UW CSE Ph.D. alum Brian Ferris is the patron saint of transit riders. Not only did he create the wildly popular app OneBusAway while a Ph.D. student here, but now he has gone one better: he and his team at Google have added enhanced real-time transit data to Google Maps for a handful of cities, including Seattle. The new feature will enable transit riders to make judgments about which mode or route to use based on actual traffic conditions and transit performance, using data from King County Metro and Sound Transit.
Brian is quoted by GeekWire on the new functionality:
“With traffic congestion in Seattle getting worse every year, real-time information is essential for making our transit system usable … I might not be able to build a new light-rail line through Seattle or add new bus service myself, but I can help build tools to make everyone’s commute a little more pleasant.”
Read more on GeekWire here and on VentureBeat here.
Thanks, Brian, for helping to keep Seattle commuters – including many of us here at UW CSE – rolling!