There’s an atlas on my bookshelf. What’s the last time I used it?

Online maps just keep getting better and better. New from Google: street views. You can “walk” down a street and pan around. I’ve never been to Denver. But I now have a good idea of what their light rail looks like at street level. Also on Google: San Francisco‘s light rail system (that’s the J Church above) and Miami‘s Metromover. There are only 5 cities online, but I’m sure more are coming.

All of this has made getting around easier. But it’s also made it easier to be an informed citizen. Aerial maps were once the province of transit planners; now we can all get that, any time of day, from the comfort of our own desk. And the public has more power.

All of this has been made possible by private companies. When government agencies put map data online, the interfaces tend to be clunky — compare HGAC’s 2035 RTP project viewer to Google Maps. Google’s transit planner is better than any I’ve ever seen on any transit agency web site. Most agencies haven’t even made it as far as interactive maps. One wonders when they will learn for DC’s WMATA and use the private sector tools. If they don’t, the public will do it for them, like William Bright did for transit maps on iPods. Now agencies like WMATA and METRO are following suit.

Somewhere down the road is an interactive planning process where the public can draw lines on maps and see data: how much right of way does this street have? How many jobs would a station here serve? What’s the traffic count here? This isn’t to say we don;t need planners — we do. But computer tools will make planning less of a black box and more of a true community process.

Online mapping is already making it easier to get around on the infrastructure we have. Soon it will help us build better infrastructure.