A Google display booth was present, if not open for business, when I passed through Grand Central yesterday morning–located between, I think, Track 23 and the Hudson News just off the center of the concourse.

Later, chief Googlers Sergey Brin and Larry Page conducted a press conference from GCT explaining how Google Transit would “transform the experience of navigating New York City’s transit system,” says the New York Times.

Gov. Paterson, taking a break from lambasting the LIRR over their disability follies, was on hand.

It appears Metro-North and the LIRR are not part of the Google program, at least for now. Writes Sewell Chan of the Times:

The tool — which encompasses the transportation authority’s subways, buses and two commuter railroads, along with the PATH and New Jersey Transit commuter lines — appears far more sophisticated than existing online trip planners like Trips123, a site that was built with public financing.

It also seems to offer a key distinction from previous services: Users do not need to search specifically for transit information. Instead, they are shown transit routes, stations and stops even if they are merely searching for, say, a bagel store.

Interestingly, I noticed a Google Transit ad atop this very blog earlier today, the first time it has run. The ad program is Google Ad Sense, so perhaps it’s not that surprising.  

It’s Google’s world. We just ride subways in it.

It’s not exactly the Google bus system bringing employees to and from the Googleplex in California, but I did happen upon a pretty cool transportation method at Google’s New York HQ.

Google is located in the old Port Authority building on 15th and 8th, and the vast digs extend all the way to 9th Avenue.

To help those ultra-motivated young dotcommers get from A to B (and to the freakin’ sweet, and totally free) cafeteria, Google has set up scooter depots at various points around the building. The depots hold 10-12 of those lightweight Razor scooters that owned Gotham sidewalks about six years ago. It’s like cycling in Copenhagen or Paris–grab a ride, take it to where you want to go, and leave it at the station for the next person.

I think I saw at least three such stations during my brief visit to the Google compound. (I was also surprised not to bump into anyone I knew in that massive cafeteria, then remembered Google requires like a 3.5 college GPA or something. That explains it.)

I didn’t actually see anyone riding a scooter; the cynic in me wonders if they’re mostly there to reinforce Google’s devil-may-care core value and to encourage visitors to tell their friends (and even blog about!) those crazy scooters at the kooky Google HQ–along with the on-site masseuses, video game room and pool table.

The scooter idea is still pretty sweet though. Then again, with a market cap such as Google’s, they might spring for those baseball hat buggies favored by mustachioed relief pitchers in the 1970s.

[images from Razor, nflnut.com]

The Westchester section of the NY Times took on the topic of reverse commuting over the weekend in “The Big Commute, In Reverse.” The the topic has been written about a lot of late, but Ford Fessenden (is that a byline, or a long-discontinued car model?) unearths some intriguing numbers. Among them:

* Some 300,000 people live in New York City and commute to the ‘burbs.

* City residents commuting to the ‘burbs grew 12% from 2000 to 2005.

* NYC residents commuting to Long Island rose 5% during that period, New Jersey grew 14% while those commuting to jobs in Westchester and Connecticut climbed 32%.

Some of the reasons given are the escalating price of office space in the city and the emergence of workspace near mass transit in the suburbs, as opposed to the office parks (such as Dunder-Mifflin’s) that took off between 1980 and 2000, reports Fessenden.

Metro-North is credited for adding a third track to White Plains two years ago, and business groups are lobbying to add an east-west track linking Rockland County to Westchester.

The story unearths all sorts of individuals with heinous reverse commutes, and some with a less dreadful company shuttle bus ride from the train to the office, such as employees at OSI Pharmaceuticals in Farmingdale on Long Island, which runs two vans during each rush hour–sort of like the Google buses.  

The company decided two years ago to try to tap the labor pool in New York City, and now a dozen of its 250 Farmingdale employees ride the train and take a shuttle from Farmingdale, and vice versa.

Dan Sherman, 39, a medicinal chemist, is one of them.

“I don’t have a car, and I don’t want a car,” said Mr. Sherman, who lives in Jackson Heights, Queens. “I don’t want to live on Long Island, but this kind of business is never in a place where I want to live.

“Company buses are a big perk,” he said. “I would have been reluctant to take this job without that.”

A quick perusal of this week’s Google searches that brought people to Trainjotting reveal some angry teens, a bunch of black drag queens, and America’s unhealthy obsession with traffic reporter Trish Yodice…and her hair.

