Google Maps now helps you avoid people on the train

The world is slowly opening up again. You may find yourself using public transportation for the first time in ages and trying to find a way to get around. There are some useful new features in Google Maps that could help us get through this time, both literally and figuratively.

For people who end up on a bus or train, Google is expanding its public transport congestion forecast. The company now works with more than 10,000 transit agencies in more than 100 countries to provide you with real-time forecasts of the number of seats on the train. The maps will tell you if there are any free seats or not at all to help you get a better idea of ​​when to go up for a ride. In New York and Sydney, Google is even experimenting with the ability to see live crowd data to every transit car. You’ll know you have the option if you see a colored “Live” indicator, as well as if the line you’re taking is “busier than usual” or “not too busy”. For trains, you’ll even see numbers showing which train cars are the least populated.

While you are on this train, you may be wondering what you are doing with your life. There is also a new feature to help manage this called Timeline Insights. Google Maps will bring together what you’ve done with your life and where you’ve been, as long as you turn on your location history. The maps will track how often you shop or eat out, and whether you drive, fly, walk or cycle to get there. The feature is available in the Timeline tab, accessible behind your profile picture in the Google Maps app.

Then, when a friend asks for suggestions based on a trip you’ve taken somewhere in pre-pandemic life, you can scroll down the timeline and tap Trips to check where you’ve eaten and which landmarks you’ve passed. Enable the option to select them all, then add them to their own list and export the route to a friend. And if that scares you afterwards, you can clean the data entirely with google automatic deletion controls.

Finally, as you walk around town safely this summer, Google encourages you to come up with some useful information. Once you’ve left a review, Maps will ask you for additional prompts, such as price ranges and whether you ordered take out or delivery.

The new features are now deployed on Google Maps on Android and iOS.