By: Kevin Fu
Having lived in Los Angeles for four years, I was excited when the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority (“LA Metro”) reached out to me about building our maps into their online trip planner. Los Angeles’s rail and bus system is one of the largest in terms of ridership, and it has been lauded as one of the best public transit systems in the country. It’s now easier for LA residents to plan trips ahead and explore the various modes of travel LA Metro supports.
LA Metro’s website, metro.net, opens right into the trip planning interface. A full-screen map with real-time alerts takes the center stage, while supplemental transit information is neatly organized in the side panel. The map itself is a custom style built with Mapbox Studio. Interactive pop-ups provide added context to features like route lines, stops, and alerts. Pins for start and end points are draggable, so it’s easier to make quick adjustments to a route. When users type in a place, the map automatically zooms and snaps to a bounding box for that location.
Los Angeles is investing heavily in expanding its public transportation infrastructure and improving the user experience; we’re excited to be a part of it.
Building your own trip planner? Give us a shout!
LA Metro’s new online trip planner was originally published in Points of interest on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.