Combining Public Transit with Cabs

Transit + Cabs

Traditionally there has been unfair discrimination by journey planning algorithms keeping these modes of transport separate.

We believe very transport mode must be free to mingle, and allowed to co-exist in the city! #freedom #makecitiesgreatagain

Our SuperRouter is now combining public transit with cabs to create new routes you never knew existed.

This is the future of multimodal mobility in cities.

Here's an example of a trip in New York from the Upper East Side to IKEA in Brooklyn that combines Uber and Subway to arrive faster. Using a multimodal route only costs $15 rather than $45 if one takes a cab all the way.

A New Routing Preferences Screen

There is now a new Preferences page with a number of personalisation options. 

By default Cars + Transit will be in Lite mode, and show up in a 'Citymapper Labs' section. 

But feel free to upgrade to Pro mode to see multimodal results mixed more aggressively in top suggested results. 

The advantages of trains + the advantages of cabs

A better connected city. Access more parts of the city that might not be well supported by public transportation. 

Reduced costs. More affordable options than taking a cab all the way, especially for long distances. 

Reduced travel times. Sometimes trains are faster. Sometimes cars are faster. Sometimes combining them is faster.

This is exciting. We’re fusing two separate complex networks in the city: the metro network and the road network, while accounting for real-time information such as train departures and car availability.

There is a lot to improve. These are the crazy wild early days of this new type of multimodal routing. We plan to improve our calculations of prices, travel times, transfer costs and include features such as better pickup points for cabs around train stations. 

We will get better over time as we learn from your usage and feedback. Please do share this with us.