Google Transit and Google Maps integration: Cheaper, Faster and Greener

Lisbon – Helsinki trip plan with Google Maps ( for a while , car-free travel planning isn't available in Europe)

Google recently announced that Google Transit has graduated from Google Labs being fully integrated with Google Maps . This means that Google Transit allows travelers to choose public transportation instead of driving and to receive customized directions (in areas where Google has transit coverage). Thus, you have freedom of choice to check which is the cheapest, probably fastest and most environmentally friendliest trip.

Read moreYou can select the time of departure or arrival and Google Transit will plot the best course (you can choose from a few alternate routes). Considered parameters are: walking directions to and from public transportation stations, cost of the trip (compared to the cost via car) and estimated total time of travel.

For a while, the project is only available in selected cities, not in Europe. Next, we will make a plan for a trip across the Europe, Lisbon - Helsinki. The aim is to see which of the schedules of the transit agencies might be integrated to increase the Google database.

Lisbon – Helsinki trip plan

Start: Rotunda da Expo 98; Lisbon, Portugal
End: Mannerheimintie ; Helsinki, Finland
Travel: 4,069 km – about 1 day 20 hours (by car)

Note: the following information is merely experimental , it doesn't release the consultation of the transportation services. In reality, traffic, construction works or other events may affect the results.

1. Selection of flights from the available options (booking)

Estimated time of travel – 6h25min + 1h30 (check-in, luggage, etc)

Itinerary
From---------To--------- Departure-------------Arrival
Lisbon------ Munich ----- 29Oct, 06h30---------29Oct, 10h35
Munich ---- Helsinki------ 29 Oct, 11h20 ------29 Oct, 14h55

2.Trip between Rotunda da Expo98 and Portela Airport (2 points placed in Lisbon city) 3.9 km
Estimated time of travel (public transport) – 88 min
Estimated time of travel (by car) – about 8 min
It's better to call a taxi...

Transporlis is a multimodal information system of the metropolitan area of Lisbon.

It is a system that integrates the main transport operators of the metropolitan area of Lisbon, and that allows to optimize the use of their transports in function of the schedules of each company. It also integrates the flight schedules of the airport of Lisbon.

Path Finder
Video

3.Trip between Vantaa Airport and Mannerheimintie(Helsinki) 19.8 km
Estimated time of travel (public transport) – 43 min
Estimated time of travel (by car) – about 22 min

YTV door-to-door Journey Planner gives You advice on the best public transport connection to your destination within the Helsinki region.

The principal duties of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council (YTV) comprise transport system planning, regional public transport provision, waste management and air quality management for its four member municipalities (Helsinki, Espoo, Kauniainen and Vantaa). It also maintains regional databases and conducts studies on different issues affecting the region. Besides its member municipalities, YTV also serves a number of nearby municipalities on the basis of separate contracts.

Departure (Lisbon) - 4 h 30min
Arrival (Helsinki) - 16h 47min
Estimated total time of travel - 10h 17m

Level of satisfaction of the residents with public transport in selected cities (2006)

Satisfaction of the residents with public transport in selected cities in 2006.

Source: Survey on perceptions of quality of life in 75 European cities. European Commission 2007. The survey was carried out in November 2006 by interviewing 500 people in each 75 cities participating in the survey. There were 23 questions on the quality of life in the respondent’s area.

In this above graph we can notice the satisfaction of the residents of selected cities with public transport in the year of 2006 ( survey on perceptions of quality of life in 75 European cities). Helsinki is placed in the first position followed by Wien, Rennes, Hamburg and Munchen. Paris is in the middle. Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon are in the last third, while Roma and Napoli are at the bottom.

In Helsinki, the central city, the share of public transport is among the highest (in European comparison). This is a result of active policies of promoting public transport.

In relation to the national wealth (GDP per capita), monthly passes are very inexpensive in Helsinki (the price difference of single and monthly passes is significant).

In the Helsinki metropolitan area the share of the operating costs of public transport financed by ticket revenues is higher than in most cities included in international comparison and all the public funding is derived from municipalities, contrary to most of metropolitan areas in Europe (particularly in capital cities), where the central government usually takes the main responsibility of public transport.

