Commuters in Greater Manchester can now choose the best places to live for their journey to work – thanks to a computer expert who has never set foot in the city.
An interactive map created by a young German developer calculates the time it takes to travel on public transport from any point in the region.
By clicking on the map, users can see how well-connected their workplace is to public transport services.
Travellers are able to select the time they would like to spend commuting and the map shows all the areas they could live in to get to work in that time.
The site would be particularly useful to staff relocating to the area and trying to decide where to start househunting – such as BBC workers wanting a home within easy reach of Mediacity at Salford Quays.
It shows that Sale, Timperley, Irlam and Swinton are within 30 minutes' commuting distance of Salford Quays if you are relying on public transport, while Whalley Range, Didsbury and Walkden are a little above the half-hour mark.
The map was created by developer Stefan Wehrmeyer, a 23-year-old student based in Berlin.
He was able to build the free service on his website Mapnificent by taking advantage of bus timetable data made public last year by transport chiefs in Greater Manchester.
Manchester is one of only eight European cities to have opened up the transport information.
Stefan said the map could be of use to anyone who travels to work on public transport.
“The map can show all the areas where you can live if you want to commute to your workplace in less than 30 minutes”, he said.
Stefan spent two months setting up his Mapnificent website, which includes public transport information from cities including Berlin, Helsinki, Turin, Budapest and London as well as several more in the United States.
However, he said that setting up the Greater Manchester page took him just a 'couple of minutes' because of the way transport data has been made easily accessible to the public.
Transport for Greater Manchester, previously known as GMPTE, released the information last July as part of the DataGM project, which encourages Greater Manchester councils and public bodies to make data freely available.
Stefan said the region was leading the way in granting public access to the information.
He added: “I must congratulate Greater Manchester for releasing the public transport information as open data.
“Manchester may not be the first city [to release the information], but what makes it special is that the public transport data is made available under an Open License through DataGM, which makes it really easy for developers to use.”
Stefan regularly uses public transport in Berlin, where he is studying IT and engineering.
He added: “I have never been to Manchester, but it looks like it has a great public transport system, so I should definitely come and visit!”
You can see the map at http://www.mapnificent.net/manchester/
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Fantastic!
Alas, if Stefan was to come to Manchester he'd find that the tram service we are blessed with, would, in all likelihood, leave him still stood at the Salford Quays stop of his choosing for half an hour, thus his distance travelled would only be as far as he could walk.
On a Sunday I've walked from Old Trafford to Eccles along the tram line and not been passed by a single tram. A bus service would be nice, but I guess reducing the journey time from the quays to Eccles to approx ten minutes might prove how useless the Eccles tram line is.
Not very good though is it, i live in woodley and work at victoria station in town, the site says its a 56 minute commute !. it actually takes me 22 minuites by train to piccadilly from woodley then either 10 mins to walk or 20 mins on the tram to victoria.
i can drive the distance a total of 11.5 miles in 25 to 45 mins depending on traffic and i can cycle to work which i do often in an average of 30 to 35 mins
It seems to work pretty well for me (from Stockport). What it does show (and the picture above does too) - is how inefficient our transport is when it comes to crossing the city centre
According to this map it would take me 65 minutes to get from Chorlton to Bredbury....it only takes me 64 mins....absolutely useless!
does it include the First Bus driver cig stop and not bothering to leave Bolton Bus station on time even when in the station, drivers drinks, chats and cigs then possibly passengers.
Why not try http://www.cyclestreets.net/journey/ and see how much time it takes by cycling it is quicker for me especially if yu factor in the 5 minute wait for the bus/tram etc.
No jokes about trains running on time?