Planning a trip that integrates multiple forms of transportation, especially when public transit comes into the equation, can be hard. While Google allows you to add busses, ferries, metros and the like into your commute plans, the implementation and integration with Google Maps is found just a bit lacking by some. That’s where dedicated transit planning apps like Moovit come in. The app, which is unique in its close-knit integration with the locations it operates in, is able to achieve things like better accessibility for the blind and smartwatch support, among other things you’d be hard-pressed to find in other transit planning apps. With a rollout planned in 131 cities across 22 countries, Moovit’s wide audience is in for a treat in the coming weeks; Uber integration will be coming over the next few weeks.
Users in supported markets will be able to plan out their trip as normal, then interrupt it with an Uber trip if their usual commute gets hung up or they need to get somewhere quicker. The trip will pick back up where the Uber drops the user off. Naturally, a user can also simply include Uber in their route to begin with, rather than saving it back as a necessity. This also means, of course, that trips that used to have to be planned as two separate trips in different public transit service territories can now be bridged via Uber, making planning that little bit quicker and easier for the user.
Uber integration will be rolling out slowly and won’t hit all of the markets that Moovit works in just yet. Named in the press release were the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, France, Turkey, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Australia, Canada, Singapore, Norway, Finland, Netherlands, Uruguay, Portugal, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria and Greece. While it’s possible that Uber integration will reach a wider gamut of Moovit’s markets in the future, those countries will be among the first to receive Uber support across 131 cities. An exact timeline for the rollout was not mentioned, nor was the order in which cities will be receiving the new transit planning option.