New Maps Shows Google’s Heading In Right Direction
Google continues to enhance the capabilities of Google Maps for helping us to get around.
A new version with two major enhancements was announced on Monday and is now being rolled out to users.
The first is designed to help with ‘the commute’ and similar regular journeys.
Maps has for some time given the option to declare the address of a place of work.
The upgrade will add the facility to declare regular times of arrival and departure for those with such a routine.
For those who do so, there will be ‘one touch’ functionality to advise what time to leave and which route to take to get there on time.
Similarly, it will suggest a route home and arrival time at the end of a shift.
For us in Solihull, where peak-hour traffic has considerable volatility and seems to depend heavily on motorway traffic conditions and school terms, many of us are already reliant on Maps for advice on quickest routes for local journeys. So, any help with speeding up access to congestion avoidance information will be welcome. There is also additional support in the pipeline for users of public transport.
Through its Transport option, Maps already shows arrival times of buses and trains at stops around Solihull, using information from Network Rail and Transport for West Midlands (TfWM).
The latest version has the capability of displaying the current locations of buses and trains on maps, where that information is available.
Initially, this is being extended to just 80 cities worldwide and it is not clear whether the TfWM network is included as yet. However, it will be, even if in a later phase.
