IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_12780.html

Navigating Change: Google Maps, Real-Time Information, and Transit Ridership

Author

Listed:
  • Rhiannon Jerch
  • Andrea La Nauze
  • Xinyi Peng

Abstract

Widespread adoption of smartphone applications has fundamentally changed how individuals navigate complex, information-rich environments. This paper examines how a key innovation in a ubiquitous smart phone app — Google Maps — has influenced travel behavior. Using a new dataset on the availability of real-time transit tracking within Google Maps across 128 transit systems, we show that ridership per capita was 14% greater three years after the staggered roll-out. Survey data on commutes confirms this pattern and shows that commuters substituted away from car trips. We see suggestive evidence that air quality improved. Google’s impact was largest in highly complex transit systems, and real-time tracking in alternative navigation applications had much smaller effects. Our findings highlight that cognitive costs are a crucial, but overlooked, determinant of urban travel.

Suggested Citation

  • Rhiannon Jerch & Andrea La Nauze & Xinyi Peng, 2026. "Navigating Change: Google Maps, Real-Time Information, and Transit Ridership," CESifo Working Paper Series 12780, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12780
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ifo.de/DocDL/cesifo1_wp12780.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • R42 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Government and Private Investment Analysis; Road Maintenance; Transportation Planning
    • R41 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Travel Time; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise
    • H44 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Publicly Provided Goods: Mixed Markets

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12780. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.