NAVTEQ announced that it has reached a major pedestrian milestone of one hundred cities for its NAVTEQ Discover Cities product including coverage for Caracas.
As the most populous city in Venezuela, Caracas is a key destination for business and pleasure making it a natural extension of the NAVTEQ Discover Cities coverage footprint. Whether a local, a business traveler, or a tourist, Discover Cities enables unique pedestrian navigation experiences by adding detail to the NAVTEQ Map. This distinctive combination of pedestrian geometry and pathways. Points of Interest and transit data enables development of applications to help pedestrians navigate to their destinations via a variety of pedestrian specific routes, including those entirely on foot.
NAVTEQ works closely with public transit operators to source information on schedules and the entrances and exits to transit stations to help application providers deliver the best routing options. For example a baseball fan visiting Caracas to see their beloved Leones del Caracas play at the Estadio Universitario could be provided instructions to take the Caracas Metro to the Ciudad Universtaria stop on the number 3 or blue line. Upon exiting their hotel lobby they would also be provided turn-by-turn pedestrian directions to the metro entrance.
This achievement is also significant given the sheer depth and complexity of the pedestrian navigation data NAVTEQ specialists collect, based on a single, global specification. While walking the world’s cities, these specialists meticulously collect more than 50 pedestrian-specific attributes.
A key benefit of NAVTEQ’s robust specification and "feet on the street" is the inclusion of pedestrian "shortcuts" that can be used to save time. These shortcuts may be via unmarked paths through parks, plazas or even publicly accessible buildings. Without this additional data, applications may generate a route that involves only sidewalks when significantly shorter options are possible in reality. For example, a pedestrian walking to an address on Avenida Libertador commencing on Paseo Colon would be provided directions that illustrate a path through Parque Los Caobas.
This short-cut saves the traveler both time and energy. Additionally the pedestrian map would display a 3D Landmark representation of the Galeria de Arte Nacional adding to the pedestrians’ confidence that they are heading in the right direction to their final destination.