From bike rental to car sharing, some travel planning apps are starting to offer a broader range of alternatives but is this just a niche for hipsters or the shape of things to come, wonders Andrew Hennigan

Intermodal travel planners simplify life for consumers by allowing them to plan an entire trip online, automatically identifying connections that complete the journey. At first they were limited to connections between the classic modes of travel – plane, train, bus, taxi – but trip planners and booking sites are starting to add new options as technology makes the data sharing easier and cheaper.

Qixxit, a travel planner app created by Germany’s Deutsche Bahn railway company, shows how this can work for long distance trips. The app suggests how to get from one point to another using any mix of personal and public transport including plane, train, private bike, private car, car rental, bike rental, car sharing, ferry, taxi, long-distance buses and local public transport.

Technology drives awareness

Most people are unlikely to use, for example, bike rental for a cross-country trip, but it could be useful to complete a trip by helping travellers connect from the nearest station to the exact destination.

Although alternatives like bike rental and car sharing are important modes for expansion or connecting mobility, in the short term they are likely to remain fairly niche. However, Qixxit Project Leader Friederike Aulhorn argues that if access to these modes becomes easier they hold the potential to help travellers move more efficiently door-to-door.  

It’s about a shift in consumer behaviour but there is also a growing awareness of new alternatives of apps like Qixxit. This could make people more likely to seek them out, and try using them. After all, bikes have been available for rent since the 1800s but accessing one in a distant town is impractical without the help of an online booking tool. As

While Qixxit integrates unusual modes into a long-distance planning tool, the same trend is appearing in city transit apps like TripGo.

“We wanted to develop an app that takes into account current trends in transport behaviour such as increased cycling, car sharing and people switching between private and public transport more often,” says TripGo founder Claus von Hessberg.

With TripGo travellers within a city can mix trips seamlessly to combine public and private transport options – starting a trip by train and then booking a taxi, or starting with a car share and then using a bus. 

“Given increased city congestion and the rise of the sharing economy, car sharing and city bikes are here to stay and will only grow in the future,” says von Hessberg. 

…millennials in the US are driving less and using more public transport, cycling, walking or other alternatives

This view is confirmed by a recent study, Millenials in Motion: Changing Travel Habits of Young Americans and the Implications for Public Policy. It finds that millennials in the US are driving less and using more public transport, cycling, walking or other alternatives. In Europe the trend is even more marked, with cities planning larger car-free areas, more public transport options and networks of dedicated cycling paths.

Circumventing a ‘daunting process’

Building an intermodal trip planner from scratch sounds like a daunting prospect but travel brands and authorities can take a short cut and use white label solutions. In doing so, they have the benefit of building on real-time data feeds, geographical services and search tools from companies like Cityway, a ‘mobility as a service’ provider which powers Toronto’s Triplinx in Canada and Lyon’s OptymodLyon in France.  

“Intermodal projects like this will become more common,” says Chloé Spano, International Business Manager at Cityway, a firm which provides intermodal information on all transport modes available in a specific territory including public transportation with car sharing, bike sharing and personal bike.

Ok, so you don’t need to book your own bike but the planner needs to take into account the travellers need to use it to reach the nearest transport node. This reflects another new trend; that of people using personal vehicles to reach the most convenient access point for public services. Trip planners have to take into account, for example, that sometimes the best station isn’t the nearest but the one with a bike-friendly route and parking places available.

Millennials already approach travel from a different perspective and are more open to using new alternatives. With better data and improved trip planners, these alternatives will become a doddle to use, making travel easier and easing congestion. If it encourages more people to get on their bike, it might also make us healthier.