Thank you, @CharlesOloyede ! To answer your questions:
- We started thinking about this feature (and doing research in Lagos to support it) in the first half of 2018, but our engineering effort started in earnest just earlier this year.
- Our decision to do this was informed mainly by what we heard from the community in Lagos, when we began to ask questions about how Google Maps was or wasn’t helping them get around the city.
- As for analytics, we did notice that transit features in Maps weren’t being used as much in Lagos as in other big cities around the world, where we already had complete coverage of all the modes of transport. We wanted to bring about a big improvement for Nigeria’s (and Africa’s) largest metropolitan area.