Swipe through the gallery below to see what's new. Then, read on for all the details!
When we acquired Citymapper back in 2023, we had a vision to combine the best of a critically acclaimed trip planning app (Citymapper) with TransitTech that helps cities and agencies offer efficient, affordable mobility (Via and Remix). In doing so, we created what we call MaaS+: a Citymapper app that not only helps transit thrive by attracting riders with fun, personalized journey-planning, but also by offering agencies purpose-built operational tools and rider insights to optimize their networks.
We’re thrilled to announce four exciting updates to this MaaS+ product. We’ve made two transformative improvements to the in-app experience for passengers, and added two new agency-facing tools to a suite that already includes disruption management, passenger analytics, and rider communication features.
On the passenger side, we’ve added microtransit booking and fixed route ticketing right in the Citymapper app. Now, no matter the mode, riders can both plan and pay for and travel in the same place. On the agency side, a game-changing integration with transit-planning software Remix upgrades the disruption management experience and introduces fast and easy-to-use travel demand forecasting.
Without further ado, we present the latest MaaS+ features from Citymapper. Let us know what you think!
1. Microtransit Booking: Riders can plan, book, and pay for Via-powered microtransit trips in the Citymapper app.
Thanks to our first-of-its-kind integration between a general-purpose journey planning app (Citymapper) and microtransit software, riders can now use the same easy-to-use mobile application for fixed-route, on-demand, and intermodal travel. This update means that riders experience your transit system in the same way you design it: as a holistic network, with a mix of transit modes optimized to balance cost-effectiveness with ease of use. Switching on Via’s “Mode Preference” logic takes holistic design a step further by ensuring that microtransit never draws riders away from fixed-route transit. Easier discovery and a friction-less booking experience helps grow microtransit ridership — and introduces microtransit riders to appealing fixed-route options when available.
2. Fixed Route Payments in Citymapper: Streamline ticketing by letting riders purchase and validate bus and train tickets in the Citymapper app.
New integrations between Citymapper and trusted payment providers like Masabi allow riders to pay for fixed route tickets within the Citymapper app.
Providing fixed route ticketing within Citymapper’s highly personalized journey-planning experience encourages more riders to ride the bus or train by letting them plan, pay, and travel all in one place. Gone are the days of juggling multiple apps or rushing to a physical kiosk to buy a paper ticket. Not only do riders travel more often and easily, but agencies spend less resources on paper ticketing and fare collection.
This update is particularly powerful combined with the native microtransit booking update described above. Previously, riders would need up to three apps to navigate a transit system: one for journey planning, one for fixed route ticketing, and one for microtransit. Now, riders can do it all in Citymapper. This enables agencies to plan operationally efficient, multimodal networks, and Citymapper makes them delightful for riders to use.
3. Remix Ridership Modeling: Quickly evaluate how potential network changes will affect ridership - no training or special software required.
Coming soon! Planners want to make improvements that will drive ridership and improve quality of service. However, most demand modeling software is prohibitively expensive, requires extra training to use, and relies on out-of-date or costly origin-destination data sets. Not anymore.
With Remix Ridership Modeling, planners can now easily forecast how network changes will affect rider behavior and quality of service. Predictions use anonymized and aggregated origin-destination and trip-choice data from real journeys planned in Citymapper. They allow planners to answer questions like “what if we increased the frequency on this bus route”?” or “would adding a route extension allow us to serve more low-income communities?” Remix Ridership Modeling returns results in minutes, so you can evaluate as many scenarios as you like.
These modeling tools are built into Remix, the world’s first and leading transit planning software, so predictions are available exactly when and where planners need them. And like the rest of Remix’s tools, Ridership Modeling requires no specialized training. That means travel demand modeling is now accessible to all. This feature is available for partners with both Citymapper and Remix.
4. Disruption Management Tools: Create public-facing disruption maps in Remix and publish live disruptions to Citymapper.
Citymapper now provides one centralized workflow that your entire team can use to communicate disruption information to riders in various formats (static map, real-time feed) across multiple channels (apps, website, social media). The process is easy, and the results are powerful:
- Draw a detour using Remix’s purpose-built disruption tools
- Publish the change directly to Citymapper and other journey-planning apps in real time
- Use Remix’s simple styling tools to create a print-ready image for use across other social media and physical channels.
This simple workflow allows you to reach riders wherever they are. Once you publish a disruption, Citymapper updates its routing automatically to direct riders away from closed stops. And unlike other tools, Citymapper and Remix produce graphic, map-based disruption warnings that riders can actually understand (say good-bye to large blocks of unintelligible text!). Updates are published as open data (e.g., as GTFS-RT, SIRI-SX) for easy ingestion by 3rd party apps.
Citymapper’s disruption management tools let you work quickly, allowing you to build rider trust by getting them time-sensitive information, fast.
Bonus: The Citymapper app keeps getting better - even more reliable traffic predictions, live vehicle locations, and more.
With 25+ app updates a year, the Citymapper app continually becomes more useful and more rider-friendly. It would be impossible to list all of the improvements here, so we’ll stick with two.
First, we’ve meaningfully improved our ability to predict traffic, which means passengers see more accurate arrival times. Our predictions are 33% more accurate than predictions produced by existing feeds.
Second, riders can now see live vehicle locations on the map within the Citymapper app. This gives them confidence that arrival times are accurate and keeps them coming back to the app. Riders can toggle between various buses to get an updated arrival time - helping them consider all possible journeys to make the right choice for them.
Want to learn more about any of these features? Drop us a line below.
