Brief mention in the Boston Globe

By | July 31, 2009

From “MBTA announces latest arrival: Google mapping tool for riders“:

But not everyone at yesterday’s news conference was trumpeting the partnership. Jonathan Kamens, 39, of Brighton said Google Maps’s public transit routes are faulty because they rely on schedules provided by the MBTA, which are sometimes wrong.

Kamens, a software engineer, said his complaints to T officials have gone unaddressed for years, which drove him to pass out fliers questioning the deal.

Lisa Rivera, a spokeswoman for the MBTA, said that the authority was unaware of his complaints but that officials would look into them.

“We have an extensive planning and scheduling department and employees who are constantly updating our system,’’ she said.

It’s unfortunate that the reporter said I am concerned about inaccurate “schedules,” when in fact that I am concerned about inaccurate routes, which is a rather more serious problem.  If the schedule’s wrong, then you might have to wait longer than expected for a bus, but if the route is wrong, then the bus you’re waiting for might never show up.

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