Cape Town - Cape Town’s public transport commuters can now use their cellphones to access real-time timetables and plan their routes.
Transport MEC Robin Carlisle said the move would benefit the majority of commuters as 92 percent of people in the province had access to a cellphone.
Using their cellphones, residents can now plan their routes, whether they are travelling by train, taxi, MyCiTi buses or the Golden Arrow Bus service.
Commuters can go to www.findmyway.mobi and www.gometro.co.za to find a full timetable.
FindMyWay, pictured, brings together all the modes of transport within the city, so that commuters can easily access the information in one place. Carlisle said future plans included a system whereby commuters would be able to plan routes “across modalities”.
This meant it would provide information on how you could plan a route using different forms of public transport.
Earlier this year the city launched its transport authority Transport for Cape Town. Its goals include a system in which residents can use one ticket for all modes of transport.
Carlisle said there had been good co-operation from the taxi, train and bus industry, with all sharing the necessary information.
FindMyWay is a free public service website specifically designed to make the lives of commuting Capetonians easier by enabling access to all modes of public transport information from their cellphones.
This is a social initiative powered by the already successful start-up WhereIsMyTransport and it will be the first one-stop portal of public transport and commuter information in Cape Town.
FindMyWay founder Devin de Vries said the beauty of their site was that it catered to people who travelled on various modes of transport.
“FindMyWay is focused on bringing transport information to commuter’s fingertips. Moving people from point A to B as quickly and easily as possible,” De Vries said. The site is accessible from any cellphone with an internet connection.
“My friend has one of those small R100 phones and he could get on to the site, when you type in ‘findmyway.mobi’ the site first deciphers what your phone is capable of before sending information,” De Vries said.
The site was launched on October 18.
“I believe the one card for all modes of public transport is the future and we are trying to make sure we’re going in that direction, but in order for this to work there needs to be a degree of partnership between us and the transport agencies,” De Vries said.
The FindMyWay site has received about 2 500 users in the past two weeks and De Vries said he hoped that more people would use the site in the future. - Cape Argus