google maps
Every time I go to Google maps to look up an address I always need to click on "transit" since it's the only way I get around and (more importantly) the only way I can find my way in my adopted city. The colored lines are very thin and hide nothing, so the "transit" option only has an upside for me.
So, how to make the "transit" option default to "enabled"?
I don't think there is an easy way to do this. Because the page uses AJAX you can not just use the URL of the Save Changes button from Google Maps Labs like in the old days.
Your best bet would be to tell your students to log in to their Google account and change the setting once. The setting would be saved for the following sessions.
This is now baked in to the latest version of Google Maps. Just look up an address, then click the "send to device" link and choose your Android device. Then open the notification on your phone.
This has been around for a little while for iOS.
(via Lifehacker)
Best Answer
The directions method in Benj's answer didn't work for me anymore. The following query string parameters seemed to do it for me:
You can find parameters in use for the current view by clicking on the Link button on the left side.
To answer the question regarding changing the default settings in the web app, I can't seem to find a way to change the default layers.