Headway

As part of their Where 2.0 blitz, the Google Maps folks have just released a couple new features that make it easier to find out more about local transit stops.

The first is clickable transit icons on the map:

When you zoom close enough into areas with transit coverage, you’ll see icons on the map showing where bus and rail stops are located. You can click on these icons to see which routes stop there, and if the agency has provided its schedule information in Google Transit Feed Spec form, you can see the next scheduled departures for that stop right in the bubble!

The other feature that will be of interest to transit riders is the new “Street View” feature, which lets you “travel” up and down some streets on the map, getting panoramic views of the surroundings all the while:

As you can see here, this feature can be handy for figuring out exactly where the bus stops are in relation to nearby landmarks. The image depicts a typical San Francisco Muni bus stop, indicated only by a stripe of yellow paint on a light pole (if you zoom in on this street view, you can almost read the route numbers that serve the stop). If you had been given directions to get on or off at this stop, Street View would allow you to figure out that you should look for the “Me Lindo Peru” restaurant as a landmark. (Beyond its usefulness, Street View is plain fun to play around with, especially using the arrow keys to pan and move.)

Both features are available in a limited number of cities right now, but you can expect them to spread to more areas as time goes on. (Disclaimer: I had a minor involvement in the new transit icons, and I, er, enjoyed playing with internal betas of Street View.)