Davao City is a booming business and touri st destination located in Mindanao, Philippines that is full of superlatives. It is the fourth most populous city in country and the largest in terms of land
area. Located within its borders is the majestic Mount Apo, the tallest mountain in the country which is also the home of the Philippine Eagle, the largest eagle in the world.
It is for these reasons and more that Davao was selected as one of three metropolitan areas in the Philippines that is covered by Google Maps’ Transit planning feature (the others are Metro
Cebu and Metro Manila). A fast growing metropolis, Davao is a major transport hub for the island of Mindanao with regular bus routes not only to other major Mindanao cities, but also to cities in
the Visayas and even to Metro Manila itself, hundreds of kilometers to the north.
The process of collecting and displaying the information to Google was a highly collaborative effort led by EACOMM Corporation, an IT and knowledge services provider based in Quezon
City. EACOMM collected and validated data on the ground using specialized android apps with GPS capabilities. With the data collected, EACOMM then converted the data to be compatible with the General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) which in turn was submitted to Google for display. Currently, over a dozen jeepney routes within Downtown Davao, several bus routes to other cities in Mindanao, and the ferry service to Samal island is available for viewing online.
To view the routes, visit Google Maps (http://maps.google.com) or launch the Google Maps App on your smartphone. You will find a feature called “Directions” where there is a Bus Icon you can
press. The bus icon will provide you information on how to get to your destination using public transport.
