Lake County, OH – Laketran joins hundreds of cities in the U.S. who are providing transit routes data to Google Maps. For those who are not regular bus riders, and may need to find a way to work or to school, they can now go to the popular site and view their transit, walk or bike trip on a map from a computer or smartphone.

“People who are familiar with Google Maps, but not necessarily transit, will love this new tool,” said Ray Jurkowski, Laketran general manager. “Riders don’t have to sort through timetables to plan a trip, just enter your trip origin, destination and travel time and Google Transit does the rest. Everyone is used to Google Maps and it works on the same platform.”

“Easily accessible information on transit options improves the overall quality of Laketran’s service to all Lake County residents and encourages casual users, visitors and social service agencies as well as regular transit riders to make greater use of our transit services,” shares Brian Falkowski, board president of Laketran.

With expectations of visitors to the area for the RNC, the Google Maps features helps passengers that may be unfamiliar with their destination or the area with “zoom-in” satellite view, a 3-D Earth view, and a street view of bus stops and the surrounding area. Other features include an easy-to-read itinerary that includes inter-agency and RTA transfers, trip time, distance, and fare information.

To plan a walk, bike or transit trip, go to maps.google.com and click on “Get Directions” or the arrow image. The public transit link is shown each time driving directions are requested by the viewer who may not be aware that transit is even an option; just click on train image next to the car among the navigation icons that include car, public transit, walking and bicycling. Then enter the necessary information in the by either street address, cross streets or major landmarks along with the trip date and desired arrival or departure times – for same day service or many weeks in advance. Google Maps will then display your options from which to choose. Each option will include walking directions to and from the nearest bus stop, applicable route numbers including any transfer information, and total travel times for each trip option.

Laketran routes appear on Google Maps in same color scheme as they are printed in paper schedules and the Laketran website to easily identify each bus route.

For Immediate Release |Media Contact: Julia Schick, 440-350-1012, jschick@Laketran.com; @Laketran