NYCT Trip Planner goes visual with Virtual Earth maps

For all the grief I give the MTA and New York City Transit for their in-system technology problems, the agency has made a real effort to improve their digital presence since the August flood knocked out its Website. Yesterday, New York City Transit unveiled a series of improvements to its Trip Planner designed to further aid travelers get from point to point.

The improvements center around mapping technology which now puts the Trip Planner in direct competition with the onNYTurf Subway map and the Gypsy Maps trip planner. The new version of the Trip Planner uses NAVTEQ map data and Microsoft’s Virtual Earth technology to bring riders something of a visual version of their planned trip.

“By utilizing NAVTEQ map data and imagery from Microsoft, we are in a position to provide Trip Planner users with a more realistic street grid view and help them better visualize the walking instructions that accompany their travel itinerary,” Paul Fleuranges, NYC Transit Vice President of Corporate Communications, said.

The maps are integrated into the interface following the landing page. A user submits beginning and end points into the Trip Planner, and the Custom Planner page returns a travel itinerary with links to the maps. The map view features the option to view 3D representations of the city or the more traditional overhead view. At certain zoom levels, the subway lines are visible.

With these improvements, the NYCT Trip Planner leapfrogs over the other two competitors with a few caveats. Relying on scheduling data, the Trip Planner appears to be aiming for a greater degree of accuracy. We all know however that MTA schedules, particularly within the borough of Manhattan, are often not accurate.

Furthermore, the interface allows users to view the maps only on one end of the planned trip. A user cannot view walking directions from the starting point to the station and from the destination station to the end point at the same time. Rather, one must view one set of walking directions, navigate back to the itinerary and click the map link for the second set of directions.

Considering the utility of the Trip Planner, however, this is a small complaint. No other map out there yet integrates service advisories and scheduling as well as this one.

With the Trip Planner now offering mapping information and a mobile version, over 6100 riders a month are relying on the MTA’s site for directions. That represents real progress for a much-maligned aspect of the MTA’s technology.