Factual Featured Partner: Urban Engines

Getting from Point A to Point B in any city can be challenging. Vital information such as which direction to walk, what train to take, when the next bus will arrive, and if there’s an event going on that will shut down part of the route are not always clear to commuters. Urban Engines is making it easier to traverse cities by collecting and analyzing everything from train and bus data to anonymous commuter movement patterns, to empowering transit agencies, and improving individual commuter experiences around the world. See our Q&A with Urban Engines’ Dan Zheng and Resmi Arjunanpillai below.

Q: Introduce readers to Urban Engines.
A: Urban Engines is using technology to make urban living better; our primary focus is improving urban mobility — making it easier to get where you’re going — by using information from the billions of trips that people and vehicles make each day.

We work closely with cities and transit agencies to optimize their systems using transit data, such as “tap in/tap out” data from commuters entering and leaving public transit stations. With this simple information, we get a complete and clear view of how commuters are using the transit system and learn things like how full trains are and how many people are waiting on the platform. With Urban Engines data analytics solution, transit agencies can make decisions that can alleviate congestion and improve commuter experience, such as adding more buses on a crowded route.

Urban Engines uses the same powerful space-time engine that powers our analytics to drive an app that gives commuters the fastest public transit route from point A to B, whether online or offline, by evaluating traffic, area events, and how transit routes have fared historically. It is designed to be fast, always accessible (online and offline maps, search, and routing) and personalized, providing one-touch access and navigation to your favorite locations.

Q: Why is location data important for Urban Engines? Why did you choose Factual as your location data provider?
A: Within the Urban Engines app, it’s critical to surface locations that people are searching for. We like working with Factual because the location data is very high quality, allowing us to deliver a good user experience.

Q: Aside from providing maps and routes, how does the Urban Engines app help improve transit experiences?
A: When we designed the Urban Engines app, we had a modern commuter with a mobile device in mind. We set out to solve three problems: speed, connectivity, and orientation.

Speed: If you look at other apps today, given small mobile device screens, it takes a lot of effort just to input an address. Then there’s a lot of work to actually get to the location information that you want. We have provided one touch browsing for maps. As soon as you open up the app, we have already computed the best routes to all of your favorite locations.

Connectivity: For most places in metropolitan areas, there’s decent coverage in terms of connectivity to the internet. But generally if you have to go into places such as a subway station or basement bar, or you are traveling to a city where you won’t have data or internet access, you need full offline capability. With the Urban Engines app, you have complete offline functionality — you can do offline browsing of any map, search (for an address or point of interest), and route to any destination.

Orientation: For me, every time I get out of a train station — especially new ones – I get lost. Your phone has a camera, gyroscope, GPS, and a bunch of other sensors and features that actually could make it well equipped to assist you in this situation if deployed better. Our app combines these features to get what we call “X-ray mode.” This is a transparent map overlay of streets, transit stops, and transit routes on your camera view. When you turn on X-ray mode, you can tap on a bus stop or train station to see next arrival times and a walking path to see exactly how to get there without having to guess which way is uptown.

These are the things we’ve focused on so far, but there are many ways to use a mobile device to improve commuting and this is only the beginning!

Q: What’s an interesting or unexpected thing that you’ve learned from analyzing different cities’ transit patterns? Are there any key differences in commuting between different countries or continents?
A: Commuting is so location dependent. For example, in Singapore (given that it is near the equator) it rains a lot and the amount of rain has an impact on how people travel. When there’s light rain, people tend to hop on buses more often — it’s like a large moving umbrella. When it pours however, the subway stations get packed.

Q: How do you think ride-sharing apps (like Uber and Lyft) are impacting commuting and traffic? Is this something you plan to track in the future as well?
A: We know that urban commuters are changing their habits. A lot of it has to do with the shared economy – Zipcar, Uber, Lyft, or bike sharing programs. That’s going to continue to evolve in the sense that for younger people it’s about access rather than ownership. For the app, we will track this space closely and continue to add relevant functionality. More broadly, our space-time engine can also be used by ride-sharing apps to analyze movement data.

Q: Do you have any advice for the average commuter on some simple steps they can take to start improving their experience?
A: One of the things we do in the Urban Engines app is provide real time data (when available) such as if there’s an event happening on your route and how likely your choice of public transportation to be delayed. Looking at this real time information can be extremely helpful in determining your route each day, so you don’t get stuck in unanticipated congestion.

- Julie Levine, Marketing Associate

In Case You Missed It
Check out some other partners we’ve interviewed, like city guides Tastemade and Jetpac City Guides, and networking apps HelloTel and SocialRadar. See even more Featured Partners here.

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