Don't like iOS6's (lack of) transit directions? You need this.

[DanHulton]

I'm probably just going to pin http://maps.google.com to my front page and be done with it, unless of course Google releases a full-blown app (oh please oh please).

[wes-exp]

I'm doing this and I also added the bing app which, although it's a bit clunky, seemingly has transit directions.

[davidwhodge]

Hey guys. David Hodge here from Embark. I just wanted to let you know that we've got you covered for transit directions in many large cities. (And more being added all the time)

Look for Embark in NYC, Washington DC, Boston, London, Chicago, San Francisco. Embark will work underground and has results tailored to each city instead of the very general results you tend to get from Google Transit.

[zbowling]

Hi David, I love your apps. Long time iBart user, but what would be nice is a single app that will cover making connections across transit systems. If I'm going to the South Bay tell me how to take Muni to BART or CalTrain and then BART /Caltrain to VA and how far to walk. THAT would be the killer feature that would making having no transit directions awesome.

[JofArnold]

This is possibly the comment that you never want to hear when you have a nice-looking app, but I do find them a bit painful to use. Use of screen height and extra button presses are too key areas that give me grief. It could simply be something as subtle as the London Underground map defaults to too far zoomed-in. Maybe try changing that?

However, they are free, free from ads and work really well. I especially like the way they tell you the direction of the train you're going to get.

[RandallBrown]

Are you going to be adding Seattle any time soon?

[osi]

embark for chicago only seems to include the 'L', not the CTA bus routes?

[thecosas]

Any chance San Diego is on your radar? :o)

[driverdan]

How about just sticking with iOS 5 until Apple fixes this? Is it really that important to upgrade to 6? (obviously doesn't apply to the new phone)

The latest doesn't always mean the greatest.

[w1ntermute]

That's little consolation to people who've bought the iPhone 5.

[mtodd]

Apple won't be fixing this. Their approach is to recommend transit apps depending on your location instead.

[djbender]

Has everyone forgotten http://maps.google.com? From what I can tell you can get transit direction from their website and even place a shortcut to your Home Screen.

[rayhano]

If you're in London, check out http://Citymapper.com (their iPhone app saves me everyday with live bus timings and the best route with multiple transport options).

[tmalloy]

Co-Founder of Embark here (letsembark.com). We have apps for 12 systems, mostly in the US (BART, Caltrain, NYC, LIRR, MNR, NJT, DC Metro, Philly, CTA, Metra, Boston & London Tube). We also integrate with iOS 6 maps, so our apps should show up for you if they're relevant. In my subjective opinion, it's a way better experience than a google maps web view.

EDIT: Looks like my co-founder David beat me to the punch

[slykat]

I love Google Transit directions. Can you give some examples of where Embark beats out Google Transit (screenshots if possible)?

Also do you have real-time updates on arrival times with SF Muni? Google Transit does not.

[bmeckel]

Having had the beta for so long I hadn't actually expected integration with maps, I figured it'd just tell you that there were other apps available. I'll definitely be moving to embark for the time being!

[m_st]

Wow, this is a true hacker at work. Getting things done rather than yelling around. Thank you so much for this.

[Cbeck527]

Agreed. This is a refreshing submission after all of these rant-y blog posts we've been seeing lately.

[vegashacker]

Somewhat off-topic, but does anyone in SF who rides public transportation agree that Google's Map directions in terms of time predictions don't work? Like they're almost always completely wrong. I wonder if they use scheduled bus times instead of actual ones.

Anyway, I was hoping to be able to plug in something like Routesy to iOS 6 maps, and then I'd be a happy camper.

[davidwhodge]

We've found that Google has historically had a very hard time in San Francisco, and many other big cities for that matter. The results often seem reasonable at first, but end up being impractical in practice. We've found that getting good routing results in cities like SF requires a lot of attention to detail in each particular city. Google has very smart people, but they can't focus everywhere at once.

Disclaimer, I work at Embark and we make transit apps. (letsembark.com)

Edit: it also doesn't help that Muni often doesn't run on schedule.

