Not Without My Bike

Seamless Journeys for Cyclists

What makes this app different from other biking apps is that it helps you to plan an efficient multimodal journey on bike and public transit – where part of the journey is cycling, and other parts you are carrying your bike on buses, trains, trolleys, ferries etc. that allow bikes onboard.

Biking directions are readily available on some mapping services. Public transport directions are available on many mapping services. But there is currently no app or service that will seam together an entire journey for a cyclist. 

Not Without My Bike help bicycle users plan for breaks in bike infrastructure, especially when there’s a spot where you don’t want to ride. You can check the app for the possibility to overcome the gap with public transportation. „The first leg of the journey may be very safe and convenient, and the last leg also, but in the middle is where you want to overcome with public transportation.”

Unlocking Open Data for Smarter Bike-Public Transport Trips

The app uses open data from OpenStreetMap – which which has schedule and route data on buses, ferries, trains, trolleys, but also whether and when these public transport services allow bikes.

The existing dataset has the all of the necessary data fields, but they’ve never been leveraged in this way before. The test dataset was for Hamburg, Germany – where the Trufi Association is headquartered. Even the testing yielded surprises – such as a bike-friendly ferry that some of the Hamburg-based volunteers did not know about. This revelation cut off several kilometers from the bike-only route suggested by Google Cycling Directions.

This app has potential wherever there is an OpenStreetMap dataset for public transportation. In other words: just about any city in the world. And because the data is contributed to by a community of users, information can be added and validated even in cities where the municipal transit authority does not maintain complete or accurate records on the bike-friendliness of buses.

An App with Global Potential

In developing countries, where informal transit is widely used, “Not Without My Bike” will help commuters make the most of their bicycles, while providing transit authorities with valuable data.

Measurable outputs that provide the evidence to demonstrate its success are: number of users, number of downloads, the interaction of the users with the app and the conversion rate. The interface is friendly, easy to use, attractive, with the option of choosing the English language to facilitate the use of the application.

A public Transport-App for Cyclists (as NWMB) shows the user where it makes sense for him/her to use public transport on the route, offers transport options where the users can brind their bike (bus, S&U restrictions), shows peak times and picks the fastest route and determines where it is worth not to get off the bike (just continue riding).

Unfortunately, this app is dedicated only to the city of Hamburg, having potential for development in several European cities and beyond. Also, you cannot combine public transport and cycling for all of the existing routes, so the provider should develop these functions more.