With a scarcity of free parking in Baltimore City, an increase in gas prices, and thus, an increase in public transportation, the Maryland Transit Administration has developed a trip planner in partnership with Google to help local travelers find the most effective and efficient public transportation. Check it out at http://www.mtamaryland.com/. The tool seems to be pretty useful, though if you live in an area farther away from public transportation, you may get a message that says your search appears to be outside the current coverage area as the tool only maps out routes you can ride public transportation to and reasonably walk to NOT drive to.

For people who think that looking at schedules is confusing, (many people!) this is a great tool; users can enter the time they plan to leave or when they would like to arrive, as well as the street or town name, and they will get an itinerary of which public transportation to take and where to meet it. Public transportation includes Baltimore’s light rail, buses, metro subway, and Marc train.

The trip planner is actually on Google Maps. After entering in the locations and time, you get how long the trip will take, a few suggested times to leave based on the time you want to leave or arrive, the ability to get reverse directions, and the public transportation to use (and the streets to pick it up at) to get there. People interested in using the trip planner can go to http://www.mtamaryland.com/

Another way to get the information is to go to Google Maps at  http://maps.google.com/,  click on Get  Directions, and enter starting and ending addresses. Google Maps will automatically show the driving route so click on Public Transit to get directions without using a car. In addition to Maryland, other states and even countries provide public transit information on Google Maps. Find that information at http:http://www.google.com/transit/