Ian Stevens, the person behind the crazedmonkey.com blog, has been tinkering with ways to integrate the TTC system map with GoogleMaps ever since the API was released last year. The latest version, which somehow overlays the .pdf official map with the GoogleMap of the city, is just the slickest thing ever, and much more useful than the map on the TTC's site.
I'd need to understand the mechanics of .pdf files much better than I do to see how it was actually done - Stevens seems to have been able to peel off the black background on the official map and replace it with a translucent one, while also linking it to the 905-land system maps.
For each station, he includes a link to the wonderfully obsessive ttcrider.ca station diagrams, which show which car you should get on for maximum efficiency for every single station in the system, in both directions. (Eastbound to Chester: third from the back will unload you right beside the stairs.)
The next step is a GoogleMap-based trip planner. Google seems to want to get into the interactive transit map business, although it’s only done small systems so far. The largest place covered is Pittsburgh.
The TTC has been flirting with GoogleTransit, but an article in the Star today makes it clear that it’s just beginning a very cumbersome, indefinite bureaucratic process which may or may not involve Google at some future point. It was under discussion in March, and now it’s … under discussion.
My bet is that some bright kid in a basement will come up with a working model first. As with its marketing fiasco (link, link, link), it's not clear when the TTC will catch up with its fans.
I'm trying to get from my home (Columbia City) to my work (Bellevue/Factoria). Normally I would just walk two blocks down to Rainier and catch the 7 running north which would take me to I-90 where I'd catch another bus across the bridge to Factoria and walk a couple of blocks to work.Instead, Google has me walking about 10 blocks roughly NW, then catching a bus at Rainier and Genessee that takes me SSE to Rainier and Holly ("as the crow flies" rather than by following any pesky street grid) before taking an abrupt 170 degree turn to the NNW and flying (apparently) directly to Belltown. At this point I'm to transfer to a boring old terrestrial bus which takes me the rest of the way to my destination.
While this sounds like an interesting trip, it takes about three times as long as my, admittedly not as exciting, normal commute.
Beta indeed.