Transitland’s Mapzen Turn-by-Turn routing service is now capable of mapping travel in more than 200 regions worldwide.
Creating effective transit apps can be difficult, given the vast amount of city (and worldwide) data to which app builders need to have access. Aiming to address this, Transitland is an open platform that aggregates publicly available transport information from around the world.
The start-up cleans the datasets, making them easy to use, and adds them to Mapzen, an open-source mapping platform. Mapzen Turn-by-Turn is the platform’s transport planning service that, following its latest expansion, now contains data from more than 200 regions around the world on every continent except Antarctica. It is one of the four pillars of the Mapzen Android Software Development Kit (SDK) and is powered by Valhalla, a routing engine that is built on open data from OpenStreetMap and Transitland.
Transitland encourages anyone interested in transport, data and mapping to get involved, from adding data streams to sharing new apps and analyses. Mapzen Turn-by-Turn also manages all licensing related to use of the data, leaving developers free to discover and build. The platform is available to use for free. The software provides dynamic and customizable routing by driving, walking, bicycling and using multimodal and transit options, with clear directions for manoeuvres along the route.
When users request a route, they input specific information about where they want to go, along with their own bespoke requirements for a journey such as preferred methods of transport and cost limitations. The service uses an interface called On-The-Road, which addresses client-side challenges of routing such as snapping the device location to the closest nearby road, distance calculations and turn prompting.
Mapzen Turn-by-Turn is extremely flexible. For example, if a user is planning a bicycle journey, myriad factors can be considered. Bicycle type and cycling speed can be changed, along with user preferences for paved roads, dirt paths and hills. Multimodal routes also have a wide range of options, including setting preferences for bus, rail, transfers and walking distance.
The service’s route results provide details about the trip, including a summary with basic information about the entire trip and a list of legs. Each leg has its own summary, a shape, which is a line of the route visualized on a map, and a list of manoeuvres. These manoeuvres provide written narrative instructions, plus verbal alerts that can be used as audio guidance in navigation apps.
The service also prides itself on providing succinct, easy-to-read, useful guidance and narrative directions to assist users during their trip. Redundant manoeuvres are collapsed, transitions at complex intersections are simplified, and exit information on highways is clear and timely. These features aim to provide a happier and shorter trip.
We have seen a platform enable data sharing to help local communities and governments work better together in the form of mySidewalk, which was founded in the United States by city planners who recognized the potential force for change in infrastructure and city planning, contained in the communities themselves.
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Website: transit.land
Contact: transitland@mapzen.com
Company name: Transitland
Innovation name: Mapzen Turn-by-Turn
Country: United States
Industries: Smart cities / Transport & automotive