It is not surprise that the YTV door-to-door Journey Planner service is among the most visited sites of the country, due to its simplicity and efficiency - a Helsinki “slang” site version complements the 3 languages of the site (finnish, swedish and english) and the site also includes one mobile version and journey planner for cyclists.

The Finns seem to have learned from the success of the world of IT and modern real-time logistics , keys for the design of future public transport.

How to provide transit data to Google Transit Trip Planner

We can say that the world integration of the public transit schedules (in its different transport modes) will surely be a great challenge . Once achieved, this previous example would be highly simplified, improving the schedule-based service.

So, to increase the integration it's necessary that the agencies have a public transportation data for their cities, and get it included in the Google Transit Trip Planner. The Google Transit Feed Specification describes how to provide transit data in a format that Google Transit Trip Planner can use, i.e. how a public agency that oversees public transportation can submit a feed to Google Transit Trip Planner.

References
Petri Jalasto, Eeva Linkama,Seppo Lampinen (YY-Optima Oy), Finnish transport system in European perspective, Ministry of Transport and Communications, 28 September 2007

Interactive map of the species under threat in your region

Species case studies by region

99% of threatened species are at risk from human activities. Take a closer look at the species under threat in your region. Interactive map (and species fact sheets)

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The World Conservation Union IUCN published on September 12th a new red list of threatened species in Washington and Paris.

2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

Extinction crisis escalates: Red List shows apes, corals, vultures, dolphins all in danger - 12 September 2007

"Life on Earth is disappearing fast and will continue to do so unless urgent action is taken. There are now 41,415 species on the IUCN Red List and 16,306 of them are threatened with extinction, up from 16,118 last year. The total number of extinct species has reached 785 and a further 65 are only found in captivity or in cultivation."

Full release

Facebook: hundreds of new Finnish users every hour

Some weeks ago "the main auditorium at the Old Student Building in downtown Helsinki was packed with people. TV-cameras rolled and the sponsors' neckties gleamed as media guru Sam Inkinen delivered a presentation.

As it happens , the content of the event did not quite match up to the surroundings and the glitz: the National Union of University Students and the Student Union of the University of Helsinki were launching their new Virtual Campus Lyyra, a nationwide Internet networking service, where students can keep blogs and photo albums and send messages to their friends and colleagues.

Nothing so terribly revolutionary in all this, then. However, the stunt - arranged by the Helsinki advertising agency BOB - filled the hall because the invitations contained the magic words: "Lyyra to challenge Facebook"

Back in the spring of this year, Facebook was for Finns still just one social networking site among many. Yes, it had users, but it was hardly the sort of mega-phenomenon that the video-sharing YouTube operation represented.

However... during the summer the service achieved critical mass, after which user numbers increased rapidly.

Now they have gone ballistic: on Tuesday afternoon [October 2nd], nearly 500 Finns joined the Facebook community in the space of around an hour and a half.

It is hard to list the number of users in a newspaper article, because the figures are out of date before the paper heads off to the printers. On Sunday evening just over a week ago, the total was 57,000 users - by Tuesday evening it was 63,500. Today [October 9th, 15:00] it is hovering just under 88,000. (...)

It is difficult to explain quite why the Finns found Facebook right now, and not earlier. In Norway, for instance, the big boom in new members took place back in the spring, and there are now nearly 370,000 Norwegian Facebook users, and more than 400,000 in Sweden."

full article
NEWS ANALYSIS: Facebook draws in hundreds of new Finnish users every hour, By Olavi Koistinen - Helsingin Sanomat

"University students have opened their own nationwide Internet service, Lyyra, which is a Finnish counterpart to social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace.

“In one fell swoop, we’re making Finnish students some of the most progressive in the world. Whereas Facebook is merely a way of having fun on the Internet, Lyyra will have a positive impact on students’ real lives,” says Lasse Männistö, Chairman of the National Union of University Students in Finland.

www.lyyra.fi is a virtual meeting place for 300,000 students. It will open up a new channel for the activity that characterizes the student lifestyle – pranks and protests will now be organized on the Internet. Lyyra is also the world’s most advanced student card – it’s the first large-scale application based on Sony FeliCa technology in Europe.

