Google Transit

I’ve only just noticed this week that Adelaide now has Google Transit. When you look at Adelaide on google maps you can select “transit” on the “more” menu. All public transit routes are then shown, for example see here for an example. Note that bus stops are shown, if you click on a bus stop it will open a window showing all the buses that stop there, as well as when the next ones are due. You can click a link to more timetable information. Also, you can search for directions by public transport. Here’s an example to get from the airport to norwood
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I’ve tried out a few things, and as is usual with these sorts of automated route planners it doesn’t always choose the best one, especially when bus trips are combined for walking. For example, while it did a good job of identifying options for bus trips from near my house, it did a terrible job of telling me how to get to one of the nearest bus stops since the best way involves crossing a park (the directions given turned a 5-10 walk to a 30min one!), but overall I think it’s an impressive tool. In particular it is nice being able to combine with street view if you need to get off the bus at an unfamiliar stop and want to know what it looks like.

So far it is only available in Adelaide & Perth in Australia, though it is available in many more cities overseas. Presumably more Australian cities will be added in the future.