19 ms·

Citymapper Joins Via

115 points by gsa 4y ago

ezfe 4y ago
Via is a great service in the areas of Massachusetts that offer it, hopefully this allows both apps to be improved.
hnarn 4y ago
I've always loved Citymapper, it made using public transport when living in a new city a breeze. It's really sad they don't support my current city, I'd be willing to put in free work to make it happen but I've never seen any way of helping out.
- folkrav 4y ago
  Just chiming in with another option. May have been cause they are Montreal based, but back when I still lived there and regularly used public transport, Transit[1] was my favorite. [1] https://transitapp.com/ https://transitapp.com/
  - The5thElephant 4y ago
    I like Transit for their quick at a glance public transit arrival times in NYC, but generally prefer Citymapper's overall step-by-step directions and multi-modal transit options. That being said Citymapper did put a bunch of things behind a paywall in the last few years that have made it less useful outside of pure public-transit directions.
    - valarauko 4y ago
      I think Transit works great for status updates for buses or trains you're already familiar with. If I'm travelling an unfamiliar route, it's always Citymapper. Plus the fact that Citymapper suggests which part of the train to board for proximity to the nearest exit? Amazing.
  - graypegg 4y ago
    +1 for transit. (I’m also predictably from Montréal haha) The crowning feature of Transit is the GO trips that let you share you location while on a bus with others. For bus arrival accuracy there’s nothing better. It’s probably saved me a flight or two before, by just making sure I get the 747 bus to the airport.
  - clairity 4y ago
    i use transit in LA (where it's the default app for metro) and it has a huge glaring UX failure in that the departure times list at the bottom of the line details screen takes up at least a 1/3 of the screen, and when you want to see more of the map and try to push the list down, it closes the details screen. it's so frustrating, because i end up doing this 2-3 times per use, needlessly tapping back and forth. there's already a close button available so scroll to bottom to dismiss is wholly unnecessary. the departure times list wastes a ton of precious screen real estate as well - it could simply be a comma-delimited list on one line that could scroll sideways, and thus obviating the need for 1/3 of the screen for mostly whitespace. i do like that the departure times are (slightly) more accurate because of the crowd-sourcing. however, the underlying data from metro is a mess, so they end up looking bad anyway because trains and buses still show up (or don't) unexpectedly due to metro's unreliable data.
  - valarauko 4y ago
    Transit's UI is superior to any other comparable app, but I find CityMapper's routes superior (at least in NYC). I've also had issues with Transit surfacing incorrect bus routes based on cancelled buses (but scheduled) which CityMapper somehow could account for. Transit knows the next scheduled bus two minutes away isn't "live" (icons are different) but still surfaces it as a primary suggestion, while Citymapper wouldn't.
    - brewdad 4y ago
      Citymapper lets me navigate NYC like a local even if I only visit a couple times a year. It gives transit options taking into account real-time location and time to navigate not just to the subway station but through it. It gives me the street corner I should enter and the the underground exit I should use at the end of my ride. I love it and hope it continues to be great.
  - iudqnolq 4y ago
    I like Transit when it works, but (as of a year ago) it routinely crashed. And transit directions are uniquely hard to restart midway, as it's hard for the app to detect what bus you're on without knowing when you got on.
colesantiago 4y ago
> The app will continue I really doubt that after less than 5 years it will be rolled into Via. Is there any thriving UK startups still around acquiring US companies? It seems that the news I see is US company acquires UK startup when I don't see the other way round. Really makes the UK startup scene just a european HQ for US companies at a discount.
- nicoburns 4y ago
  JustEat (which bought GrubHub and now seems to have merged with the Dutch takeaway.com) is the only example I can think of.
- eloisant 4y ago
  Waze isn't from the UK, but it still exists 10 years after being acquired by Google.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- dzonga 4y ago
  compared to Israel, yeah UK tech scene seems to be underperforming. there's massive technical talent in the uk, favorable laws and common language with the us. I think what let's the uk down, is a lot of places lose focus, talent is lost to consulting shops, bureaucracy slows a lot of things down. a counter point is look at game studios - uk seems to be delivering there. it's just other products where uk is underperforming. uk i.e london should be ahead of places like austin in terms of # of startups
  - _dain_ 4y ago
