The next time you find yourself in New York City and the surrounding areas and you don’t want to drive or take a taxi, Google maps can help.
Google maps has introduced directions via mass transit. You simply put in your starting point (for example, Penn Station, NY) and your destination (for example, Grand Central Station, NY), choose how you want to travel (car, transit, walking), and Google Maps will give you the subway lines you can take with alternates.
If you choose advanced options and you chose walking or car, you’ll be asked whether you want to show the distance in miles or kilometers and, if by car, whether you want to avoid highways and/or tolls. If you choose mass transit, you’ll be asked when you want to arrive or depart.
As a test, I chose to travel from Penn Station to Grand Central Station. I used to live in the New York area (Long Island) and would travel to the city for work, so I pretty much knew how to get there.
What I found interesting was when I tried it earlier in the day, it gave me the correct options: take the Number 1, 2, or 3 subway to Times Square, transfer to the crosstown shuttle (S) and arrive at Grand Central. When I tried it in the late evening, it actually told me to take the E train to the Port Authority Bus terminal and then transfer to either the Number 7 train or the crosstown shuttle (S). It looks like it takes a look at whether you’ll be travelling during rush hour and tries to minimize the crowds.
Also available are mass transit maps for Chicago and San Francisco as well as other cities throughout the world, although those may not have train or subway information.
This is definitely a good addition if you want to avoid driving in strange cities.
