Published Monday, July 30, 2001, in the San Francisco Chronicle

Web site connects transit passengers with destination
Fast planning for Bay Area trips

Michael Cabanatuan, Chronicle Staff Writer

Traveling around the region on the Bay Area's tangle of public
transit systems can mean lugging a bundle of schedules and maps or
sitting on the phone waiting for an information operator to plot your
course.

Now, though, transit riders have an easier option. They can quickly
calculate their routes themselves using the "Take Transit" trip
planner, an Internet Web site started by the Metropolitan
Transportation Commission earlier this month after more than a year
of work.

The trip planner -- available at http://www.transitinfo.org -- is
still a work in progress. While it will eventually allow commuters to
plan their journeys on all 28 of the region's transit systems, it now
covers just San Francisco's Municipal Railway, BART, AC Transit,
Contra Costa's County Connection, Emeryville's Emery-Go-Round, Union
City Transit and the four ferry systems that sail the bay.

To plot a course on the trip planner, you type in a starting point
and destination and information on how far you're willing to walk.
Then, click on a little green button. In seconds, up pop step-by-step
directions, including which corner to wait on, how much to pay and
where to transfer to which bus, train or ferry.

"It's a lot easier to start using transit with this than to use a
(transit route) map," said David Crawford, a Fremont software
engineer and transit rider who helped road test the system. "You
don't have to check through multiple tables to figure out routes and
schedules."

Simplifying the often perplexing task of taking transit in the Bay
Area was the reason behind the trip planner, said Sharon Brown, a San
Pablo city councilwoman and chairwoman of the Metropolitan
Transportation Commission.

"The easier we make it for people, the more people will get onto
transit," she said. "The fewer phone calls they have to make, the
more people will use transit. With this, they can get on a computer
and get the information right away. I think it's going to be a great
tool."

In entering the starting point and destination, commuters can use
addresses, intersections or well-known landmarks such as Fisherman's
Wharf, the University of California at Berkeley or Pacific Bell Park.

Then they designate the day they plan to make the trip, the time they
want to leave or arrive, their itinerary preference (fastest trip,
cheapest trip, fewest transfers, minimal walking), type of fare and
maximum walking distance, up to a mile.

Finally, they click "Plan your trip!" and the site spits out an
itinerary that specifies where to walk to begin the trip, the name of
the transit agency and bus, train or ferry to take and the time it is
scheduled to arrive.

Since one of the frustrations of taking transit is buses that don't
arrive on time, it also lists the time for the next departure and
provides access to a several-hour schedule.

The trip planner isn't perfect. Its maps are simplistic and don't
specify the walking route. Walking time estimates aren't always
accurate. And the system doesn't recognize many landmarks -- or at
least by the names they're commonly called.

Type in Ferry Building or City Hall in San Francisco, for example,
and the system won't recognize them. But it will acknowledge San
Francisco City Hall or San Francisco Ferry Building. Likewise, the
trip planner is unfamiliar with Network Associates Coliseum, the
official name of the Oakland A's and Oakland Raiders' home, but it
does recognize Coliseum.

Some users say the system sometimes recommends roundabout routes and
doesn't provide enough alternatives.

Richard Mlynarik, a San Francisco resident and veteran transit user,
said the trip planner didn't seem to be able to tell users on streets
that are served by several buses, such as Market Street, to take
whatever line arrived next.

Mlynarik would prefer a system that gives riders a selection of
transit options.

"As any regular transit rider knows," he said, "you have to have
alternate plans."

Emilio Escudero, project manager for the trip planner, acknowledges
that it is evolving. The Web site lists a number of shortcomings
being worked on, and invites users to report bugs and offer
suggestions.

"Over the next two years," Escudero said, "we will be upgrading
significantly."

The biggest improvement will be the addition of transit systems now
missing in action. Escudero is working with Golden Gate Transit,
Samtrans, Caltrain and the Livermore-Amador Valley Transit Authority
to add those systems soon. Within 18 months, he said, every transit
agency in the nine-county Bay Area should be covered.

Even with the shortcomings, those who have used the trip planner say
it makes it easier for people trying transit for the first time or
venturing into unfamiliar territory.

"For someone from San Mateo County," Mlynarik said, "AC Transit is
like a foreign world."

And while the Bay Area still has dozens of transit systems with their
own schedules, maps, logos and colors, the trip planner makes it easy
to sort through the confusion.

"It lets us pretend we have an integrated transit system," Mlynarik
said. "And the more we can do that, the better."

E-mail Michael Cabanatuan at mcabanatuan@....