511 and participating Bay Area transit agencies are pleased to launch the new 511 Transit website redesign. This new website provides you with several new features and more interactive transit information. We’ve made the 511 Transit website more flexible and easier to use based on customer feedback and consultation with the transit agencies, and have redesigned it to give you more of what you’ve asked for.

New & Improved Website Features:

Trip Planner—completely new transit trip planning software for better results, including at-a-glance summaries of multiple trip options. Use the entry form within the “Plan a Trip” tab to type in your start and end point as a street address, an intersection of streets, or a landmark. Or select a rail station or ferry landing directly from the “Select Rail Stations” and “Select Ferry Landings” links drop down lists.

For example, start at Harrison St. and 10th St., Oakland and end at 3500 California St., San Francisco. Click “Plan Trip”, and you’ll see a list of Trip Summaries with the trip best meeting your criteria highlighted. Below the Summaries, you’ll see a detailed itinerary for the highlighted trip, including turn-by-turn walking directions for trip ends and transfers, and the route plotted on the map. Additional trip summaries that provide other trip options using your specified criteria are also displayed.

Navigation & Layout—wider page displays and easy to use tab designs with the ability to see your information and map results side-by-side. Related information is more readily available on a single page, with fewer links needed and improved interactivity.

Map Interactivity—Set points by clicking on the maps, and click on map feature displays such as start/end points, route lines, bus stops, rail stations and transfer points, which also provide additional information in map pop-up bubbles. The maps can be navigated via sliding zoom bars, panning and dragging, and setting a zoom-in box frame.

New Transit Information Features:

Nearby Routes and Services—enter a location here and this feature will give you information on all transit routes and stops near that location. Then you can map route lines with stops, view scheduled vehicle departure times, or plan a trip from these locations. You can find this feature on the Transit home page to the right of the Plan a Trip tab, or under the “Trip Planning” menu.

Rail Systems—plot Bay Area rail lines and stations on the map, and view station facility information, connecting route links, and vehicle departure times for various stations and stops. You can find this feature under the “Trip Planning” menu.

Customizable Schedules—this feature lets you decide what times and stops along the route to see in your schedule table. Only show the ones you want to see! Access this feature starting from the home page in the “Schedules and Route Maps” selection box, or from the “Schedules, Maps, and Fares” tab under the top banner. Select a transit agency under the mode icons (Bus, Rail, Ferry, etc.) and then you’ll see a list of routes to click on for schedule displays.

Full route maps with all stop locations—from the Schedule detail displays, click the “Show Route Map” button and an interactive map with the transit route line and stops will show (please be aware that some of these lines are generated automatically, and do not connect all stops for every route variation). You can click the stops on the maps for more information in pop-up bubbles, or select them from a drop down list, or by clicking on the schedule tables’ stop headings. Also on the page are clickable expansion bars for details on fares, announcements, selecting different routes to view, and more. All on a single page for easy viewing!

Need Help?—To provide you with assistance using the features on this site, we have included Help pop-up boxes. Click on the question marks (“?”) on the upper right sides of the various sections to access these Help boxes.

Upcoming Features—This new 511 Transit website has been available in beta version since May 2008. With this July release, we are including even more features, including the complete Regional Highlights (Bay Area Transit Basics, Popular Destinations, and the All Nighter Service), searchable Announcements, and a new dropdown selector for Ferry Landings to make trip plans on ferries easier to create.

Additional convenient features will be rolled out in the weeks and months following this July launch, such as drop down selection lists to choose landmarks and business listings for trip planning and map displays, easy to use Holiday schedule pop-ups for each agency, and a menu item to select a trip plan preference for least cost trips. Soon afterward, 511 Transit will begin developing wireless device access and MY 511 features, and expanding on available Real Time vehicle departure information.

Browser Compatibility and Known Issues—This newwebsite is compatible with Windows IE6, IE7, and Firefox for Windows and Mac. Using Firefox 2.0 or greater, or IE7 is recommended. At this time, the site does not work optimally with Safari. IE6 map displays have some differences with IE7 and Firefox as well. As always with interactive mapping, high-speed internet connections are preferable.

This new website is not fully accessible to electronic screen readers for those with visual impairments. Another version of the new trip planner software that is accessible for electronic screen reader software is available with this July launch.This version is now incorporated into the other existing “Accessible” 511 Transit website, at http://transit.511.org/accessible. This accessible Transit website will stay live in parallel with this new website from July, and can be reached from the “Accessible Version” link in the upper left corner of the new 511 Transit website.

The new 511 Transit website is now out of the beta phase. However, there will still be bugs and issues that we are working on for a period of time after this launch, which may include:

Please notify us if you come across particular issues or have comments, using the “Suggestions” link located at the top right above the blue 511 Transit banner on this website, or Feedback buttons on the Plan a Trip and Nearby Routes and Services results pages. We want to know what you think, so please feel free to submit your feedback.

We hope you enjoy the new 511 Transit website. We are dedicated to continuing to improve it and make it easier for you to use. Thanks for using 511!

511 Transit Team
July 6, 2008