What is your solution for getting public transportation in map? Actually my iphone is useless for me because it hasn't a public transportation map.

Question

what is your solution for getting public transportation in map? Actually my iphone is useless for me because it hasn't a public transportation map.

Answer 1

This has been a huge problem for me too. I was actually late to work yesterday and wanted to throw my phone out the window of the bus that I finally was able to find. I'm new to Portland, so this suddenly missing feature is particularly problematic. It really is so hard to avoid getting angry, I just can't believe they would eliminate a feature that people rely on so heavily. But anger doesn't do any good so I'm trying my hardest to stay calm and figure out an acceptable solution while Apple works to restore this feature - at least I pray to God that that's what they aim to do. Here are the apps that I've been trying, I'll try to explain how they work and maybe they will work for you. This is going to be a long post, but I'm hoping some people will find it helpful.
I'll start with the most obvious of all - adding Google Maps to your homescreen. Every time you launch the app you will get a diaologue prompting you to allow Google Mpas to use your location, and then you will be in an environment that looks similiar to what we are used to. It does not integrate with your contact list, so one workaround I've been using is going to my contacts and holding my finger on an address to copy it to the clipboard. Be aware that leaving this web app will lose whatever you're looking at and go back to the start, so best to do this before you launch it. You'll notice some strange behavior - for instance the drop down menu of suggested locations will apear and then quickly disaprear, so just ignore this. Often it will often unexpectadly scroll to the top for some reason when you're trying to do something towards the bottom. Haven't figured out a fix except for trying to not get flustered and doing things slowly and deliberately. It's not as quick as we're used to anyway so this is not hard to do. If you'd like to see any of the suggested routes on a map you can do this by clicking the small 'Map View' link. Just be aware that you can only do this once or you will have to type in your starting an ending points again, as there is no way to go back to the list you were just looking at once you are in map view. One thing that I have found helpful about the Google maps method is when looking at a route, whether in list or map view, you can see the stop ID right there, which is helpful if your city has a way to check real-time arrivals. For instance here in Portland you can text this stop ID to a certain number and immediately receive real-time arrivals.
The app I've been using most is called 'Transit'. It's pretty beautiful aesthetically, and the UI is simpler than anything else I've come across, which is convenient for a task that you want to accomplish as quickly as possible so you can put away your phone and be on your way. When you first launch it you're presented with three bus routes that stop near your current location. It tells you which direction the route is headed and in how many minutes the next bus is scheduled to arrive. This is helpful if you are familiar with that particular busline, otherwise there's no indication of where the line will take you. Upon clicking a line, you're presented with three buttons (again, loving the simplicity). One reverses the direction of that same busline. One expands the list of times so you can quicly see all the arrival times for that bus route at that particular stop for the entire day. The other takes you to map view and quickly displays the location of this stop. And here's the best feature of all (!!), it shows you the busline as a blue line and every single stop is marked with a circle. You can click on a circle and it displays the expected arrival time at that stop. This is all very helpful in some circumstances, but of course it does not let you type in a destination and have it build a route for you, and if you'll be transferring to another line this will not help you at all. To accomplish this you press the arrow in the lower left where you can type in a starting point, ending point, and an arrival/departure time. And this DOES reference your contact list. It will then allow you to quickly switch between three routes that it selects. It also searches Maps (actually it says 'Powered by Foursquare' for landmarks/establishments. For instance if I type in 'sushi', I'm presented with a handful of sushi joints in my area. There is a bug in this app where sometimes the 'Route' button is missing and you can only resolve this by leaving the app and quitting the process in the multitasking trail. When it builds your route, you can click on any point of transfer and it will tell you what time that bus/train is leaving. There is no list view, but personally I never found list view very helpful anyway. I know some people will disagree though.
Now I'll talk about HopStop. This is a kind of clunky interface unfortunately, and also has ads which I can't stand. It is able to reference your contact list. My least favorite thing about this app is the list it gives you is so excessively long-winded it's hilarious. Every single stop along the route is listed in this list view, so you'll be scrolling through literally dozens of pages of useless information like 'Pass such-and-such - 1 min. Pass such-and-such - 1 min. Pass such and such - 2 min.' Oh well. The good news is on this insanely long list, it indicates when you are supposed to do something other than sit patiently in your seat by having an icon to the left of that instruction - either a person walking or a bus number. When you switch to list view unfortunately it no longer displays departure times, so you'll have to be switching betwen maps and list view. One great feature of this app is it lets you save routes to your favorite list. It also lets you find bus stops and quickly see what bus lines hit those stops. I can't stand the flashing advertisements, so I avoid using this at all costs.
On to 'City Maps'. Again, the first thing you will see is a short list of bus lines that hit the stop nearest to you. Tap on one and it shows you the next three departures in either direction, as well as the distance between your current location and the stop in question. This app also searches for restaurants and such, but takes this feature on step further. Here when I type in 'sushi' and select a restaurant, I'm brought to a page that links to the Yelp, Foursquare, and Facebook pages associated with it - even has a link that takes you directly to the menu if Foursquare has it. Awesome feature, right?? Tap on 'Map' and it immediately displays the location and an option to build a few routes. It always displays the walking route below the bus lines to give you a sense of how long it would take (even if it's a two hour walk). Clicking on a bus route on this list takes you to list view. Unfortunately this also displays a deluge of pointess turns that only the bus driver need worry about, but it's not as bad as HopStop. There's an optional feature where it can display Google Street View images right in this list view, if you think that could be helpful. With one tap it quickly switches to a very aesthetically pleasig map view. There's an update button that lets you immediately refresh directions, edit starting/ending points, or give it new directions altogether.
I'm sure in just a moment someone will come along and say something insulting about how we're blowing things out of proportion. I guess that's just the nature of trolls - a lot of people find being angry on forums while hiding behind their screen names cathartic for obvious reasons. Let's all of us just do our best to ignore these people and keep this discussion diplomatic and oriented towards helpful solutions. I know none of us want to give up our beloved iPhones, I'm only considering it as a last resort.