    London is a really unattractive place when you consider salary vs housing affordability. Most of the high tech salary goes straight into the pocket of landlords. And you can forget buying. But London is where most of the innovative high-paying firms are. So tech workers are in a bind: move to London for a nominally high-paying tech job but get fucking hosed on rent and travel costs, or stay in the regions and work in a lower paid, less interesting firm. There isn't much real difference to your standard of living. It's not just the absolute level of rent either; it also goes up faster. People don't want that kind of liability, you need a raise just to stay in place, and raises aren't forthcoming lately. And it's not easy to get a London-tier salary while working remotely from rural Yorkshire or something. They've been tamping down hard on that kind of thing. The housing market is rigged for boomers and it's strangling Britain's growth. Forget freedom of movement with Europe; I'd like freedom of movement inside my own fucking country first. (And all of the above sounds similar to NYC and SF -- it is, but London's salary upside is nowhere near as high as those places. And Americans have several big metropoles to choose from, we only have the one.)
maleldil 4y ago
Citymapper is useful but has extremely high battery usage on both Android and iOS. I use Google Maps and TfL Go instead, but I'd happily use Citymapper more if they fix this.
- ramraj07 4y ago
  Does it drain iOS battery in bg?
  - maleldil 4y ago
    I'm not sure; I've only heard reports from others regarding iOS. I can confirm that it drains battery on Android in the background, however.
holyhanddogs 4y ago
Fairly unrelated I guess but I'd love to work on navigation software of some sort. I worked on a project involving it in project and had quite a lot of fun with it, something very gratifying about making something useful for day to day. I did apply to citymapper at some point to no avail unfortunately.
- cmonagle 4y ago
  I hope this is appropriate, but I work at Transit and we do have some openings right now: https://transitapp.com/jobs https://transitapp.com/jobs
  - marius-s 4y ago
    Does feel borderline appropriate. But kudos for trying. Citymapper is definitely hiring now. https://citymapper.com/jobs https://citymapper.com/jobs Or feel free to contact me directly on marius@citymapper.com
  - clairity 4y ago
    i wish you were hiring a product manager, as i'd love to help you fix the horrid UX on the departure details screen i just posted about. it's been there for years, and i can't imagine that anyone who actually uses the app would have let it go that long without fixing it.
doctoboggan 4y ago
For people who use either of these apps, what advantages do they offer over google maps transit directions? I live in Chicago and only use google maps but I would love to use something else that is more accurate with bus timings.
- tinus_hn 4y ago
  One advantage to me is that it’s not Google. So I’m not adding to my profile at Google and I’m not helping them consolidate their advantage.
- gregoriol 4y ago
  In Paris, France, Citymapper is very accurate about subway timings, walk timings, which exit to use, ... it's the most precise and efficient transit app available here from my experience.
- dzonga 4y ago
  when I lived in NY / Philly, Citymapper was way ahead of Google maps in terms of transit info. since moving to live in europe, I haven't had much use for Citymapper.
- jjazwiecki 4y ago
  Citymapper incorporates transit delays/outages. When I switched from using Google Maps several years ago, they didn't, and I haven't had much of a reason to switch back. Big difference between "based on average times, this is the fastest route" and "based on the latest information, this is the fastest route".
  - valarauko 4y ago
    I think all the big apps use live transit info now. That said, Citymapper actively surfaces that it's rerouting because of cancellations on XYZ train, which is very helpful information. I don't see Google or Apple Maps suggesting routes with cancelled trains either, but without that information front and center it can be confusing if it's not a regular route.
- 4y ago
jstx1 4y ago
So Via have acquired Citymapper, or am I misreading this? They've dressed up the announcement so much that you can't even understand what they're announcing.
- gertrunde 4y ago
  The news release from the Via side is a bit more informative. (More text, less pictures...) https://ridewithvia.com/news/via-acquires-citymapper-to-expand-its-end-to-end-transittech-solution https://ridewithvia.com/news/via-acquires-citymapper-to-expa... (Edit: When I say informative... it's unfortunately still dripping in marketing-speak fluff).
- urbandw311er 4y ago
  Well that's Citymapper for you, cocky and cutesy even as they're being dragged away to the abbatoir.
jonatron 4y ago
I reported an issue with Citymapper not handling a loop bus route properly in 2018. Haven't used it since, they never fixed it.
marius-s 4y ago
Hi, Marius here - VP Engineering for Citymapper (powered by Via) We are excited about the opportunities this creates for the product and team. We are looking forward to join an excellent tech company. Happy to answer any questions. And we are hiring as we are expanding our product and team. For openings to work on the Citymapper app and tech please visit https://citymapper.com/jobs https://citymapper.com/jobs or write to marius@citymapper.com
- fredley 4y ago
  Congrats Marius, and everyone else at CM!
- rohith2506 4y ago
  congrats to you and your team Marius. Love your product. I did reach out to you a while ago with my resume and I didn't hear anything back yet
- pedro2 4y ago