[tullidil]

I'm pretty sure Google Maps and a plethora of other applications on the App Store simply use the MUNI schedules (http://www.sfmta.com/cms/mroutes/schedules.htm) for the purposes of "time prediction." Since buses in SF are basically never time due to many reasons (traffic, accidents, once I was on a bus where the trainee who was driving took the wrong exit on the way to Daly City BART and the actual Muni driver on the bus had to take over the wheel) the predictions are never accurate.

The only app that has done me right is Transporter, and I'm pretty sure it scrapes Nextbus or some other service for time predictions.

[avelis]

I also have noticed this in SF. It becomes most frustrating when I want to travel to a location using routes I am unfamiliar with or don't ride often. This means I can't off the top of my head guess when the next bus would be coming before choosing that bus route. In that case I usually pick a live route app like Transporter to see how long of a wait till that bus comes. Unfortunately, that time spent in another application can prove costly if you are in a hurry.

[jarek]

Unless specifically indicated as live times, Google uses the scheduled times. I've seen live times in Google Maps in only one area, Portland, OR.

Scheduled times are coming from GTFS feeds that agencies register with Google. As far as I know, Google didn't create a unified live transit predictions/tracking API, which seems to me a rather surprising oversight.

[drstewart]

NextMuni (Muni's app) is the best for SF imo.

[psychotik]

Or, use the bing app. I am not a fan of their ux but it sure works well!

[rb2k_]

I searched for "logan airport, boston" and didn't receive any results :-/

[Simucal]

How do the Bing map's transit directions compare to the old iOS maps app?

[jsanz]

Guys, I'm from HopStop. Our app has got you covered for your public transit needs. We support lots of cities in the USA, Canada and some in Europe. We also have some nice features other than transit directions, such as schedules and transit maps. Check us out!

Note: Maps integration coming soon for our iPhone app. Our iPad app is already working fine with Maps.

[gedaxiang]

Make a paid version so I can get rid of the ads!

[tomjen3]

Can anybody explain why Google can't simply make a version of google maps that is installable through Safari (they way Steve wanted apps to be delivered?) You need absolutely no permission from Apple, and their app already works on the web (just used it to get directions, in fact).

[egypturnash]

Possibly they might not have been interested in fixing their competitor's mistakes for them.

[siglesias]

They have that.

[drewda]

Another option coming soon: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/228865951/transit-app-fo...

[pcl]

Sweet! Any plans to put this on the app store? I'd love to recommend an easy fix for my parents that doesn't involve my dev certs.

Oh, and I'll happily pay for the app... Somewhere between $0 and $5 seems about right.

[joeshaw]

I just learned about Lumatic today (http://lumatic.com/) and it seems like a worthy replacement for transit directions in many places.

Here in Boston it seems to think that I am not near any transit, but it does happily use the transit near my house to route me on different trips. I like the landmark-based turn-by-turn navigation -- I hope that's something that becomes more useful as time goes on.

[scottschulthess]

Is this in the app store or what?

[Void_]

No, it's open-source.

In order to run it on your iPhone, you'll have to pay Apple $100 per year. Or find somebody who is already in Apple Developer program, ask him to add your iPhone ID.

[pudquick]

No. You need the $99USD/year iOS developer program from Apple to be able to compile it and install it on an actual iOS device (without it being jail broken).

[bas]

I can only speak for my setup (I have Embark NYC installed), but the new Maps app delegates transit routing to Embark NYC. Presumably this works for other cities?

[dailyrorschach]

So far for me yes. Interestingly enough since I live in DC - I never had transit directions in Google Maps anyway.

[antirez]

Major cities here in Italy are all very well covered with transit directions, pretty surprising it's not like that for US cities.

[techtalsky]

It's not so much that. If I'm at home in Brooklyn and want to get to a place in Manhattan, there might be two ways to go. Google maps calculates what the fastest way is, including walk time and train connections, and gives me a route that shows the stops, walking directions, and connections.

[Void_]

Thank you for releasing this as open-source.

[antoinevg]

Thank you so much for this kind sir!

[m0skit0]

Just don't use it.