Ubirider Outlines How to Make the Fragmented Travel Experience a Thing of the Past

PORTO, Portugal, November 3, 2020 (Newswire.com) - ​Ubirider, creator of Pick, a door-to-door travel and payment solution, outlines how transit operators can make the fragmented travel experience a thing of the past.

The early years of the New York City subway system provide an important lesson on fragmentation. For the first half of the 20th century, the New York City subway system was operated by two private companies and one city-owned agency. Connecting between these different transit fiefdoms was difficult for passengers and required paying a separate fare.

This was not a seamless and customer-oriented experience.

Unfortunately, this type of fragmented transportation experience is not a thing of the past. The friction and subpar customer experience that comes with fragmentation still very much exists in cities around the world, and it will continue to be a part of the transportation landscape until some fundamental changes are made toward creating a more integrated travel experience.

Two Different Journeys

Let’s say you need to get from one city to another city an hour or two away. For this trip, a car provides a fairly seamless experience. After all, all you have to do is drive from point A to point B. You likely have a toll reader attached to the rearview mirror that automatically handles any tolls you encounter along the way, and when you arrive at your destination, you pay for parking. That’s it. You’re all set.

Taking mass transit — including any combination of public transportation and privately operated buses, trains or ferries — for that same trip would be a very different story.

You would start your journey on city transportation, perhaps a bus or subway. Before long, you’d need to transfer to some form of intercity transportation — anything from a private coach service to some form of rail. Once you arrived in your destination city, you’d need to address the “last mile,” which would likely mean taking a new form of city transportation or perhaps a type of personal mobility such as a bicycle or scooter. And all along the way, you’d have to make separate payments for each leg of the journey.

In some cases, this might mean having no choice but to go into a ticket office or interface with a ticket kiosk to purchase a physical ticket. Some of these transportation offerings might have an app that allows for digital payment, but this soon presents a challenge of its own: Before you know it, you have an explosion of different apps on your smartphone — the transit app for your origin city, the transit app for your destination city, a couple of different mobility rental apps and so on — just for trying to get from one city to another.

It’s a highly fragmented experience and one that creates unnecessary friction for the customer. 

Read the full article on Forbes.com.

Media Contact: Angela Simoes, angela.simoes@ubirider.com

Source: Ubirider