 Harry Potter asian beast

Straw Up Jeans Legs On April fools Day

angry teens

catwalk ass

10 commandments of commuting

giant drag queen

black drag queen`s

i stepped on my glasses

scotched

metro north ” big board”

Anatomy of HAtha yoga

petes dads heads shaped like a ping pong

meet Drag Queens in London

“Trish Yodice”

Trish Yodice

trish yodice

TRISH YODICE

trish yodice hair

A quick scan of the Google searches that brought readers to Trainjotting this week show that lots of people are wearing popped collars–and the Budweiser girls aren’t wearing much of anything.

continental airlines stink shield

beer bottle hitting a train

photo pants ripping

the most boring jobs

continental seat bathroom 29E pdf

napkin lav airline

flooding starbucks

rats in washington dc metro

topless painted budweiser girls

things to do in cincinnati tonight

blue conduit smurfs

the return of popped collars

metro north is disgusting

lirr dual mode lemons

Wheels on the Bus Go Round And Round

“with the car top down and the radio”

history popped collars

TIPS FOR USING MR. BEER

its a mad mad mad mad world

A small sampling of the Google searches people employed to arrive at Trainjotting last week. What we learn: Rats are scary, John Rocker is still in demand, and Samuel Adams never lived in Cincinnati.

my rage rat

aids subway beirut “John Rocker”

ecstasy under the queen’s feet

hungry cincinnati

how much do LIRR conductors make

“high voltage” switch pantograph

why do people make a blank stare?

trish yodice traffic reporter

john rocker crotch

man in the bronx gets his ear bit off

what the kids are googling

auden picking your nose

vegemite

things to do in Cincinnati

subway systems with rats

riding with my top down

Where did samuel adams live

Rich Hall’s Sniglets

The searches that brought visitors to Trainjotting this week show that they’re still obsessed with gangsta hos, drag queens, Papa Smurf and Choo Choo Charlie.

Some of the better ones:

gangster hos

metro north slow

white trash Amtrak

poppa smurf car seat covers

lirr cop ass

Choo Choo Charlie was an engineer

child afro hair

bicycle racks london bridge

shark week+foam hat

he smiles at me and i look down

Feel sick and dirty, more dead than aliv

riding around with the car top down

bipods

lady cheng’s drag queens

nice rack

old lady train to Larchmont

bad airplane seat bathroom blanket napkin

big rat ny train station

sheila dikshit+bluelines

Some interesting tidbits from the search engine searches that brought America to Trainjotting this week.

* Wardrobe malfunctions abound among train commuters

* Conductors apparently wave white wands in the air

* There was a search for “gangsta hos,” or something similar, every day this week. (Mon: gangsta hos Tues: gangsta hos Weds: badass hos Thurs: gangster ho’s Fri: gangster hos)

Some of the highlights:

zipper broke on Fleetwoodbus

armrest ripped pants

the long white stick the conductor holds

metro “step back” lady voice

padding zoo li

cellphone consideration

sniglets police

american devil blackberry “mr. beer”

“on time” percentage

negative behavior in crowded spaces

The various searches that brought readers to Trainjotting this week reveal that you’re all obsessed with “padding” zoos, gangsta ho’s, and John Rocker’s crotch.

Bless you all.

Among the highlights:

feel sick and dirty and more dead than a

sneak on lirr tickets

ride a bike to work lirr

how to beat the lirr avoid conductor fak

“new roc city” “safety”

padding zoo long island

editorials + commuting problems + Mumbai

badass gangsta ho

eye contact smile train

lyrics paddy workin on the railway

mta seats rip pants

beware of the gap LIRR

metro north trouser rip

Vatican’s 10 Commandments for drivers ho

crotch john rocker [Editor’s Note: Ewww!]

“touching” and “crowded train”

making the LIRR faster

These Google searches, among many others, brought people to Trainjotting this week. It appears our visitors like drinking on the train (cheers to that!), are more than a little obsessed with the secret platform in Grand Central, and aren’t above a little “naggling.”

sopranos commute

trainjotting.com (Editor’s Note: Yay!)

LAZY LIRR CONDUCTORS

new roc city riot

naggling

beer guy paid

“pete seeger” banjo 2007

sneak alcohol on lirr

secret bar lounge Grand Central Terminal

subway commute + India

Rich Hall’s Sniglets

lirr fake tickets

secret tunnel under grand central termin

i saw FDR’s secret train platform

train stop sudden jerk