  Can I expect a somewhat lesser focus on European cities in 1 to 2 years while VIA expands its capabilities on Northern America?
  - marius-s 4y ago
    There is actually a great coverage area overlap between VIA and Citymapper - esp. in North America and Europe. I wouldn't expect Europe not not be a focus given the huge transit market size.
- leftcenterright 4y ago
  Congrats to the team! Could you give an idea about the tech stack powering citymapper?
  - marius-s 4y ago
    Thanks - and good question. We run a large deployment of services to support millions of daily active users across the 450+ cities that the Citymapper app operates in - all on AWS EKS. Most of the code of the backend services is written in Python and we have CPP and some Go services or modules as we deal with a lot of CPU and memory intensive workloads (eg routing) as well as high I/O workloads (we are using 1000s of different data sources) The apps and SDK are written in Kotlin / Swift / React
IIAOPSW 4y ago
hadn't used this before. Checked out the map. Wondered wtf was going on with the way they colored the nyc subway. Realized they highlight lines whenever there's a service change in effect, under the assumption that would be the uncommon case, and never anticipated highlighting most of the city in painful bright orange.
Doctor_Fegg 4y ago
Consumer-facing routing is a commodity these days. Apple and Google's bundled maps/routing products get better by the month and are sweeping all before them. The only exit strategies for Citymapper that I could ever see were "get acquired by Apple/Google" or "firesale", and although the latter might be a bit harsh, TechCrunch suggests investors weren't exactly laughing all the way to the bank.[1] If you can identify a niche and keep your costs down then you might have a chance. Apps targeted at enthusiast cyclists continue to do well, for example, although I have my doubts about expenditure vs revenue for some of them. (Disclaimer: I run a small-scale cycle routing app/site.) But "people who want to get around Western European and North American cities" is not a niche that Apple/Google were ever going to overlook. [1] "Citymapper investors are mostly not making their money back in the transaction and that it’s effectively a washout": https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/16/via-acquires-trip-planning-app-citymapper-to-boost-transit-tech/ https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/16/via-acquires-trip-planning...
- eloisant 4y ago
  This is too bad because Citymapper is a great app and Google Maps is still very far from providing the same quality as specialized apps for public transit routing.
- madeofpalk 4y ago
  The one advantage these specialised apps can have is their hyper-specific transit suggestions, which are custom per city. For example, in London Citymapper will suggest to wait and board front/mid/back of the platform to align yourself better with exits at your destination. Apple and Google tend to be slower to add suggestions like this because they scale poorly to other cities. But it's only a matter of time before they add them.
  - djtango 4y ago
    When I was in Tokyo last week google maps had carriage suggestions
    - lozenge 4y ago
gibolt 4y ago
Absolutely love Citymapper for finding pleasant bike routes! Really hope this doesn't end up handicapping the product or spreading focus thin. Have recommended it to so many people. Biking wouldn't be the same without it.
- marius-s 4y ago
  Thank you for the feedback and love. Cycling and walking are indeed core to the app experience and multimodal routing and will remain important.
- urbandw311er 4y ago
  Don't worry there's a ton of other bike routing products out there.
eiiot 4y ago
I've used Citymapper for maybe 5 years, and while I remain a fan, Transit[0] just seems like a much better product. They support more cities, their user tracking is (generally) more accurate, and (at least in my opinion) their app just better designed & thought out for transit use. [0]: https://transitapp.com/ https://transitapp.com/
- antihero 4y ago
  Giving this a go purely because the UI is beautiful and it seems to suggest using my bike in combination with public transport which is glorious.
  - georgebcrawford 4y ago
    I’m in the same boat, the UX/UI is beautiful
- nimbleplum40 4y ago
  Transit is also really, really good if you know where you’re headed but just need to check train/bus arrival times. The app opens straight to live arrival times of all the lines nearest to you. So handy.
- grishka 4y ago
  More cities in which part of the world? Citymapper does support my city. Transit does not.
urbandw311er 4y ago
I know a few people who worked at Citymapper in senior roles, and the general consensus has always been that there was ultimately no feasible way to monetise. As others have pointed out, their core value of routing/planning/exploiting Open Data became heavily commoditised by Apple, Google, and the transport operators themselves (e.g. TfL in London). Their belated attempts to monetise payments, data, even running transport itself, haven't been successful: it's a crowded, aggressive market filled with long-time incumbents who have established relationships and deep strategic control points. As a place to work / founder values... ..well, the reviews on Glassdoor speak for themselves. I can't say I'm grieving for its loss.
- thiscatis 4y ago
  Same...and same stories about the founder. Not good.

