METRO is in the midst of brushing off a stigma of inefficiency and interminable wait times surrounding its sprawling system of bus routes. A new board was appointed in March 2010, and the agency is moving ahead full throttle to complete the fledgling network of light rail lines. Still, it's difficult for car-dependent Houstonians to fathom the ease and potentially short amount of time involved in utilizing the city's transit system.

Enter Mapnificent, a web browser application developed by 23-year-old German programmer Stefan Wehrmeyer. The website clearly delineates locations users can reach in a given amount of time via public transit. Mapnificent transcends the snaking mire of bus lines and efficiently gets you where you want to be.

The app is in public beta mode, with Houston serving as one of the lucky test cities. I took Mapnificent for a spin on my commute today from my home — a 10-minute walk to the Museum District METRORail station — to CultureMap HQ on the northern bank of downtown. The 33-minute estimate was accurate to the T. And while half an hour is a bit longer than the average drive time, I benefited from saving gas, exercise, catching up on e-mails — and a healthy dosage of people watching.

Wehrmeyer's creation is sure to encourage an enhanced urban walking culture, but Mapnificent is anything but pedestrian. Your route can be customized by indicating your preferred walking distance to stations, time budget and whether you're commuting with a bike in tow.

Mapnificent gets social, too. Let's say I want to meet a friend living in the Heights for coffee. The app indicates that within 21 minutes, we can both be at Onion Creek Coffee House or Antidote Coffee. Boost that to 29 minutes, and Inversion Coffee, Coffee Groundz, and Khon's are magically within reach for both of us.

The app's arrival is timely, as today marks the Annual National Dump the Pump Day. Get in on the yearly public transit holiday here.