Google Maps Gains Expanded Transit Crowdedness Predictions

[DaveFromCampbelltown]

This is what a Sydney Trains platform indicator looks like FYI
View attachment 1809384

To explain for non-Sydney-siders --

The symbol below T1 Central is the next train. It has 8 carriages, labelled 1~8. 1 is at the front, and the sloped front represents the sloped front of the train.
Red means full, orange means nearly full and green means lots of room.

Why are two carriages full, and the others not? Because those carriages will be closest to the escalators then the train pulls in to the most-needed station.
Is this stupid? Yes. People would rather stand for 30 minutes in a crowded carriage rather than walk an extra 10 metres to the moving stairs.

 

[gene731]

It's possible similar techniques to estimating traffic congestion in maps is being used here. I have no data to back this up but I'm just speculating.




So interesting to hear experiences from others with maps. Biking (or even driving) in Seattle works really well with maps for me. I don't even have google maps on my phone at this point.

Remembering when Google Maps first came out they had their growing pains. Apple Maps had theirs as well when they first started up. I admit I really avoided Apple Maps at first. Now it is my go to navigation app. I will use Google maps from time to time just to see if any new features. Where I live, in western Washington, Apple Maps works really well, for me at least.

 

[russ008]

I can already provide this info to anyone who cares for London: Trains are Full to the Brim. Always. TfL reduces the number of trains when its less busy so that even then, the trains are full.
Buses on the other hand (those terrible double sized red monsters that, together with Ubers, cause 50% of the intolerable traffic here) are always empty.

HA! well certainly not lately but normally YES!

This would be a cool feature and I'm sure they'll bring this to London wsoon. Many above-ground trains already provide carriage capacity data (i.e. no of seats/standing only) so it'd just be connecting that from TfL to google...