115 points by gsa 4y ago

ezfe 4y ago

Via is a great service in the areas of Massachusetts that offer it, hopefully this allows both apps to be improved.

I've always loved Citymapper, it made using public transport when living in a new city a breeze. It's really sad they don't support my current city, I'd be willing to put in free work to make it happen but I've never seen any way of helping out.

folkrav 4y ago
Just chiming in with another option. May have been cause they are Montreal based, but back when I still lived there and regularly used public transport, Transit[1] was my favorite. [1] https://transitapp.com/ https://transitapp.com/
- The5thElephant 4y ago
  I like Transit for their quick at a glance public transit arrival times in NYC, but generally prefer Citymapper's overall step-by-step directions and multi-modal transit options. That being said Citymapper did put a bunch of things behind a paywall in the last few years that have made it less useful outside of pure public-transit directions.
  - valarauko 4y ago
    I think Transit works great for status updates for buses or trains you're already familiar with. If I'm travelling an unfamiliar route, it's always Citymapper. Plus the fact that Citymapper suggests which part of the train to board for proximity to the nearest exit? Amazing.
- graypegg 4y ago
  +1 for transit. (I’m also predictably from Montréal haha) The crowning feature of Transit is the GO trips that let you share you location while on a bus with others. For bus arrival accuracy there’s nothing better. It’s probably saved me a flight or two before, by just making sure I get the 747 bus to the airport.
- clairity 4y ago
  i use transit in LA (where it's the default app for metro) and it has a huge glaring UX failure in that the departure times list at the bottom of the line details screen takes up at least a 1/3 of the screen, and when you want to see more of the map and try to push the list down, it closes the details screen. it's so frustrating, because i end up doing this 2-3 times per use, needlessly tapping back and forth. there's already a close button available so scroll to bottom to dismiss is wholly unnecessary. the departure times list wastes a ton of precious screen real estate as well - it could simply be a comma-delimited list on one line that could scroll sideways, and thus obviating the need for 1/3 of the screen for mostly whitespace. i do like that the departure times are (slightly) more accurate because of the crowd-sourcing. however, the underlying data from metro is a mess, so they end up looking bad anyway because trains and buses still show up (or don't) unexpectedly due to metro's unreliable data.
- valarauko 4y ago
  Transit's UI is superior to any other comparable app, but I find CityMapper's routes superior (at least in NYC). I've also had issues with Transit surfacing incorrect bus routes based on cancelled buses (but scheduled) which CityMapper somehow could account for. Transit knows the next scheduled bus two minutes away isn't "live" (icons are different) but still surfaces it as a primary suggestion, while Citymapper wouldn't.
  - brewdad 4y ago
    Citymapper lets me navigate NYC like a local even if I only visit a couple times a year. It gives transit options taking into account real-time location and time to navigate not just to the subway station but through it. It gives me the street corner I should enter and the the underground exit I should use at the end of my ride. I love it and hope it continues to be great.
- iudqnolq 4y ago
  I like Transit when it works, but (as of a year ago) it routinely crashed. And transit directions are uniquely hard to restart midway, as it's hard for the app to detect what bus you're on without knowing when you got on.

