Comparing Orange County, the city of San Diego or a handful of other California metropolitan areas to the North Coast isn’t likely to produce a lengthy list of similarities between the more populous locales and the stretch of state behind the Redwood Curtain.

As of this past spring, however, Humboldt County has an additional parallel with some of its southern counterparts due to the work of an Arcata man who quite literally put Humboldt County on the map.

Sitting at the large monitor that’s part of his sunny workstation, Aaron Antrim opened Google Transit. He typed his Sunny Brae address into the “Start address” field, an intersection near The Arcata Plaza into the “End address” box, and within seconds had complete directions for taking public transportation to his destination, in addition to some alternative routes.

Showing the time of the next bus departure by default, the directions included the option of customizing his trip depending on when he might want to leave.

“Google Transit is MapQuest for public transportation,” Antrim said.

A recent endeavor of the Internet giant Google, Google Transit was launched in December 2005. Humboldt County is currently one of 18 regions in the U.S. and the country of Japan to have public transit information available on the site.

Seeing the value in the online resource, Antrim worked to include local information from the Redwood Transit System, Eureka Transit Service and Arcata & Mad River Transit Systems on Google Transit.

Antrim is currently active in Green Wheels, an affiliate of the Northcoast Environmental Center described on its Web site as “an advocacy organization committed to promoting balanced and sustainable transportation on the North Coast.”

He first got involved in the group when he was a student activist in Humboldt State University’s Green Wheels organization.

“I was going to enter Economic Fuel,” Antrim said. Economic Fuel is a student business contest sponsored by The Eureka Reporter that rewards entrepreneurs who have the best business plans. “I had an idea for something that was going to be like Google Transit,” he continued.

When Antrim learned of the plans for Google Transit, however, he decided that in lieu of attempting to compete with Google, he’d encourage the local transit systems to get on board.

After speaking with the Humboldt Transit Authority, Antrim got his business venture after all. He submitted proposals to HTA and the Arcata & Mad River Transit System. The proposals suggested creating new Web sites for RTS, ETS and AMRTS and making the transit information available on Google Transit.

Antrim was contracted and the sites were launched in June. Each is linked from HTA’s home page, www.hta.org. The sites feature trip itinerary planners, maps and schedule grids, as well as schedules downloadable to iPODS, PDAs and mobile devices.

The creation of Antrim’s business, Transit Information Solutions, seemed a natural step that fell into place following his contracted work. The business provides online schedule management and publishing for public transportation agencies.

“It’s pretty cool to see the impact of the Web sites,” Antrim said, indicating monthly average visitor statistics for the three transit sites have continued to rise. The use of Google Transit for the local area is allowing people to learn things about the system they may not have known before, he added.

Antrim, who is originally from Eureka, graduated from HSU with an English degree in 2006. His keen interest in sustainable transportation has been with him since high school, he said.

Biking, walking and use of public transportation have served him well over the years, Antrim said. In addition to getting exercise, making friends on the bus and saving money by not always having a car, his passion for sustainable transportation has also been what’s prompted the now 23-year-old to launch a business at the age of 22.

“I’ve brought my mission to make a better world together with my desire to make a good living on the North Coast and be part of our burgeoning information technology industry,” Antrim said. “It feels great.”

On the Web:

+ GOOGLE TRANSIT
www.google.com/transit

+ TRANSIT INFORMATION SOLUTIONS
www.transitinfosolutions.com

+ REDWOOD TRANSIT SYSTEM
www.redwoodtransit.org

+ EUREKA TRANSIT SERVICE
www.eurekatransit.org

+ ARCATA & MAD RIVER TRANSIT SYSTEM
www.arcatatransit.org