Google maps has recently started showing subway stops on maps. It seems much more prominent to see these icons on the directions page than on the general maps page.

However, if you were traveling to Chicago, this map would be quite confusing.

First off, several of those metros don’t connect. While the pins mark the stations, Chicago has several different trains that run downtown (named ‘the el’) and one often has to switch trains (and know where to transfer) to find a destination.

The second aspect is that mapping software doesn’t seem to take under ground vs above ground into determining directions. I will admit that the above is probably a trick query, it’s for Intelligentsia Coffee’s Pedway location (the pedway is an underground walkway that connects several parts of downtown Chicago. There’s no way to drive to this location, but you’d never know it from the map’s directions.

Overall, it’s probably a precursor of things to come. It would be very useful to be able to use a search engine’s mapping site to find public transportation directions. New York and Chicago can be difficult cities to navigate by car. It’s often faster and easier (once one understands the systems) to use public transportation. However, easy access to that information can sometimes be difficult.

Transitchicago.com is useful for finding door to door public transportation directions. However, if you’re trying to find a restaurant, read reviews, see what’s close, and then want directions to that restaurant, a search engine is the more logical choice to find that information.

Hopefully, we can look forward to finding public transportation directions on maps.google.com sometime in the near future. It would be an extremely useful tool.

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• links for 2008-01-04