Plan a trip with conventional transit schedules and maps in just SEVEN (count ’em) easy steps!

I work with transit schedules and maps on a daily basis, and, of course, my clients are transit agencies, and my colleagues are other transit consultants or vendors.  As “transit people,” it’s easy to forget to forget that conventional schedules and maps aren’t clear or easy to use for regular people (more on that here).

I’ve been including a slide like this one in most of my presentations.  This shows all seven steps necessary to plan a trip from my apartment in Portland, OR to the 16th Anual Northwest Tribal Transportation Symposium in Jantzen Beach last week.  And this example is a comparative piece of cake — there are only two legs of the trip, both on the same agency’s service, TriMet, that offers easy-to-use maps and timetables.  (Of course, passengers can also plan trips on TriMet at maps.google.com and maps.trimet.org.)

trimet-trip-to-jantzen-beach

It’s easy, right!?!

Aaron is the founding principal of Trillium Solutions, Inc. He brings experience that includes 13 years of experience in public transportation, with knowledge of fixed-route transportation, paratransit, rural transportation, and active transportation modes. Aaron is a recognized expert in developing data standards, web-application design, digital communications, and online marketing strategy. He originally developed Trillium’s GTFS Manager, and has played a key role in the development of the GTFS data specification since 2007.