Lynchburg area's mass transit maps now a click away

By: Alicia Petska | The News & Advance
Published: March 05, 2009

Wondering where the nearest bus stop is or which line offers the best route to your destination? Well, now you can just Google it.

The public bus system serving Lynchburg and Madison Heights is now listed on Google Transit, a free site that offers riders detailed instructions on how to get from Point A to Point B.

“I think it’s a pretty handy tool,” said Mike Carroll, general manager of the Greater Lynchburg Transit Company.

“You just have to enter where you are and where you want to go. You put in those two bits of information, hit enter and, boom, you have your own customized schedule,” he said.

Google Transit, a feature of Google Maps, asks users to enter a starting and ending point then maps out the best bus route for the trip. The information supplied includes arrival and departure times, as well as directions for walking to the bus stop. Users can also refine their searches by specifying the desired date and time of their trip.

Google Transit is free to both users and participating transit systems. GLTC joined the site early this year, making it part of a small club. There are currently fewer than 100 U.S. transit systems with information uploaded to the site.

In Virginia, the Department of Rail and Public Transportation is encouraging local transit systems to join, praising the Google service as a way of boosting ridership by making systems easier to navigate.

“It’s a really great tool that I think makes transit more accessible to people,” said Corey Hill, VDRPT’s chief of public transportation. “It puts information in people’s hands in an easy way.”

Virginia currently leads the states when it comes to Google Transit participation. The commonwealth has 22 systems on the site. California comes in second with 17.

Carroll noted Google Maps can be installed on Web-enabled cell phones, offering riders a portable resource for questions about GLTC schedules and stops.

“It’s like having an electronic schedule in your pocket,” he said.

GLTC operates more than 1,000 bus stops. It began the process of relaying information to Google Transit last summer and made its debut on the site in January.

Carroll said officials are hopeful the more accessible information will help increase bus ridership. “It certainly can’t hurt,” he said.

On the Web: www.google.com/transit