News yesterday about the Google Labs release of Google Transit (via SearchEngineWatch). It’s pretty cool that Portland is featured. Being that I live in the Portland area, it’s also pretty easy for me to test it out.

Overall, I was pretty impressed, I could see this being a very useful tool to figure out approximate routes. Considering that most public agencies probably don’t have top-notch web talent like Google does, this could be very helpful. The specifics were a bit disappointing though.

I routed my commute to work, which only has bus service, no MAX. I have taken the bus a few times, so I know it takes about 20-30 minutes (never any traffic). Google says 19 minutes in transit, pretty close. But, it got the bus stop stop wrong, saying I’d have to walk 13 minutes to get on the bus where it suggested, when really it takes about 2 minutes. I’m not against walking or anything, but no need to brave the cold this time of year more than I have to.