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Metro Transit enhances interactive Trip Planner

New feature allows customers to create maps

By harnessing the power of the Internet, Metro Transit is making it easier for customers to prepare for their next trip by bus or train.

Thanks to upgrades to the agency’s popular Trip Planner on metrotransit.org, customers now can view a walking map and an interactive route map, similar to features common on popular Internet mapping sites.

“Customers told us that they liked using the Trip Planner, but they wanted the ability to create and print maps of their trip plans,” said John Howley, Transit Information Department manager.

The online Trip Planner is the fastest growing source of route information for regional transit customers, with more than 4 million trips planned in 2007. That was 21 percent higher than the record set in 2006.

Find nearby park-and-ride facilities

Among the other upgrades, elements on the first page of the Trip Planner have been repackaged, making it easier for customers to pick among the options presented. The results page that follows after a trip has been planned is more customer-friendly as well.

Customers also can use a new feature to find the five park-and-ride facilities nearest their location and, from the same page, plan a trip based on that information. An option planned to be added later will let customers save their trip plans in their “Favorites” folder on their browser.

In 1999, the agency started using an automated trip planner in its Transit Information Center, where customers can call for route information. A year later, Metro Transit unveiled a web-based tool for customers so they could plan trips on their own at any time of the day.