I just read an interesting article about how ride and bike sharing businesses are expanding their mapping services to include public transportation and walking directions as well, which must have also spooked Apple into tweaking Maps:
Lyft and Uber Won’t Be Happy Until They’re Your One-Stop Transit Guide
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/03/business/dealbook/lyft-uber-bike-sharing.html
In my earlier comments I thought only about driving directions, and though I think the driving directions in Maps are the best, the public transportation info sucks compared to Google’s. This is especially surprising because around the time Maps was launched, they bought an excellent public transit app, Hop Stop, which had not only the best routing information, but was the most up to date info about NYC subway and bus delays and rerouting. They discontinued it about a year after they bought it, So IMHO, there’s no reason Maps should be as bad with real time bus and subway info as it is.
When I vacationed in Australia about two years ago, Apple Maps was awful with walking directions; Google was much better. I don’t know if it was because we did Verizon’s international roaming plan, but we also found that it took much longer for Apple and Google Maps to adjust.