Commuters can now use Bing Maps to find transit routes around major metropolitan areas in the United States and Canada. The announcement was first made today on the official Bing Blog.
The transit directions will initially be available in 11 cities throughout North America. They include Seattle, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New Jersey, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Washington DC, and Vancouver. Microsoft says that additional cities will be rolled out in the future.
"You"ll notice in the screenshot that the transit information is featured alongside each route option. This helps users easily compare route options based on their existing knowledge of the transit and their preferences. Transit options are available for bus, subway, light rail, and local rail."
The new feature is available in the standard version of Bing Maps, but not yet in the Silverlight-powered version or on Bing Mobile. "The information in the Bing Transit map is provided by various transportation agencies in major metropolitan regions," said a Bing representative "Please note, Bing Transit only works on AJAX supported sites."
The announcement is just one of many to be released over the course of the week. Neowin reported yesterday of the soon-to-be-released animated Bing homepage, Microsoft"s answer to Google instant search results.