Lyyra’s mission is to offer benefits and services that will both enhance and ease students’ lives, while also providing a social network. Lyyra aims to spark off debate and remind people that alongside the rapid accumulation of study credits, students should be gaining a world of educational and entertaining experiences – and, of course, new friends."
full article
Virtual Campus Lyyra to Challenge Facebook
VIRTUAL STUDENT CAMPUS LYYRA TO CHALLENGE FACEBOOK - Finnish students to rank among the most progressive in the world

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The evolution of the science and the technology has reached many extraordinary inventions that nobody dreamed of before. The greatest wonder is the crossing between the man and the machine, cyborg. On one side, hopes were placed on the healthier and more diversified human body. Another side it has been considered to threat the humanity and human values. The guide of the cyborg balances between these contradictory ethical visions.
Tekninen teos kyborgeista

Fast Transport on Request: new alternative intercity transport

The contemporary city is a multidimensional reality. More than half of the world's people will soon live in highly urbanized centres, in conurbations or in metropolitan areas - continuous networks of urban communities. The massive use of private cars causes serious problems in these urban networks, when industrial areas and vital urban facilities are blocked by traffic congestions and parking problems. Despite this situation, for many the private car remains favourable, but it is obvious that an effective alternative in the form of public transportation is strongly needed.

Read more

In that context a new type of public transportation is sketched, which is focussed on intercity travelling - the travelling between urban centres situated at mutual distances from 10 to 50 Km, covering an area with a length up to 200 Km. This transportation concept (Fast Transport on Request) is based on three key ideas: the success of the private car, the new world of Internet and communication and modern real-time logistics. [1]

Two rapidly evolving areas of advanced transportation and energy technology are hydrogen energy systems and intelligent transportation systems (ITS). Projects involving the use of ITS and hydrogen-powered vehicles include a “superbus” project where a hydrogen-powered transit bus is also equipped with the latest ITS telematics technology to optimize its operation and potentially to help attract ridership, potentially in conjunction with “hot lanes” for transit vehicles at peak times. [2]

1.Indications for the design of future public intercity transport [1]

Learning from the success of the private car, the world of IC and the success of modern real-time logistics - the resulting indications for the design of future public intercity transport.

1.1 Private car

Chevrolet Volt/H2mobility.org by LBST

Reliable, unconditional access to fast mobility

• High driving frequencies, or quick service on request

• Stops on short distances from desired departure and arrival points

• For individual traveller, no detours and no intermediate stops

• Travel times all-in shorter than private car, parking included

• Certainty about back travel

Comfort, privacy and control over travel environment

• Comfortable, automatically adjusting chairs

• Environment for digital information providing and amusement

• Direct connections without change over

Suitable for family or group travelling

• Option to book several neighbouring seats in the same vehicle

• Facilities for travelling kids

General Concepts (Automobility)

“Automobility and personal autonomy are complementary and arise from, and give expression to the fundamental human quality of self-determination.” (philosopher Lomasky, 1995)

“Waiting in traffic congestions is a waste of time, but also a frustration of freedom”
“For many people, car driving gives a feeling of freedom, power and social participation.” (sociologist Sheller, 2004)

Experience of privacy

Hidden conflict between authority and personal autonomy.

In this way, automobility is experienced as a continuing rejection of governmental policy to discourage car driving and to promote public transportation.

Transport “new style” scores on aspects such as availability, speed, comfort, and social integration.

Changing over must be avoided

1.2 IC world

Superbus/TU Delft

Integrated in communicative life style

• Booking via Internet and intelligent mobile telephone

• Identification and financial settlements via personal smart carts

• Compatible with active metropolitan life style

Response on demand

• Anticipating deployment of vehicles, using dynamical statistics

• Anticipating response on public happenings

Co-ordinated autonomy of actors

• Autonomously operating vehicles, prevents system failures

• Overall co-ordination promoting quality of service and efficiency

General Concepts (Virtual mobility and autonomy)

With the modern mobile telephone people can communicate instantaneously from any place to any place at any time, without meeting each other.

Communicative life style

The rise of Internet has led the world of Cyberspace

“Cyberspace accommodates many forms of service providing, taking advantage of the unlimited access to information and of the possibilities of taking virtual decisions and to settle financial commitments. There is no need to work within an organisation to get access to these facilities.(…)

Markets are agile and enterprises must react fast. New organisations operate with autonomous business units, co-ordinating the work with the help of digital performance contracts.”

