Newsletter
Google Maps is helping you navigate the post-COVID world with a couple of new features, including one that lets you avoid crowds on public transit.
The feature is being rolled out today. And is an expansion of the ability to see how crowded certain trains or buses will be. In addition to avoiding crowds on public transit you can also now receive alerts that relate to information about COVID restrictions.
All of this is being pushed out to users of Google Maps starting today. That does not however mean that all users will have visibility of these features immediately. With that said, it may take a few days or weeks for them set in.
Google Maps public transit avoidance to help you plan your trips
Not everyone has the luxury of driving or being driven to work in their own vehicles. And some people do but they choose to use public transit to save money.
If you happen to be a user who takes public transit to and from work, this feature is for you. As noted before it builds off of the public transit details that Google started rolling out last year. Which would let users see which transit routes or bus lines were historically more crowded than others at certain times.
With this new feature, you can tap a button to select a trip that is less crowded. If you prefer it. Once you set up a trip, there’s now a filter you can enable that will show you trip results for not crowded, not too crowded, crowded, and very crowded options.
This way if a trip is very crowded and you want to avoid this, you can simply change your trip times or select a new train or bus.
Get alerts on COVID-19 restrictions for your transit or navigation routes
The other new feature is designed to help you become more informed on government restrictions based around COVID-19 for transit. As well as for your driving routes.
You’ll get these alerts if Google Maps notices that a route you’ve selected has things like COVID-19 checkpoints.
Worth noting is that Google is not rolling these alerts out to all regions where Google Maps is available. The transit alerts for example, are rolling out in the US, the UK, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, France, India, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, and Thailand.
The medical facility alerts meanwhile, are rolling out in the US, the Philippines, South Korea, Israel, and Indonesia, and the checkpoints alerts are rolling out starting with the US, Canada, and Mexico.