Madrid Mobility 360 is born: a multimodal route planner with bus occupancy control

Earlier this month, EMT Madrid launched Madrid Mobility 360: an innovative app to promote sustainable mobility in the Spanish capital, which includes all existing mobility options and a feature with information on bus occupancy.

The app allows anyone in Madrid to access the best possible route for a journey, with information on all available mobility modes in the cities, including free-floating shared mobility. It offers several options regarding cost and times available for users, and through the application, payments can be made to purchase single bus tickets and use the services of BiciMAD and BiciMAD go (additional EMT Madrid services).

Developed by EMT, Madrid Mobility 360 provides the user with information about the occupation of their buses, both when calculating a route and when waiting at a stop. This feature, so far unreleased in this type of application, is especially relevant considering users' added concerns about COVID-19 and contributing to flatten the rush hour of public transport.

By using an intuitive colour code (green, yellow, orange and red) and a message about the estimated level of occupancy, the user obtains information about the bus occupancy in the section of the calculated route. This information is not merely descriptive - If the planned route includes a high occupancy section, the tool suggests two alternative options: a second route during the same period that presents a lower occupancy, and the same route at a later time with a lower level of occupancy.

In the words of José Luis Martínez-Almeida, the mayor of Madrid, “This is an example of what the future of the city of Madrid should be," while noting that this future hangs on two essential axes, namely "digital transformation and the commitment to sustainability, within which mobility is a fundamental part”.

Article first published first at EMT Madrid on the 2nd of December 2020