Denver Has a New App That Shows The Best Way to Get Around

Today Mayor Michael Hancock and Transportation Director Crissy Fanganello introduced the Go Denver app, which lets people sort their trip options by cost, speed, and environmental impact before choosing how to travel. It’ll tell you how many calories each option burns too.Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 1.52.26 PM

The app compares several choices: Transit (with real-time data from RTD), walking, and biking (with a personal bike or with B-Cycle bike-share), car-sharing companies Car2go and Zipcar, as well as Lyft, taxi companies, and driving a private automobile.

“During the rush hour when there’s peak demand and the crush on the system, this app makes it easier for folks to understand all of their other options, that otherwise they might not have known it was easy for them to take,” Fanganello said. “I think this app will actually help us share information with folks and give people more confidence in other modes of getting around rather than just simply always in a single-occupancy vehicle.”

Starting in a month, people will be able to pay private transport companies through the app, but mobile ticketing for RTD buses and trains isn’t in the cards anytime soon.

“Doing the integration with the private providers quite frankly is easier,” said David Cummins, senior vice president of mobility solutions for Xerox, which developed the app. “In the long-term I think that the city’s vision is to have a platform like this be a sales channel for the public and private providers.”

Go Denver isn’t the first of its kind. The Denver Regional Council of Governments has a similar app, Way2Go, that includes a carpooling option. Private firms have developed trip planning apps like RideScout, but its Denver iteration isn’t built out to include as many options.

The app is in the beta testing phase. Developers will update it every two weeks based on feedback from the public.

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