined to do.
 
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SBlue1 said:
20 worldwide???? Is this a joke?? Should be more like 20 thousand by now... Man, how big is the maps team? One poor guy?
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Transit is why I pretty much had to use Google maps. I use transit as my primary mode of transportation, so if there are no transit options then it's useless to me.
 
I just went to the Google site. They have something called "Google transit"-- which allows anyone to add a transit system themselves. Great for generating a long list of supported systems; not so much for currency and accuracy. and lots of the cities listed have a note "no routing."

So it's not even automated-- it's partner contributed, beyond the major cities.
 
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truthertech said:
Facts- While over two hundred million people are now in areas covered by Apple Transit, along with a thousand cities, here's why Apple declined to simply throw the switch and turn them all one at once, ala Google.
-http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/07/07/why-apples-transit-maps-are-rolling-out-so-slowly
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Thank you for this link. That is laid out very well and explains a great deal.
 
I must be missing something in Apple Maps, because I can't even get a pin to drop on the Westin Bayshore, in Vancouver.
 
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truthertech said:
Once again the bashing is so ill informed. Each of the "cities" covered are actually large metropolitan areas with over two hundred million people and over a thousand cities. Apple could turn on entire countries right away like Google did, but as they have explained, they are customizing each area for a better user experience, something Google declined to do.
Click to expand...

Apple should have worried about maximum coverage first, THEN gone back over the data to verify and touch it up. The way they're doing it makes no sense. Apple Maps rolled out four years ago ...
 
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