colesantiago 4y ago

> The app will continue I really doubt that after less than 5 years it will be rolled into Via. Is there any thriving UK startups still around acquiring US companies? It seems that the news I see is US company acquires UK startup when I don't see the other way round. Really makes the UK startup scene just a european HQ for US companies at a discount.

nicoburns 4y ago
JustEat (which bought GrubHub and now seems to have merged with the Dutch takeaway.com) is the only example I can think of.
eloisant 4y ago
Waze isn't from the UK, but it still exists 10 years after being acquired by Google.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
dzonga 4y ago
compared to Israel, yeah UK tech scene seems to be underperforming. there's massive technical talent in the uk, favorable laws and common language with the us. I think what let's the uk down, is a lot of places lose focus, talent is lost to consulting shops, bureaucracy slows a lot of things down. a counter point is look at game studios - uk seems to be delivering there. it's just other products where uk is underperforming. uk i.e london should be ahead of places like austin in terms of # of startups
- _dain_ 4y ago
  London is a really unattractive place when you consider salary vs housing affordability. Most of the high tech salary goes straight into the pocket of landlords. And you can forget buying. But London is where most of the innovative high-paying firms are. So tech workers are in a bind: move to London for a nominally high-paying tech job but get fucking hosed on rent and travel costs, or stay in the regions and work in a lower paid, less interesting firm. There isn't much real difference to your standard of living. It's not just the absolute level of rent either; it also goes up faster. People don't want that kind of liability, you need a raise just to stay in place, and raises aren't forthcoming lately. And it's not easy to get a London-tier salary while working remotely from rural Yorkshire or something. They've been tamping down hard on that kind of thing. The housing market is rigged for boomers and it's strangling Britain's growth. Forget freedom of movement with Europe; I'd like freedom of movement inside my own fucking country first. (And all of the above sounds similar to NYC and SF -- it is, but London's salary upside is nowhere near as high as those places. And Americans have several big metropoles to choose from, we only have the one.)

maleldil 4y ago

Citymapper is useful but has extremely high battery usage on both Android and iOS. I use Google Maps and TfL Go instead, but I'd happily use Citymapper more if they fix this.

ramraj07 4y ago
Does it drain iOS battery in bg?
- maleldil 4y ago
  I'm not sure; I've only heard reports from others regarding iOS. I can confirm that it drains battery on Android in the background, however.

holyhanddogs 4y ago

Fairly unrelated I guess but I'd love to work on navigation software of some sort. I worked on a project involving it in project and had quite a lot of fun with it, something very gratifying about making something useful for day to day. I did apply to citymapper at some point to no avail unfortunately.

