Jay Walder, a board member with Citymapper, joins Cheddar News to talk about how the app is evolving and trends to watch in the transit sector.  

Between Bells

Citymapper Looks to Expand Tech to Transit Sector

and welcome back friends between Bells and cheddar news. I'm baker machado in new york and one navigation app looking to make your morning commute just a little bit easier. City mapper was founded in London back in 2011 and it provides transportation options to cities worldwide. The app consistently appears in the top 10 free navigation apps in the apple app and google play stores and now they're looking to expand even more this year. So joining us now to discuss the company's plans is jay, Walder board member over at city mapper. J great to have you here. Thanks so much for joining us. People clearly are loving city mapper. It's consistently has a pretty high rating, maybe about 4.8 stars right now on average. So why are so many users flocking to the app over others in this sector? Oh, hey baker, it's really great to be here and, and to be with you. Look, I think it's simple. I think it really is. I think transportation in cities is complex. We all know that we live there. We deal with it and city mappers. Technology is making it easier and more seamless for us to be able to get around cities and, and frankly that's inherently different from what you're seeing from, from other apps. You know, if I was, you know, like if I was going from new york city to Denver, we might be having a debate about whether or not I should be using google or ways to be to be able to get around, but, but anyone who lives in the city knows that it's different than that, right? We're not driving in cars, we're taking subways and busses, Citi bikes and scooters and and we're walking, it's a whole different experience to that. It's inherently different. So really, why should our apps be a car centric? And city mapper is different. It's inherently different than all that. It's not cookie cutter. It's optimized for the way that you want to move around cities. Optimized for the city that you're in. It's really special. And I think people recognize that, I think it's really, really neat. Do you think j because of the rising gas prices? And we're already seeing Uber basically announce that they're having to, you know, add about 50 cents per Uber ride because of the high gas prices. Also, people coming back to the office and looking for more affordable ways of transit. That that's why city mapper has become a very popular service for a lot of people to find maybe cheaper routes to get to the office. Absolutely. And look, there's so much going on right now. First off, let's, let's face it, during the pandemic. In so many cities around the world, our transportation options have actually increased their there are more bikes, there are more scooters, there's more ways to get able to get around and to be able to do things and I love that. It makes it more complicated, but I love it. Uh second our travel patterns have changed. We're not necessarily going where we were going before at the same times and and that we were doing it. And so really what everybody is really looking for right now is personalized transit. They're looking for a way to be able to access these incredible transportation systems we have in a way that fits for the way that we want to do it. And I think city map is hitting that spot. Um, and look, I'll also say the fact that it's getting us to do things that are active, that it's getting us to do things that are cleaner and more sustainable, more environmentally friendly and doing it. Those are all big pluses as well. It's great Jay, you've been in this transportation sector a long time, 30 plus years. What made you want to join a company like city map or at this point in this juncture in your career here? Well, I wish I hadn't said 30 plus years baker, but, but I guess it's really true in in thinking about, look, I've done everything, I've done subways to, to bite share to, to hyper loops. Um, but really what this is about for me is a here and now we have the ability to really rethink the way that we're getting around cities. We have the ability to be able to use technology uh, in a fundamentally different way. Like, your experience shouldn't start an end where one company starts an end. We don't wanna app that tells us where the subway goes. We want an app that tells us how we can get from where we are to where we want to go. And and so this is really the basis of being able to do this right now and and coming out of the pandemic, look, I'll just speak for myself on this last week in new york. I rode the subway every single day is the first time I've done that since. The pandemic and I went everywhere. I was meeting friends, I went to business meetings, I was in a museum, my wife and I went out to a broadway play. We went out for dinner in chinatown, the, the transit system unlocked the city for me again. And, and look, I'm maybe I'm a little different, but I loved it, it was great and I think that's what everybody's looking for right now, bizarrely. And and maybe even surprisingly, the number of active users of city mapper has actually now exceeding pre pandemic levels. We want this. It's the right time. I'm in the same boat with you. J I took the subway and there's such a refreshing feeling almost of normalcy when you're there. Even if you have like some crazy person that's right next to you, it still has this great field. I never, ever thought you would say that baker. I mean, think about what you just said, yes, they're gonna clip this and they're gonna show this for the next two years. As a result of that, J walter is such a pleasure to have you here. Board member of City Mapper thanks so much for joining us.