Ann Arbor Michigan Bus Tracker

Anyone that frequents Google Maps Mania knows that I'm a big fan of the Dublin DartMaps mashup in Ireland that combines the real-time locations of commuter trains with static Google street and satellite maps. Here is a new maps creation from the an unknown individual or group at the University of Michigan that is doing the exact same thing in the city of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

This first map page appears to be a testing ground for the later map that I'll point out, but the maps contained on this page have some cool features that are being tested. The maps allow you to choose a bus number and start tracking it on the map. The map re-centers and follows the bus icon as it chugs along the streets of Ann Arbor.

A more polished deployment is shown here on the Pierpont Arrivals Map that displays buses arriving to The Pierpont Commons at the University of Michigan. Maps like these will take Google Maps mashups into the mobile Internet. I'm looking forward to a time when all mobile devices with a data plan have services like this to track the real-time locations of the opt-in transit vehicles, planes, taxis and even people around us! This is how Google's mapping technology will help increase the uptake in data services for wireless carriers... Oh, and transform the Internet. :)