There’s an interesting announcement in the LA Now Blog at the Times about how MTA bus routes have now been integrated into Google maps. This is good, but not great. I played around with it a bit. Doing a route from home to work doesn’t produce optimum routes. The bus solution routes one via bus to the Red line, through downtown, then Blue and Green, for an almost 3 hour journey. Some do even stranger routes involving Metrolink. But none do the quickest route, which would involve the Commuter Express 574 along Balboa.
If this service is to be useful, it must integrate all the local transit operations: those operated by LA DOT (such as Commuter Express and Dash), those operated by LAWA (such as Flyaway), and those operated by other cities (Antelope Valley Transit). What they have now is good, but it could be much much better.
ETA: The LA Times updated their post with a link to LAist, which indicates when other services will be out there. I wonder if my comment to the Times, which was essentially what I said above, prompted the update….
