Google now tells whether trains are on time

Google Maps is great, but — let’s face it– the company has always had a blind spot when it comes to getting around in something other than a car. Whether it’s getting from Harvard University in Cambridge Massachusetts to Kings College in England (Google’s recommendation: swim the 3,400 miles across the Atlantic Ocean), or getting around notoriously car-unfriendly places like Boston, San Francisco or New York, Google has always had a blind spot when it comes to alternative modes of transportation.

As others have noted, Google Transit, a site ostensibly devoted to making mass transit info more accessible, drills down on places like Tampa Florida, Duluth, Minnesota, and Reno, Nevada. Hardly the kind of cities that come to mind when you think “mass transit.” That kind of myopia is probably understandable for a company with roots in car-crazy California, but recently some enterprising startups have come along to fill in the void. Notably, HopStop.com, which provides bus and subway directions for folks in Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. — cities that know a subway when they see one!

Judging from the news today, though, Google is finally wrapping its brain around the public transportation problem. The latest evidence that the folks at the Googleplex “get it” is a new feature that integrates train and bus schedules into Google maps. For cities like Boston and New York, this means mentions of what public transit lines run through subway, bus and train stations, as well as links to Web sites with scheduling information. In some cases, Google links directly to scheduling information.

That’s cool, but with Google Transit still still suggesting that I drive from Post Office Square in Boston to Harvard Square in Cambridge, when everyone knows that it’s just four stops away on the MBTA’s Red Line, Google still has a way to go before it will be a credible transit information resource!