OREANDA-NEWS. November 24, 2011. A journey planner on Yandex.Maps now provides information about available public transport routes based on current traffic conditions. Yandex.Maps is the only internet service offering to its users an opportunity to choose the less-congested and, therefore, the fastest routes to their destination using public transport.

Considering current traffic situation helps users to plan their daily public transport commute. The tired office workers can now estimate the time it may take to get home and choose from up to three routes offered by the Yandex.Maps service. Route suggestions for the same origin and destination may change within half an hour, as traffic information on the service is updated continually. In addition to traffic conditions, the route planner on Yandex.Maps also takes into account a number of other parameters including the average traffic speed and waiting, walking and transfer time.

The new function is available both on the desktop service and in the mobile app for Android-based smartphones. Checking the Yandex.Maps app on their device, the user can see if they should really wait for the next bus or whether they would be better off walking a few hundred feet to the nearest tram stop.

The Yandex.Maps public transport route planner is currently available in ten cities across Russia – Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Omsk, Rostov-on-Don, Saratov, Ufa and Chelyabinsk.