cmonagle 4y ago
I hope this is appropriate, but I work at Transit and we do have some openings right now: https://transitapp.com/jobs https://transitapp.com/jobs
- marius-s 4y ago
  Does feel borderline appropriate. But kudos for trying. Citymapper is definitely hiring now. https://citymapper.com/jobs https://citymapper.com/jobs Or feel free to contact me directly on marius@citymapper.com
- clairity 4y ago
  i wish you were hiring a product manager, as i'd love to help you fix the horrid UX on the departure details screen i just posted about. it's been there for years, and i can't imagine that anyone who actually uses the app would have let it go that long without fixing it.

doctoboggan 4y ago

For people who use either of these apps, what advantages do they offer over google maps transit directions? I live in Chicago and only use google maps but I would love to use something else that is more accurate with bus timings.

tinus_hn 4y ago
One advantage to me is that it’s not Google. So I’m not adding to my profile at Google and I’m not helping them consolidate their advantage.
gregoriol 4y ago
In Paris, France, Citymapper is very accurate about subway timings, walk timings, which exit to use, ... it's the most precise and efficient transit app available here from my experience.
dzonga 4y ago
when I lived in NY / Philly, Citymapper was way ahead of Google maps in terms of transit info. since moving to live in europe, I haven't had much use for Citymapper.
jjazwiecki 4y ago
Citymapper incorporates transit delays/outages. When I switched from using Google Maps several years ago, they didn't, and I haven't had much of a reason to switch back. Big difference between "based on average times, this is the fastest route" and "based on the latest information, this is the fastest route".
- valarauko 4y ago
  I think all the big apps use live transit info now. That said, Citymapper actively surfaces that it's rerouting because of cancellations on XYZ train, which is very helpful information. I don't see Google or Apple Maps suggesting routes with cancelled trains either, but without that information front and center it can be confusing if it's not a regular route.
4y ago

jstx1 4y ago

So Via have acquired Citymapper, or am I misreading this? They've dressed up the announcement so much that you can't even understand what they're announcing.

gertrunde 4y ago
The news release from the Via side is a bit more informative. (More text, less pictures...) https://ridewithvia.com/news/via-acquires-citymapper-to-expand-its-end-to-end-transittech-solution https://ridewithvia.com/news/via-acquires-citymapper-to-expa... (Edit: When I say informative... it's unfortunately still dripping in marketing-speak fluff).
urbandw311er 4y ago
Well that's Citymapper for you, cocky and cutesy even as they're being dragged away to the abbatoir.

jonatron 4y ago

I reported an issue with Citymapper not handling a loop bus route properly in 2018. Haven't used it since, they never fixed it.

marius-s 4y ago

Hi, Marius here - VP Engineering for Citymapper (powered by Via) We are excited about the opportunities this creates for the product and team. We are looking forward to join an excellent tech company. Happy to answer any questions. And we are hiring as we are expanding our product and team. For openings to work on the Citymapper app and tech please visit https://citymapper.com/jobs https://citymapper.com/jobs or write to marius@citymapper.com

fredley 4y ago
Congrats Marius, and everyone else at CM!
rohith2506 4y ago
congrats to you and your team Marius. Love your product. I did reach out to you a while ago with my resume and I didn't hear anything back yet
pedro2 4y ago
Can I expect a somewhat lesser focus on European cities in 1 to 2 years while VIA expands its capabilities on Northern America?
- marius-s 4y ago
  There is actually a great coverage area overlap between VIA and Citymapper - esp. in North America and Europe. I wouldn't expect Europe not not be a focus given the huge transit market size.
leftcenterright 4y ago
Congrats to the team! Could you give an idea about the tech stack powering citymapper?
- marius-s 4y ago
  Thanks - and good question. We run a large deployment of services to support millions of daily active users across the 450+ cities that the Citymapper app operates in - all on AWS EKS. Most of the code of the backend services is written in Python and we have CPP and some Go services or modules as we deal with a lot of CPU and memory intensive workloads (eg routing) as well as high I/O workloads (we are using 1000s of different data sources) The apps and SDK are written in Kotlin / Swift / React

IIAOPSW 4y ago

hadn't used this before. Checked out the map. Wondered wtf was going on with the way they colored the nyc subway. Realized they highlight lines whenever there's a service change in effect, under the assumption that would be the uncommon case, and never anticipated highlighting most of the city in painful bright orange.

