Well. Hi there. It sure has been a while.
So, I was looking at the Portland METRO site yesterday. It's the site that covers the Greater Portland Transportation District. The site is usable, but just. I was having trouble planning any sort of a trip without switching back and forth between different route schedules. Then it occurred to me that "Hey, Google does it for me!" So, I headed on over to Google Maps. ("It's the best." / "True that!" / "Double True!" - Anyone? Anyone?) Unfortunately, after a try at their public transit direction, I noticed that, well, it didn't work. So I dug up the Google Transit, which is the same as the transit layer in Maps. Portland is not represented. Nor is anywhere in Maine. Or NH or VT.
Fools, I thought. Spend a bunch of money on IT and still have a half-ass'd website, or let Google do it for you. For free. And also better.
Well, in one of those moments of civic-minded web browsing, I decided to write to METRO. Within the site it is actually pretty difficult to find a "contact us" type thing. So naturally I settled for emailing the president of the METRO board of directors. I mentioned Google Transit and mentioned that in a tech savvy town like Portland they should really be involved. I didn't expect results, certainly, or a response of any sort. That guy is probably too busy for me, plus I may have come across as a bit snide. (Although I didn't mean it.)
And so, my first blog post in years is this news: This morning in my inbox I had a reply! Thank you, Kevin Donoghue! Unfortunately, METRO and other regional providers are in queue with Google. And "it could be a while ..."
So I'm psyched, but not, all at the same time. And, just to give Kevin more props, I will mention that I emailed the several other agencies, mostly at the State level, this summer. And never got a single response, even from the email address' listed for help and questions.
