By Zhou Kai
For a lot of our users, daily commuting isn’t always as simple as a direct ojek (motorcycle taxi) or cab ride from point A to point B. In fact, typical day-to-day commute might involve public transport services as the primary mode to cover long distances and ride-hailing services like GoRide or GoCar as the first or last-mile options. It is a taxing ordeal. 😥
In what is typically known as a multimodal trip, users switch between multiple modes of transportation as they go from one point to another.
Unfortunately, this process can be extremely stressful in Jakarta, especially during the pandemic. Not only do users have to make sure they’re on time to catch their transportation services, they need to constantly stay updated and adapt to the changes in their schedules and regulations.
We understand this pain and we are determined to eliminate it for our users. With Gojek, there is always a way: #PastiAdaJalan 🖖
Introducing…
GoTransit aims to make the multimodal trip experience easier and safer for our customers. It’s a trip assistant that can be used to plan, track, and navigate one’s way from one point to another using public transportation, Gojek transport options, or a combination of both. Users can make use of real-time updates to explore various transit options in the city.
The journey of GoTransit
To understand our users’ needs and build a solution people love, we decided to dive deep and immerse ourselves in the day-to-day experience of our users with public transport services.
In the article published earlier, we mentioned that we’ve been researching multimodal experience for a while. We learned that in 2019, 1 out of 2 Gojek users in Jakarta has a first-mile/last-mile trip to a public transportation hub using GoRide at least once. While the most common places were Transjakarta (rapid bus transport service) and KRL stations, the number of trips to MRT stations had also grown by 5.5x since its launch.
For users to have a frictionless experience while planning multimodal trips, they must have access to accurate and updated information on these public transportation hubs.
In addition, we also conducted extensive foundation market research and spoke to many targeted users to identify potential user gaps and to outline what the MVP should be like. Usability tests were conducted to get feedback on the design prototypes to understand what the best flows should be for the users. With both quantitative and qualitative feedback, we have been continuously adding more features and improving the product. Now, we would like to share this with those who have to continue to use public transport for their daily commutes.
Planning a safer trip with GoTransit
While there are lots of rooms for improvement for GoTransit, we believe it has the core functionalities to help our users to plan multimodal trips easily and safely in the existing context.
1. Reliable and accurate transportation information
GoTransit contains routes, schedules, and fare information of all major transportation services in Jakarta. In particular, we also have real-time updates for Transjakarta services. This information allows users to check and plan routes ahead of their trips, and avoid unnecessary waiting time at the bus/train station.
GoTransit also provides the latest public transit alerts. We work closely with public transport agencies to get the latest information on the operating hours and regulation info during the pandemic to help users to stay informed of the upcoming trips.
2. Route recommendations that cater to your need
Another common feedback we have gathered from our users is the need to get route recommendations based on their preferred transportation modes. With GoTransit, users just have to click on preferences and select their preferred modes. Our internal routing service will then generate the best routes, taking time and price into consideration. We also noted that some users might want to take a trip that is more convenient or with more social distance. Hence we also added “least walking” and “fewest transfer” options.
3. Integrated the first and last-mile booking with GoRide & GoCar
A multimodal trip is not complete without a GoRide/GoCar ride. In the route details, GoTransit automatically provides a GoRide/GoCar option which users can use to replace walking and reduce their overall traveling time.
In case users want to travel with minimum contact with the crowd, we also provide GoCar/GoRide as a safer option under the search results page. This allows users to view and compare modes of travel in a single view.
What’s next for GoTransit?
We envision a world where everyone can enjoy a delightful and effortless commuting experience. Imagine being able to use Gojek to get directions to wherever you’re going, with different modes available to choose from, and make an end-to-end booking in one go. ✨
We’ve just about begun and will continue to improve GoTransit by listening closely to our users and partners.
Don’t forget to update your application to the latest version to try GoTransit, and feel free to provide us feedback to improve your daily commute! GoTransit is currently only available to Gojek users in Jabodetabek. You can find it under ‘Transport and Logistics’ service on the homepage.
#ThereIsAlwaysAWay to make your trip safer and more comfortable.
Written and designed by Kai & Vaibhav
Special shoutout to the Simba devs, Vikrama, Aprajit, Srizzati, Alverta, Beny, Hendy & the research team for helping bring this to life ❤️
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