The Sunday deployment of the Goose Commuter Management Platform (v3.6) included the following updates & enhancements to our platform:

Introducing Google Maps

We've updated the Goose ride finder to use Google Maps. In addition to Google's sleek visuals, the Google Maps API offers superior geocoding, meaning faster & more accurate results when searching for public transit options to your worksite. We're sure you'll find both the look & performance of the ride finder much enhanced by the switch to Google Maps.

Ride Finder Enhancements

In addition to the switch to Google Maps, we've made a number of updates to the ride finder to optimize for trips on public transit. 

When planning a trip, we now ask users to set departure time using a single slider. We've also removed the 'walking distance' slider; now we'll simply look for the closest options to your point of origin. If there are no transit options near to your starting point, we'll suggest nearby stops that offer service to your desired destination. 

We've also made a number of visual and under-the-hood changes to how we return search results. On the front-end we've made a few changes to the search results display, both within the trip details box and on the map itself. Each leg of your trip -- including walking and transfers -- is color-coded, both within the search results info box and directly on the map itself. On the back-end, we've made a number of updates to the ride planner's search algorithms to greatly improve the speed & quality of suggested trips on public transit.

Ride Finder Widget

Customers with existing transportation services websites will be excited to learn that the ride finder is now available as a fully customizable widget. Developers can now choose embedd the ride finder directly into any existing web page using just a few lines of JavaScript, and control configurations ranging from the size of the ride finder to search options settings.