PopTech : Blog : Just map it: An app that plots inner-city trips by time

Just map it: An app that plots inner-city trips by time

Lindsay Borthwick ( Bio / Posts ) | Thursday, August 18, 2011 UTC

A new web app called Mapnificent can help lessen the pain of commuting by letting users visualize how far they can get by public transit, in a given city, in a certain period of time. Developed by a young German programmer, Stefan Wehrmeyer, it uses publicly available data to turn Google Maps into an even more powerful trip-planning tool. It won’t tell you how to get to A or B, but it will tell you whether that house you have your eye on means a 30-minute trip to the office or an hour-long one. Just pick a city, enter an address and slide the commuting-time rule. It also lets you plan a meet-up point. Say you’re meeting a friend from the west end of town and you’re in the east end. Mapnificent lets you determine the coffee shops or parks, for example, that are an easy 15-minute trip for you both.

The program is currently in beta and maps a few dozen major cities in Canada, the U.S., and abroad. Sure, it’s a handy data visualization tool. But Mapnificent is also a powerful example of what happens when data are made public. As The Economist points out:

The easier it is to get information about public transportation, the more people will use it. That's better for the environment, keeps cars off the streets, and encourages denser, more pedestrian-friendly development—and shorter commutes. Huzzah!

via The Economist

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