how transportation applications want to help users travel better

With less than three months before the Olympic and Paralympic Games, transport applications are organizing to offer the most useful functions to the flow of travelers expected in Ile-de-France transport this summer.

Île-de-France, and Paris in particular, is preparing to welcome part of the world this summer. 11.3 million visitors are expected for the Olympic Games alone, of which 13% are foreigners. Many residents of Ile-de-France therefore wonder if the transport network, regularly saturated or suffering from problems, will be able to cope with the flow of travellers.

Valérie Pécresse, president of the Ile-de-France region and Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM) wants to be reassuring on the matter. In an interview given to Parisian At the end of April, Valérie Pécresse once again assured that “we are ready” less than three months before the Olympic Games in Paris.

But faced with expected disruptions, many residents and visitors to Ile-de-France will turn to their smartphones and transport apps to ease their journey. Several of them have integrated functions specific to the Olympic Games, to best follow spectators to the event venues. To help you choose, BFMTV.com has made a selection.

· “Paris public transport 2024”: the official application

On Tuesday, April 23, “Transport Public Paris 2024”, the application dedicated to travel during the Olympic Games, was officially launched, with the option “Trajet Paris 2024”.

This functionality must guarantee “good real-time distribution of spectators between transport lines to limit crowd phenomena and waiting times”.

The application’s algorithm tends to avoid excessive flow of travelers on certain lines, by redirecting users if necessary on an alternative route, sometimes longer.

According to the IDFM, the authority responsible for transport plans for the Olympic Games, this is the only application that shows all the sites and points of interest related to the Paris 2024 Games.

Available in six languages ​​(French, English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and German), the application will also offer, during the month of June, the possibility for users to purchase the Paris 2024 pass (only usable from July 20 to September 8 2024 for the net sum of 16 euros per day).

· Citymapper wants to “follow you to the entrance of the stadium”

In addition to the official application created by IDFM, other applications, already used by Ile-de-France residents and/or tourists, are working to make user journeys as easy as possible.

This is the case with Citymapper, the best-rated route planning application in France. The company will work with IDFM “to facilitate the journeys of Parisians and visitors during the Olympic Games, whether they are going to La Défense or the Stade de France”.

As with “Paris Public Transport 2024”, Citymapper will include route suggestions recommended by the IDFM, “designed to bypass overcrowded routes and stations, thus ensuring comfortable and safe travel”.

The application created in 2011 wanted to support Olympic spectators “to the entrance gate of the stadium corresponding to their seat, thereby eliminating the anxiety of wandering around a large Olympic venue“. However, “due to the new rules defining the security perimeter of stadiums”, this will not be possible, the company announced to BFMTV.com on April 28.

“We will still be able to accompany them to the security entrance to the stadium and the playing staff will have to direct them to their seats,” the Citymapper communication continues.

On top of that, Citymapper will “give practical advice, such as where to get on the train/metro, the nearest exit to your destination.” Features that are already integrated into the application normally.

· Transit wishes to inform as soon as the application is opened

As for Transit, an application best known across the Atlantic, messages will appear in the application during the Olympics “to inform users of service changes and options that can help them get around Paris”, the company indicates on BFMTV.com.

The company, which is used by 520,000 people in France, most of whom are in Île-de-France, is also in discussions with the IDFM to improve its transport plan during the Olympic period.

In addition, the app’s core functionality can “help users report congestion conditions they encounter, and this information is shared with other users in real-time as they use the app.”

· 45 languages ​​available on Moovit

As with Transit, Moovit allows users to “report, view and validate crowding levels, so users can see how crowded the station is before entering, or how busy a bus or rail line train is crowded before boarding.

Already present in 112 countries, Moovit particularly wants to stand out thanks to its application available in 45 languages. The company explains to BFMTV.com that spectators from around the world “will be able to use the application in their local language to easily travel to the Olympic events”.

Moovit has recently integrated a function that allows the user to plan a trip outside of a region. For example, a spectator can plan a journey between two competition venues, for example from the Stade de France, in Saint-Denis, to the Pierre Mauroy Stadium, in Villeneuve-d’Ascq.

· Wagon, the Ile-de-France application that aims to be practical

Finally, Wagon, an application from the Ile-de-France region, hopes to find its place on smartphones this summer. The application is currently tested by a thousand people. The goal for Arno Cellarier, its developer, is for the application to be available on IOS as quickly as possible, the latter tells BFMTV.com.

Just like Moovit or Transit, it is possible with Wagon to indicate a large crowd, but not only that. Report pickpockets, canceled trains, a terminal that no longer works, inaccessible station toilets… Users can update events in real time.

Another handy feature for tourists: unattended stops on the RER are also displayed.

Tourists and residents of the Ile-de-France region will therefore have a wide range of tools to help them get around during the play period. The authorities point out that the public transport lines serving the competition and celebration sites will be very busy with spectators and that the easiest thing, when possible, is to avoid them and favor walking or cycling.