Gothere now 3X more useful than before

In June, we wrote a blog post saying that we intend to re-evaluate the way we calculate and display our directions. We've since been hard at work making changes to our routing engine and today, we're really excited to be unveiling a few features that we've been working on for the past month.

1. See alternative routes

When we launched the smartest, fastest and cheapest directions options, they were meant to provide more choices to the user. However, there are many instances where the "smartest" option is also the "fastest" or "cheapest", resulting in less choices for the user to choose from. We realised that we could do better, so as of today we're doing away with these options and will instead offer multiple alternative routes.

The alternative routes are presented in a text summary so that you'll be able quickly see important details such as the number of transfers.

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To see how a route compares with another, just move your mouse over the option and the route will be overlayed on the map.

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2. Variable waiting time for bus and trains

We previously introduced waiting times into the total journey time because we wanted to make it more representative of the actual journey time. We knew that adding a fixed waiting time wasn't the best solution, but it helped lay the foundation towards providing better results. We are finally ready, and the waiting times are now based on actual bus and train frequencies. We'd like to thank all who've provided feedback on how to improve our waiting times.

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3. Time-sensitive public transport directions

If you have used our driving or taxi directions, you may have realised that our taxi fare estimations and ERP costs were based on the time of the day. We're pleased to be bringing this functionality to our bus and train directions!

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This means you'll now be able to search for special bus services that operate only on weekdays, or after hours (such as the SMRT Night Rider services).

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Do let us know what you think of this new update. Remember to try it out before you go somewhere today! Have fun!