 Picture This!
What's
new this week in transportation
Go online to plan your next Metro bus trip
At a Pioneer Square
coffee shop, Metro Transit project manager Martha Woodworth uses a laptop to try King County Metro's new Web Trip Planner. Simply enter where you want to start and where you want to go, and the Trip
Planner will show you which bus routes to take.
Riding the bus just got easier, using King County Metro's latest piece of
customer service technology -- the Web Trip Planner. Online trip planning answers the question: "How do I get from here to there on Metro Transit?" It also works for several Sound Transit routes and Sounder
Commuter Rail.
This new Internet feature provides door-to-door trip planning using
addresses, intersections or landmark information for starting and ending
points of a trip. You can customize your trip plan by choosing
- either arrival time at your destination, or departure time at yor
starting point.
- the fastest trip, the trip with fewest transfers or the trip with least
walking.
- or a trip for disabled riders using lift-equipped buses at accessible
bus stops.
Using the Trip Planner, passengers can get detailed information on
- each transit leg of the trip.
- walking directions to, from and between all stops on a trip.
- easy bus identification, including route number and overhead signs, for
each leg of the trip.
- information about specific bus stops.
"This is a service our customers have requested, a technology to make
daily life easier," said King County Executive Ron Sims. "It's a great service for people who already ride the bus, but it's a
tremendous help for those who are unfamiliar with Metro's service, schedules
and routes."
King County Metro Rider Information specialists have used this technology
since 1999 to provide trip planning services for customers on the phone. Web
trip planning will supplement that service -- and should help cut down the wait
on the phone lines.
Also in the works is Regional Trip Planning. Sometime during 2002, combined
data from King County Metro; all of Sound Transit; and Pierce, Community and
Everett Transit will become available for regional trip planning. Future
additions could include service information for the Seattle Monorail,
Washington State Ferries and Sound Transit Link light rail.
King County's Trip Planner software was funded largely by a federal grant.
The Regional Trip Planning Project has received federal funding for more than
80 percent of the project costs.
Related links
King County Metro's Trip Planner
"Metro
offers online routing," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Dec. 5, 2001
"Plan
a bus trip," Seattle Times, Dec. 5, 2001
"New Web
site to help Metro commuters," South County Journal, Dec. 5, 2001
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