GoPhillyGo: Where to Plan Multimodal trips in Philadelphia

Have you faced the dilemma of entering a destination in Google Maps, only to see that it would take you 3 hours to take a train (compared to a 30 minutes drive)? As much as technology has advanced our ease of public transit and biking routes, there’s still gaps in between if you were to bike for 15 minutes TO a train station that eases our commute – and increases a few calories in the process.

We’re talking about an app where you can plan multimodal trips in Philadelphia in today’s Where Can I Wednesday.

GoPhillyGo: The Multimodal Trip-Planning App

GoPhillyGo is an online mapping tool where you can either figure out how to get from Point A to Point B, or discover nearby (often environmental and nature-themed sights) around Philadelphia. Search with a combination of walking or biking and public transit to find the fastest route to cool local destinations, making Philly more accessible without a car.

Are you an Indego user? The map has options for bike share locations, too.

GoPhillyGo is a collaborative project between Clean Air Council, Azavea and Warkulwiz Design Associates, funded by the William Penn Foundation. (Basically a green tech superforce alliance.)

Testing out GoPhillyGo: How it Works

I did a few sample searches between Google Maps and GoPhillyGo to contrast the two search engines. My previous employer (based out of Moorestown, NJ) was impossible to get to from public transit – Google Map used to tell me it was almost a 3 hour public transit commute with like 6 different buses. Now, Google maps cut the time down to 1 hr, 20 minutes. GoPhillyGo found me a plausible route in 52 minutes.

In the “Explore Nearby Locations” mode, I also discovered I can get to GPB fav Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education in 50 minutes, compared to 40 minutes in car. Not saving a ton of time burning carbon emissions in exchange for getting some physical fitness in. Since Instagram has the Grounds for Sculpture on my summer radar, GoPhillyGo found my a route a little more than an hour. Def doable.

Don’t take my word simply for it – plan your trip on GoPhillyGo today.

Readers, have you used GoPhillyGo? Give us your tips in the comments.