We've all been there before: Rushing to catch a subway while running late, hoping to be able to jump on just in the nick of time, only to race through the gates and find the train is filled to the brim with other riders.
Or maybe it's just that car is full — meanwhile the cars in the front of rear of the train have plenty of space, but there's no way to make it to one of those cars before you have to stand clear of the closing doors, please.
As the city continues to get back to work, and more people are commuting once again, Google is looking to eliminate some of those common frustrations. Google Maps will now have a feature that in addition to showing how far away the next train or bus is, but will also show which subway cars are the least crowded.
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It works just like how crowd tracker works for businesses. After selecting which subway or bus to take, the app will include an option that lets users share what the status is for room on the bus/subway.
The range starts at not crowded, and from there goes not too crowded, crowded, very crowded or at capacity, which might mean that the train is not allowing more people one.
The app will also label which cars themselves are crowded or not, helping commuters line themselves up at the right position on the platform so they don't pick the already-full ones.
