I'm surprised that this would be open to interpretation. In the law it's well-established that a schedule falls under factual data (dates, times, measurements, etc.) and is ineligible for copyright protection. The times themselves cannot be subject to copyright, but their presentation is. You can take Metro's individual schedules, combine them in a booklet and sell ads if you wish. Metro, though, is going to be looking at any way to get you to share its cash. It can take you to court if you use its logo or misappropriate its name (like, "Go Metro to the Staples Center").

Maybe Metro is wondering whether it can get some sort of compensation for sharing its data with Google, such as ad sharing. I think that Google, though, does Transit on a zero-cost basis. It won't charge agencies for publishing schedules, but it won't share revenues, either.

It'll be like Russell's Guide during the last Greyhound Strike. A bunch of little companies listed with no connections between them....

Besides, any difficulties involved in getting the info to google, be they technical or legal, is still not a good excuse. There's a whole list of U.S. cities that have done what was needed to get their public transit info into google maps. Metrolink managed to do it. So did the city of New York. Surely they have more bus and rail lines than L.A. does.

MTA needs to take some money, higher a programmer for a month, and get this done. It would be one of the most cost-effective ways to improve their service.

The problem is, if you look at the Google Transit API, it is an enormous task that needs data only the agency has. It needs schedule times for every stop in the system, not just the half-dozen or so on a printer schedule. It also needs every bus stop typed in, with global coordinates.

Look at the feed specification:
http://code.google.com/transit/spec/transit_feed_specification.html

The point is that anti-auto talk helps no one. Rather than reducing the share spent on highways (which will just piss off the construction lobby, unions, etc.), increase the share for transit projects, so that the construction workers still get to work, and middle class jobs are created in operating and maintaining the transit systems.

Congressman Earl Blumenhauer of Oregon opened my tiny mind to how unjust, and car-oriented, our federal transportation money hand-outs are.

I would love to see highway money disappear. That would be some change I believe in.

And yes, davidalvan, I too agree the MTA should give Google Maps some data already. Hey, maybe we could crowd source it? The BRU has a lot of bus-savvy volunteers right?

1. Give MTA's timetables to Google Maps.

2. Add little placards to bus stops that show the timetables for the buses that stop there. Or a map of the routes of the buses that stop there. Every bus stop that has enough human traffic to have a bench should get a placard with a map/timetable. This will make the bus system less intimidating to potential new riders or out-of-towners, since they will feel they can just go to the bus stop and get the info they need to navigate the city without a car.

3. Put the 761 on Rapidbus.net!

4. GIVE MTA's TIMETABLES TO GOOGLE MAPS ALREADY!

5. Utilize the GPS antennae on the buses that have them so that riders can track bus locations from their computers or even mobile phones. I know at least the rapids have GPS, because they have that "Windows Live" screen on the transit TV sometimes, and it tracks pretty well. There should be an on-line tool that lets people see that screen for a given bus line. Chicago is already doing this. My friend there just recently got a google phone, and mentioned how nice it is that she can just check her phone to see when a bus is actually close to arriving. Saves her tens of minutes per day. We need this.

6. "Premium" kiosks at major bus stops that are actually useful. For example, at Ventura/Sepulveda, on the south side of Ventura, there is a nice-looking covering with a red LED screen right where the bus pulls to a stop. You'd think the LED screen would be telling you something useful, like the arrival time of the next bus and which line it is (761, 720, etc.). But it doesn't. All it does is display the words "Metro Rapid Bus". Why are we using electricity to power an LED screen that doesn't do anything useful?

7. OH FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE! GIVE MTA's TIMETABLES TO GOOGLE MAPS! WE'RE THE SECOND BIGGEST CITY IN THE COUNTRY! THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE LONG AGO!

Sense a theme here? Each of these is a systemwide improvement that wouldn't cost all that much money compared to other projects, utilizes existing resources like the GPS antennae, and would make riding the bus easier, less intimidating, and more efficient for people from all walks of life. The middle-class commuter will consider taking the bus because he will be able to use his fancy mobile phone to know when the bus is coming, and save time he would have spent waiting at the bus stop, making it more worth his while. The lower-class commuters and tourists would have easier access to timetable and route information at the bus stops. And anyone planning trips within the city would be able to use Google Maps, the same system they are comfortable using in any other city in the nation or world, to plan transit trips.