Figuring out your Green Commute

During the Commuter Revolution, chances are you’ll be figuring out a completely new way to get to work.  While you probably drove alone in the past, now fiddling with bus maps and VRE timetables might be a bit daunting…  Luckily, there are some great tools on the web that can help you figure out your new commutes.  Here are just a few:

• Metro Trip Planner: For people looking to see what options exist on Metrobus, Metrorail or other local bus services, look no further than WMATA.com.  Metro provides a trip planning tool that lets you enter you origin/destination addresses as well as other information such as how far you’re willing to walk.  This is a great first place to check and see what options exist near your home and job.
  

  Courtesy of Flickr User wjarrettc

• NextBus: Now, it’s no secret that the bus doesn’t come on time.  When it does, we tend to call that a miracle.  For those other times, there can be long waits and questions regarding when the bus will actually arrive.  For commuters using Metrobus, a relatively new tool called NextBus can answer many of these questions.    Simply plug in what line you ride and what stop you’re waiting and and you’ll get real time information regarding how long until the bus arrives.  Each bus has a GPS receiver on it that provides these up-to-the second updates.  Say goodbye to wondering about the bus…
• Google Transit: For people looking to plan complete trips on the DASH bus, consider using Google Transit.  You may tend to think of Google Maps as only for driving, but there are also walking and transit directions available through maps.google.com.  Just enter where you’re coming from and where you’re going.  Google will create custom directions for you based on a variety of modes.  They’ve also recently added bicycling directions that find the most bike friendly routes for bike commuters to use as well.