Paul Hillsdon, in response to the post on Helsinki’s plans for a one-stop app for all things in motion, notes: “The Germans are already on it.”
And here it is: Moovel.
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moovel is the future of smart mobility. Seamlessly bringing together car2go, train services, public transport, taxis, car-shares and bicycle options into one remarkably simple app, moovel does the hard work for you to get you to where you need to be in the smartest way possible.
So whether you need to get there fast or you’re in the mood to explore, let moovel take care of the planning so you can just enjoy the ride.
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When will we get this?
are you talking about this thing http://www.ridescoutapp.com/locations/ ?
Not to want to be too much critical, but the Helsinki plan seems to be a big fuzz about pretty much nothing. Moovel in Germany, moveit in Israel, Coovia in Toulouse (France) all that is happening right now.
Vancouver is already ahead of Helsinki: here Translink provides real time transit info, in open data format, so you can access it right away from Google map,…at the difference of Helsinki.
“Open data” info is really all what is needed, to let developer to craft the right application for you at no cost for the taxpayer (something some Transit bureaucracies have hard time to understand).
While we’re advertising apps, a shout out to Montreal’s Transit App. I believe that team are working on a moovel/ridescout integrated multi-service platform too.
Now, if only Vancouver had bikeshare and Uber (or any tech-savvy taxi company) to integrate…
The closest we have right mow is Google Maps, but that only incorporates TransLink and generic walking, cycling and driving data—it doesn’t include commuter rail, car-sharing, or taxis (and eventually bike-sharing and “Uber-like” ride-sharing services).
Other desired features would include direct cost comparisons (i.e. what is the cost difference between taking transit, vs driving, vs bike share) and travel time comparisons (incorporating delays due to construction and congestion, like Waze does).
Moving forward, it looks like moovel is heading in the the direction of being a single reservation and pay portal as well, which means that you could use the app to reserve and pay for a combination of travel modes (and providers) within a single portal, depending on the route options you choose.
Vonny is right that this is mainly a question of open data, and would require private (and non-profit) operators to open up their data and integrate payment systems. But just because data is free to access, doesn’t make the app free to sort, code, present, or update—all of this takes time and expertise.
I see the biggest issue for Vancouver being that we really only have transit and car-sharing services (and a taxi industry better known for protectionism than innovation), which makes an app like moovel of limited use for our city at the moment. Hopefully the ever-promised bike-sharing will arrive soon, and the threat of Uber will inspire the taxi companies wake up and join the 21st century.
They now offer Uber options and pricing.
Here it is (for Vienna, and later for Austria as a whole): SMILE 🙂
http://smile-einfachmobil.at/index_en.html
Currently, there’s a test phase with up to 5,000 pilot users. Will also include public transport, cycling, car, train, carsharing, bikesharing and taxis. Will show time, costs and CO2 emissions of different routes and you’ll be able to book the whole journey in one app that also considers all your membership/discount cards, transit passes, etc.
Moovel now has a blog http://www.move-forward.com that looks at disruptive technologies and mobility.
I also see that moovel is a fully-owned subsidiary of Daimler AG (owner of car2go and park2gether)