Railways still follow the traditional model:
Trains are rigid
Trains cannot leave the rails
Trains cannot pass each other
The following times between trains are at least three minute.
Trains must operate in fixed schedules
Operational control is focused on maintaining the schedules.
Organisational form is hierarchical.
Local perturbations can propagate fast (which may lead to stagnation of the whole system)

Bus transport operates differently:

Each bus functions autonomously and is committed to the running operation plan via a performance contract.

Malfunction of a single bus will not lead to failure of the system

“The current ICT offers special means to implement an intelligent customer interface with a booking system, a virtual ticket market and with an interactive travelling supporting system.”

1.3 Modern logistics

Ford Airstream/H2mobility.org by LBST

Service dynamics: service on four types of stations

• Intercity stations with parking and change over facilities

• Stationary local stop places

• Demand related varying local stop places

Demand intensities and selection of assortment

• Service related to ABC-classification and minimal requirements on service providing

• Balance between differentiation of service and demand intensities

Concept

• Combination of collect-sprint-disperse and line-hub-spoke

Production on stock or on demand

• Serve minimal required service level with fixed schedule

• Serve A-segment largely on the basis of demand forecasts

• Serve other demand on request

Logistic control

• Capacity planning, using aggregated demand forecasts

• Real-time operations planning on combined deployment of vehicles and allocation of seats

General Concepts ( The logistical viewpoint)

Virtual ticket market

In logistics ABC-classification, the assortment is subdivided in highly, moderately and rarely demanded products (often the so-called 80/20-rule applies):

A-segment - 80% of the demand concerns only 20% of the assortment.
B-segment - represents 15% of the demand on (say) 30% of the assortment.
C-segment - the remaining part.
Often the C-segment is loss making, but can’t be missed because of complementary with other segments.
In the transportation market:
A-segment - typically consists of trips during rush hours.
B-segment - covers daily trips on popular trajectories
C-segment - typically lies on nightly trips.

“Production may be induced by keeping stocks. Stocks may cause stock risks, implying that possibly they can’t be sold. For products of the “A-segment”, such risks can be small and therefore acceptable. Since the seventies production on stock is largely replaced by production on demand.”

From the viewpoints of quality of service providing and efficiency, the appropriate form is production on demand.

Using modern ICT, the demand could be entered via Internet or telephone.

Public transport operating with fixed schedules is a form of “production on stock”. These stocks consist of seats in the acting vehicles. Unsold stocks are visible as empty seats.

Dial-a-ride public transport “produces on demand”

“The logistical viewpoint gives indications how to arrange the locations and selection of stops, how to serve strongly varying demands, which transportation concept is to be preferred and how to control the operations.”

Transportation concepts
Line-hub-spoke concept:
Intercity personal transport mainly goes by train, where the stations are passed in line. On each station travellers may use the local transport system to start or to complete their travel.
Collect-sprint-disperse concept:
Busses offer other possibilities. A trip along the intercity tracks both may start and end with a local trip, serving a rather small number of popular stopping places.

“The leading idea is to avoid transfer between local transport and intercity transport, and with this shorten travel times. Line-hub-spoke and collect-sprint-disperse might be combined in the sense that a part of the travellers may avoid local related transfers indeed, whereas others use separate local transport.”

2.Characteristics of Fast Transport on Request (FTR) [1]

Van Hool Prototype Bus/ ISEcorp

“Characteristic is the application of advanced technology in vehicles, traffic control and communication. Remarkable is the rigorous integration of the words of public transport, cyberspace and system intelligence, aimed to offer a quality which can compete with the use of the private car.”

• For the transport between the cities, there are dedicated and protected tracks (sprint tracks) for fast driving cars, which are connected with (dedicated) local road networks.

General Concepts

Busses can be constructed safely driving 180 km/h (with proven technology)

Sprint tracks are reserved for qualified vehicles.

Driving at normal speeds, such vehicles also can be used on public roads.

