Google soon will help plot commutes on TheBus

Honolulu is among five cities selected for the new service

In a venture that will make it easier for residents and visitors to use the city bus service, Google Inc. is partnering with Oahu Transit Services Inc. to create a Web-based system showing people how to get from place to place using TheBus.

On the Net » www.google.com/transit

Honolulu is one of five cities selected for an expansion of the Mountain View, Calif.-based company's Google Transit service, said Avichal Garg, a Google spokesman. The other cities are Pittsburgh; Seattle; Tampa, Fla.; and Eugene, Ore. These cities will join Portland, Ore., whose TriMet system Google began working with last year.

Like Google's other applications, the service is simple to use. Users type in their origination point, destination and time they want to travel, and the program tells them how to get from one place to the other using the bus system. This includes walking directions to the bus stop, estimated travel time and several possible departure times.

It also marks transfer points and gives walking directions from the end of the bus route to the destination.

"What we think this is going to do is allow people who've never tried transit before to give it a look," said Michelle Kennedy, manager of customer communications for Oahu Transit Services, which manages TheBus for the city.

Honolulu was chosen in part because Oahu Transit Services approached Google about working together, Garg said. However, he also said that Google saw a good fit with the culture of Oahu Transit Services.

In the face of rising gasoline prices last year, TheBus had a flood of new riders who needed information on how to use the system, Kennedy said. Suddenly, its five-person call center crews were getting bogged down with calls from people who needed long explanations about the system's workings, and that was creating long times on hold for regular customers who needed only to know when the next bus was coming.

In an attempt to lessen the call center traffic, TheBus started its At Your Service pilot program, which provided general information about the system, such as fare information, as well as custom itineraries for people who wrote in. But that service was in place for only a limited time, just long enough to get the surge of new riders up to speed, Kennedy said.

The Google service picks up where At Your Service ended.

Google has created a household brand -- and incredible value for shareholders -- by helping ordinary people find what they are looking for among the vast forests of information on the Internet.

Google already provides information on getting around from place to place via Google Maps. But transit systems create a new set of variables, including time schedules.

"What's relevant at 7:15 in the morning is not relevant at 9 a.m.," he said.

Kennedy said she and her team have been using a test version of Google's Honolulu transit site for a few weeks. She has watched as new features have been added. One of her favorites: a function that shows how much it would cost to drive a route versus how much it would cost to take TheBus.

For instance, to get from Middle Street across town to Hawaii Kai, she said, would cost an adult only $2 on TheBus. Driving, meanwhile, would cost about $6, according to Google.

Google determines its cost to drive using the U.S. Internal Revenue Service business-expense allowance of 48.5 cents per mile.

Google typically does not roll out its products with big marketing campaigns, and it does not plan to do so now with the Honolulu transit service, Garg said. But Kennedy said TheBus will not be reticent to get the word out to customers.

"As soon as Google tells us it's good to go, we're going to go out and let everybody know," she said.