Six Colors
Six Colors

by Jason Snell & Dan Moren

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By Shelly Brisbin

Apple Maps’ missing transit link

Apple Maps triptych
Here’s the same location, shown in Explore, Driving, and Transit modes in Maps. Each screen is a bit zoomed in, and they’re all shown in Dark Mode. Note the low-contrast gray-on-gray of the Transit view.

I am a frequent transit user — or I was before the pandemic. That distinction is important because, on a pair of recent trips, I came back into content with transit and Apple Maps in a way that left me scratching my head. Was it like this before?

Maps image of walking on a dotted line.
Here’s what you see when you plot a transit trip and get off the bus a few blocks from your destination. Not terrible, but a turn-by-turn option with higher contrast text would be better.

When I’m in Austin, Texas, where I live, I use the excellent Transit app to find bus and train connections. Mostly, I’m looking for departure times and connections. I don’t really need turn-by-turn directions, because I know where the Republic Square station is, thank you very much.…

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