Last weekend my wife and I were responsible for planning a trip to Washington DC with her family. We knew from past experience that parking anywhere near the museums and monuments was an exercise in futility, so we checked out the "DC Transit Authority website":http://www.wmata.com/default.cfm to lookup the best station to park at and ride the train in.
I was completely flabbergasted when I realized that website for the Metro was ... good. Really good. The part that especially impressed was their "maps":http://www.wmata.com/maps/maps.cfm page. Within minutes we had found directions to the Greenbelt station, knew how many parking spots it had, what it would cost to park, and how much it would cost to ride to the Smithsonian station.
The nerd in me was also leaping for joy to see that they had used the Google Maps API to do a very slick overlay of the train routes, and even had an iPod version for download. This site was designed by a group that definitely understood that good maps are crucial, and that lots of people would be thrilled to have them available on their iPod rather than having to carry around a separate map.
Our actual experience on the Metro was also good, and I think it's a wonderful example of how public transportation should function.
Anyway, hats off to the Metro website team, as they gave us exactly what we were looking for in a minimal amount of time. This is how web design and development should be done.
2007-03-27T16:40:46+00:00
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<p>Last weekend my wife and I were responsible for planning a trip to Washington DC with her family. We knew from past experience that parking anywhere near the museums and monuments was an exercise in futility, so we checked out the <a href="http://www.wmata.com/default.cfm">DC Transit Authority website</a> to lookup the best station to park at and ride the train in.</p>
<p>I was completely flabbergasted when I realized that website for the Metro was … good. Really good. The part that especially impressed was their <a href="http://www.wmata.com/maps/maps.cfm">maps</a> page. Within minutes we had found directions to the Greenbelt station, knew how many parking spots it had, what it would cost to park, and how much it would cost to ride to the Smithsonian station.</p>
<p>The nerd in me was also leaping for joy to see that they had used the Google Maps <span class="caps">API</span> to do a very slick overlay of the train routes, and even had an iPod version for download. This site was designed by a group that definitely understood that good maps are crucial, and that lots of people would be thrilled to have them available on their iPod rather than having to carry around a separate map.</p>
<p>Our actual experience on the Metro was also good, and I think it’s a wonderful example of how public transportation should function.</p>
<p>Anyway, hats off to the Metro website team, as they gave us exactly what we were looking for in a minimal amount of time. This is how web design and development should be done.</p>
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In Praise of the DC Metro
notebook/2007/03/27/in_praise_of_the_dc_metro