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Post by wad on Apr 19, 2007 23:39:02 GMT -8
Google Maps now has a cool feature, My Maps. It allows you to draw lines, shapes and pinpoints on top of actual street maps. This would help enhance some of the dream rail proposals on this site, and would allow the lines to be scaled and contoured to what they actually look like. This would come in handy for many of us. Damien, I'm looking at you.  |
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joequality
Junior Member
Bitte, ein Bit!
Posts: 88
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Post by joequality on Apr 20, 2007 14:36:56 GMT -8
damn that does look fun to use! Time to connect the green to the expo to the purple...
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Post by wad on Jun 1, 2007 23:35:03 GMT -8
Google has now enhanced maps with Street Views. I was trying this out, and it's crazy. You can actually take a pedestrian-eye view of neighborhoods with 360-degree views.
So far, only 5 cities are up: San Francisco Bay Area, Las Vegas, Denver, New York City and Miami.
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Post by James Fujita on Jun 10, 2007 7:30:31 GMT -8
Street Views is pretty awesome, although I've just used it in San Francisco so far.
From a transit fan's point of view, it's fun to follow the Embarcadero tracks from Fisherman's Wharf down to 4th and Townsend. If you look in just the right places, you can see PCC cars, modern Muni light rail vehicles, even Caltrain trains waiting for passengers.... it's a great way to see "how the other guy lives" and get transit ideas while you're at it
Right now, I'm going to look at Denver, since it has a major above-ground light rail presence. I hope they expand this.
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Post by tonyw79sfv on Jun 15, 2007 17:42:18 GMT -8
Speaking of Google, Google Earth has the Metro Rail lines laid out nicely including Metrolink Lines, but the Orange Line is not there. Who puts the lines in there? NYC's part of Google Earth doesn't have their subway lines mapped out yet, other cities like San Diego and San Francisco have. The OCTA and Burbank bus stops and lines are pretty messed up though.
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Post by bluelineshawn on Jun 15, 2007 19:15:42 GMT -8
Speaking of Google, Google Earth has the Metro Rail lines laid out nicely including Metrolink Lines, but the Orange Line is not there. Who puts the lines in there? NYC's part of Google Earth doesn't have their subway lines mapped out yet, other cities like San Diego and San Francisco have. The OCTA and Burbank bus stops and lines are pretty messed up though. Do you mean google maps? Google earth doesn't show NYC subway lines because they're underground... |
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Post by tonyw79sfv on Jun 15, 2007 20:30:17 GMT -8
I meant Google Earth, the program that is downloaded and not run off of the web browser. Google Maps is web-based but is more basic, however it does show the metro stations. For LA, Google Maps shows the stations marked with an "M" in a blue square; this is consistent with other cities like New York. On Google Earth, the stations are dots, and there are lines overlaid. In LA, the line's color corresponds correctly, like a red line for the Metro Red Line. The overlay is pretty accurate to some degree. However, the Orange Line is not on Google Earth, with only a "Google Earth Community" plot to identify it. The satellite imagery was updated a few months ago, it looks like a 2005 aerial shot with the Orange Line completed, but prior to the update, the aerial was from 2003 or 2004 showing the Orange Line as a dirt road. Google Earth is pretty useful, I use the ruler function a lot to check how far of a walk it is from that stations to my destination. I also use it to measure the distance of streets and calculate the average speed of the Locals and Rapids.
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Post by bluelineshawn on Jun 16, 2007 12:36:54 GMT -8
Okay, now I see what you mean. I have no idea why it's not consistent from one city to the next.
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Post by Tony Fernandez on Jun 16, 2007 17:55:01 GMT -8
Well, there seems to be only one problem (if you want to do Damien's map). Google will only show so many lines at a time. It comes to a limit, and then it's like another slide of a powerpoint presentation. Is there a workaround?
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Post by James Fujita on Aug 12, 2007 17:06:37 GMT -8
wow, when did Google Maps add Los Angeles and San Diego to the list of cities with the Street Views feature? naturally, with a city the size of Los Angeles, you can't expect every street to be mapped out, but I'm going to start snooping around to see if I can see Blue Line trains or Gold Line construction  EDIT: the Street Views doesn't get into East Los Angeles at all. and they must have sent the camera trucks out months ago, I'm looking at Alameda near Union Station and the big snaking curve is just a bunch of posts! |
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Post by tonyw79sfv on Aug 12, 2007 20:37:35 GMT -8
I just noticed the Street Views myself. The dating to some of the panoramic pics are unknown, but I can tell some spots when the pics are taken. For example, for Vermont and Sunset on Vermont, there are 60 foot buses for 754 but 40 foot buses for 204, so those pics are done between December 2005 to December 2006. For Van Nuys Blvd, there are 60 foot buses for 233, so those pics are done after December 2006. Some parts of Wilshire around the Miracle Mile shows 45 foot buses on the 720, which indicates those pics are done before June 2006.
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Post by nickv on Aug 12, 2007 21:16:19 GMT -8
Look for a Blue Line train at the PCH Station in Long Beach. On the I-105 there's a Green Line train at the Vermont Station (it's hard to notice at first because the station is under a bridge). If anybody's interested the trip along the I-110 was photographed on the Harbor Transitway headed to LA and the I-10 was photographed along the El Monte Busway between El Monte and just before the I-710 headed to LA. I found several Metro and Foothill busses passing on the other side but I was UTL the Silver Streak busses.
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Post by James Fujita on Aug 13, 2007 15:51:45 GMT -8
coolness. it looks like there's a Blue Line train turning the corner from Long Beach Boulevard to the transit mall in Long Beach, but you can only see it from a distance.
for some odd reason, I'm not as impressed with these pictures as I was of the pictures in San Francisco or Denver. there's more of a glare from the sun in some pictures and sometimes the picture looks blurry. maybe that's because people were complaining about privacy?
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Post by wad on Aug 15, 2007 23:59:51 GMT -8
maybe that's because people were complaining about privacy? If people were caught in a photo, they could ask for Google to remove it. |
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Post by wad on Aug 16, 2007 0:01:00 GMT -8
Well, there seems to be only one problem (if you want to do Damien's map). Google will only show so many lines at a time. It comes to a limit, and then it's like another slide of a powerpoint presentation. Is there a workaround? Try doing them in Google Maps and saving them as a .kml. |
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Post by whitmanlam on Aug 16, 2007 13:38:20 GMT -8
The Gold line train can be clearly seen at the Chinatown Station platform above N. Spring St. and College St. (Funny name, there's no "College" near there)
Streetview is more of a novelty, not really helpful for finding places, it's so blurry like looking out of a fishbowl. Buildings look tiny, in proportion. Details not so sharp.
Even Skid row looks like a decent place to hang out, with the Google camera.
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Post by nickv on May 22, 2008 8:19:40 GMT -8
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