Doctor_Fegg 4y ago

Consumer-facing routing is a commodity these days. Apple and Google's bundled maps/routing products get better by the month and are sweeping all before them. The only exit strategies for Citymapper that I could ever see were "get acquired by Apple/Google" or "firesale", and although the latter might be a bit harsh, TechCrunch suggests investors weren't exactly laughing all the way to the bank.[1] If you can identify a niche and keep your costs down then you might have a chance. Apps targeted at enthusiast cyclists continue to do well, for example, although I have my doubts about expenditure vs revenue for some of them. (Disclaimer: I run a small-scale cycle routing app/site.) But "people who want to get around Western European and North American cities" is not a niche that Apple/Google were ever going to overlook. [1] "Citymapper investors are mostly not making their money back in the transaction and that it’s effectively a washout": https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/16/via-acquires-trip-planning-app-citymapper-to-boost-transit-tech/ https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/16/via-acquires-trip-planning...

eloisant 4y ago
This is too bad because Citymapper is a great app and Google Maps is still very far from providing the same quality as specialized apps for public transit routing.
madeofpalk 4y ago
The one advantage these specialised apps can have is their hyper-specific transit suggestions, which are custom per city. For example, in London Citymapper will suggest to wait and board front/mid/back of the platform to align yourself better with exits at your destination. Apple and Google tend to be slower to add suggestions like this because they scale poorly to other cities. But it's only a matter of time before they add them.
- djtango 4y ago
  When I was in Tokyo last week google maps had carriage suggestions
  - lozenge 4y ago

gibolt 4y ago

Absolutely love Citymapper for finding pleasant bike routes! Really hope this doesn't end up handicapping the product or spreading focus thin. Have recommended it to so many people. Biking wouldn't be the same without it.

marius-s 4y ago
Thank you for the feedback and love. Cycling and walking are indeed core to the app experience and multimodal routing and will remain important.
urbandw311er 4y ago
Don't worry there's a ton of other bike routing products out there.

eiiot 4y ago

I've used Citymapper for maybe 5 years, and while I remain a fan, Transit[0] just seems like a much better product. They support more cities, their user tracking is (generally) more accurate, and (at least in my opinion) their app just better designed & thought out for transit use. [0]: https://transitapp.com/ https://transitapp.com/

antihero 4y ago
Giving this a go purely because the UI is beautiful and it seems to suggest using my bike in combination with public transport which is glorious.
- georgebcrawford 4y ago
  I’m in the same boat, the UX/UI is beautiful
nimbleplum40 4y ago
Transit is also really, really good if you know where you’re headed but just need to check train/bus arrival times. The app opens straight to live arrival times of all the lines nearest to you. So handy.
grishka 4y ago
More cities in which part of the world? Citymapper does support my city. Transit does not.

urbandw311er 4y ago

I know a few people who worked at Citymapper in senior roles, and the general consensus has always been that there was ultimately no feasible way to monetise. As others have pointed out, their core value of routing/planning/exploiting Open Data became heavily commoditised by Apple, Google, and the transport operators themselves (e.g. TfL in London). Their belated attempts to monetise payments, data, even running transport itself, haven't been successful: it's a crowded, aggressive market filled with long-time incumbents who have established relationships and deep strategic control points. As a place to work / founder values... ..well, the reviews on Glassdoor speak for themselves. I can't say I'm grieving for its loss.

thiscatis 4y ago
Same...and same stories about the founder. Not good.