- Google Maps has updated its service to show how crowded places are now.
- We took a look at some of the most crowded places in India to see whether Indians are back on the road – however data suggests that some places have as low as just 10% of footfall when compared to pre-COVID times.
- Google Maps also lets users add crowdedness information – with options like very crowded, not crowded and more.
After more than two months of nationwide lockdown, the Indian government has started lifting the lockdown gradually. However, Indians are not really rushing out of their homes to get back to work and resume their regular lives.
According to data obtained from Google Maps, some of the most crowded places in the country are yet to recover the footfalls. In some cases, the crowds are as low as just 10% of the usual, which suggests there is a long way to go before the Indian economy goes back to its normal.
To make things easier for its users, Google Maps has added the ability to see how crowded public transport like buses and trains are. The feature was announced by Google on June 8, and it is going live in India among several other countries.
“Getting from A to B can be more complicated these days. Because of COVID-19, it’s increasingly important to know how crowded a train station might be at a particular time or whether the bus is running on a limited schedule,” Google
said in its official blog post.
People will also be able to contribute to the crowdedness information in Google Maps, the company noted.
How does this work?
Google uses location pings to determine the status of traffic and other information. This information is then used in Maps to show the traffic status in that particular area.
For example, when you navigate in Google Maps, it displays traffic status with green, orange and red lines – with green being the least amount of traffic, and red being the most.