Note: I borrowed the title for this post from Joe Hughes's blog.

The reason I bought an iPhone was an early-October rumor that the Google Transit trip planner, and walking directions, were going to become part of the iPhone's mapping application with the 2.2 software update.

Sure enough, in late November, it happened.

And, it's great.

Since the iPhone has GPS built-in, you can query for transit directions from where you are without entering a start location, just an end location.  One nice touch is being able to use street view to see what a start, transfer, or end stop location looks like.

Here's a pic of me using mobile transit instructions for SF Muni on a bus going across the Golden Gate bridge (alas Golden Gate Transit and Marin Transit are not on Google Transit).

And here is a screenshot of transit directions in Eureka:

And, finally: streetview for the Arcata Transit Center (you touch your finger to the screen to pan around):