Google Maps Can Now Predict How Crowded Your Commuter Bus Or Train Will Be

Not that knowing will make it any easier since most people dont have a lot of flexibility either with the time they start work or the route they can take. JL

Sarah Perez reports in Tech Crunch:

Google Maps  announced a pair of updates for its mapping application — one that will offer live traffic delays for buses in the cities where it didn’t already provide real-time updates, and another that will tell you how crowded your bus, train, or subway car will be. Starting in October, the company began to ask Google Maps users to rate their journey if they had traveled during peak commuting hours of 6 am to 10 am. Google asked about how many seats were available or if it was standing room only. Over time, it was able to model this data into a new prediction capability designed to tell transit riders how packed their bus or train would be.

Google Maps just got a lot more useful for commuters. The company  announced a pair of updates for its mapping application — one that will offer live traffic delays for buses in the cities where it didn’t already provide real-time updates, and another that will tell you how crowded your bus, train, or subway car will be.

The latter is perhaps the more interesting of the two, as it represents a new prediction technique Google has been perfecting for over half a year. Starting in October, the company began to ask Google Maps users to rate their journey if they had traveled during peak commuting hours of 6 am to 10 am. Google asked about how many seats were available or if it was standing room only, in order to identify which lines had the highest number of crowdedness reports.
Over time, it was able to model this data into a new prediction capability designed to tell transit riders how packed their bus or train would be.
It also used this data to create rankings of the most crowded routes and stops around the world.
Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo dominated the rankings for the most-crowded transit lines, as each city had 3 lines in the top 10. Meanwhile, New York’s L train is the only one in the U.S. to rank in the top 10.
This isn’t the first time Google has used its massive Maps footprint to make predictions about crowds. The company had already introduced similar features for predicting the size of the crowd at restaurants and other retail locations.
In addition, Google today expanded its ability to alert bus riders to delays.