Montréal Interactive Map
As of October 20th, 2006, a new Google Maps mashup was launched by CoderTown (i.e. by us 
) - MTLmap.com. This is very simple (for now) Montreal interactive map with all metro (subway) lines and stations displayed.
Why? Because it’s very handy to browse the map or search locations by, say, ZIP code and then to find if there is any metro station close by. Surprisingly none of official maps provide such functionality so far.
Why MTL? Because: a) MTL is very well known abbreviation in Great Montréal Area; b) it’s short! c) mtlmap.com domain name was available. 
How? MTLmap.com uses, of course, Google Maps API to achieve this functionality. Thanks to free Google Maps service, today almost anyone can create such a map with custom data displayed. A unique thing for this project is a set of metro stations geo coordinates (collected by us manually ) which forms four existing metro lines on the map. JavaScript with OO programming and Ajax are heavily used.
What’s next? Displaying metro system is just a beginning of Montreal Interactive Map adventure. We believe that the city lacks of such a map where a tourist or a visitor could easily find all main transport, cultural and entertainment places. Locations will be grouped by categories allowing to display only what’s required in a given moment.
Here is what we think can be useful on this map:
- permalinks for any existing location on the map;
- permalinks to any user defined location (geo position plus caption);
- permalinks to custom path, defined by user;
- traffic webcams locations and actual pictures;
- city’s webcams locations and actual pictures;
- tourist’s attractions, “must-sees”, historical places with photos;
- would be great to display different entrances for each metro station when it’s selected;
- every location must link to external resources with more info, like official websites, Wikipedia, etc.;
And we plan to do that! Ideally, such a project must be a community effort, geowiki-like project, where everyone can add a location, describe it or correct existing one. But for now it might take too much time to implement. Maybe, some day. (Hey, bad guys - this is just another giveaway idea - go copy it! LOL)
October 25th, 2006 at 11:03 am
Great idea! It will be nice to have a map of the underground city as well - am still getting lost down there
October 25th, 2006 at 3:10 pm
Yes, that will be challenging…
November 20th, 2006 at 12:42 pm
Now metro stations exits are displayed for appropriate stations. Click on Exits link in the station’s info window bubble.
May 15th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
very nice job on the metro station, you guys put all the attention needed!
i’m actually doing the same thing but nothing as pretty & clean as you’r stuff..
which brings me to this question
is this interactive map of Montreal ‘Only’ for touristic purpose or would you guys like little content like my apartment to rent on my web site?
no there is no cluttering with old leeched ads from other site, their all apts I visited and photographed and well.. I’m looking for visibility, and if you’r looking for a bit of content.. might be good =)
so far I manager to get around 50 unique visitors a day.. and if you want to laugh a bit at the esthetic of my metro listing =) www.logismtl.com/test.php
and that’s all!
Ciao!
May 15th, 2007 at 8:12 pm
Hi bksunday, thanks for your post. Well, the mtlmap.com was kind of a test of Google Maps API as well as making a handy tool to locate places by ZIP code and see where the nearest metro station is.
To develop it further we need to convert it from static layout to dynamic, make it reading data from database - that way it will be way easier to maintain it. Plus it would be nice to have it more open so people could use it on their websites etc…
About metro maps of STM, there are bunch of Gmaps these days out there:
http://metrodemontreal.ca/en/
http://www.videomashups.ca/montreal/subwaymap.php
and others, less ugly or more…
About appartments on the map - I think I saw it somewhere, but I also like your idea with video
If you want we can take the further discussion off-line, just drop me a line at Project Management e-mail.
http://codertown.com/index.php?id=contacts
May 15th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
P.S. - btw, I’ve noticed that your main site does not work with FireFox browser (Flock particularly).
You can edit it at any time, add, delete stuff, but others can only see it and cannot modify. That’s nice feature Google Map finally released.
And another hint for you: you can use My Maps @ Google Maps to draw your own maps, place markers, descriptions, embed photos etc.!!!
http://maps.google.com, select MyMaps tab
May 15th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
P.P.S. - and the last thing I like is Wikimapia! (also based on Gmaps API)
http://wikimapia.org/#y=45525592&x=-73621788&z=12&l=1&m=a&v=2