To be allowed to drive on a sprint track, a car must be equipped with:
- a system for lateral stabilisation
- a system to follow a virtual roadmap
- an intelligent cruise controller (however the driver will stay fully responsible)

• Trips have to be booked via Internet or telephone, which can be done “on-timing”, “on last-minute”, or as “option”. The booking system is connected with a virtual ticket market. One may book bundles of trips and “connected tickets”.

“Travelling can be shortened by reducing the number of intermediate stops and by avoiding making detours. To issue such special trips, the planning system needs information on the demand. This information can be deduced from real-time forecasts, but above all from requests to be served, entering via Internet and telephone. Clearly a booking system is a natural apparatus to improve the service level and therefore has to be the core of and intelligent customer interface.”

• An operations control system clusters the travel requests, deploys the vehicles and allocates the seats, such that travellers never will make a detour and such that intermediate stops are avoided.

• The vehicles are equipped with digital facilities and comfortable seats, which adapt themselves automatically to the profile of the traveller.

General Concepts

Each seat is equipped with digital facilities for communication, radio and television.

3.Combination of BRT and DR systems [1]

It is natural to combine the systems of BRT and DR and add a few elements related to the structuring of the routes, the intercity travelling speed, the availability via an intelligent customer interface and the personalised service.

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)

Public transport with busses, driving on dedicated lanes, with separate halting lanes and with right of way on crossings

Demand Responsive Transport (DRT)

Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) mainly concerns transport with minibuses to serve scattered demands in rural environments. The routes and the deployment of vehicles are planned in response on requests entered by telephone.

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“For a new concept such as FTR extensive R&D is needed to elaborate and to verify the technology, the logistic control system, the safety aspects and the societal acceptance. People are not used to book their daily travelling, but the unique buying reasons are that travelling with FTR is cheap, fast and “tailor made”.”

References

[1] Joseph J.M. Evers , Discussion note by Prof. Joop Evers: Profile of new intercity transport, Transport Policy and Logistics Organization / Technology, Policy and Management / Delft University of Technology; EJTIR- European Journal of Transport and Infrastructure, Volume 7, Issue 3 (September, 2007), pp. 257-266

[2] TIMOTHY E. LIPMAN, OPPORTUNITIES FOR INTEGRATING HYDROGEN-POWERED VEHICLES AND INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS: ANALYSIS OF “SMART REFUELING” TO OPTIMIZE HYDROGEN INFRASTRUCTURE, INSTITUTE OF TRANSPORTATION STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA – BERKELEY AND HYDROGEN PATHWAYS PROGRAM UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA – DAVIS, ITS-World 06 - October 8-12, 2006

Impasse

Os últimos eventos políticos vêm confirmar que o processo de regionalização português não deve estar excessivamente dependente do sistema político-partidário, sob o risco de ser eternamente adiado - é necessária uma transformação interna dos partidos políticos, adaptando-os às novas realidades sociais e económicas (e ambientais), hoje bastante diferentes daquelas que condicionaram o referendo de 8 de Novembro de 1998.

Tem-se agravado o afastamento entre as elites políticas e as expectativas e necessidades da população, que não se sente necessariamente ouvida e representada nos partidos políticos (creio que a militância partidária em Portugal é inferior a 4%). Esta apatia deveria ser ultrapassada pela criação dum sistema democrático de entidades territoriais, mobilizador, descentralizado e coerente (regiões, municípios e freguesias), que distribuísse equilibradamente as decisões que pudessem ser tomadas a outros níveis diferentes da Administração central.

O problema duma divisão distrital não correspondente com a divisão territorial administrativa, tem sido sustentado pelo sistema político-partidário, pois, como se sabe, os círculos eleitorais são de base distrital. Não se elege deputados (representantes legitimados pelo voto das populações). Vota-se em partidos políticos, que escolhem deputados, em sistema de candidaturas em lista fechada, candidaturas estas, sobretudo decididas pelas hierarquias partidárias que impõem a disciplina partidária, transformando as decisões políticas, não no resultado duma representação territorial, mas no produto centralizado duma elite política.

O processo de descentralização da administração central do Estado está a ser condicionado pela ausência de regiões administrativas. A reforma progride a velocidade inferior ao desejável, tal como a economia nacional, num Estado de tradição centralizadora, num sistema político -partidário também bastante centralizador e num ambiente de desconfiança da administração central em relação ao poder local.