Is the halfway point different by bike than by train?

Usually yes, and often by a long way. Rail networks route people through the centre, so the fair transit point is pulled inwards. Cycling routes are close to direct, so the fair cycling point sits nearer the real middle of the group.

Can it handle a group where some cycle and some take the metro?

Yes, and that is the case it is built for. You set the mode per person, each journey is timed on its own network, and the result is the spot that keeps the whole mixed group even rather than the spot that suits whichever mode is most common.

Does it use cycling routes or straight-line distance?

Real cycling routes and real cycling times, not a straight line. That matters because a river, a rail cutting or a motorway can add fifteen minutes to a ride that looks short on a map, and a straight-line estimate never sees it.

What about hills and how fast someone rides?

Cycling times come from the routing network's own estimates, which follow the roads and paths but assume a normal riding pace. Treat them as comparable between riders rather than as a promise about any one person's speed.

Meet in the middle by bike

When a group is cycling, the fair meeting point sits much closer to the true middle than it does on public transport, because bikes take direct routes instead of being funnelled through the centre by a rail line. togather times each rider's real route and compares it against however the rest of the group is travelling, so a mixed group gets one honest answer.

Find your meeting point How it works

Cycling changes where the fair point is

Most halfway tools were built for two people in two cars, and the ones that handle transit inherit the shape of the rail network whether the group is using it or not. Bikes break both assumptions. A rider is not funnelled through the centre by a line that happens to run that way, so cycling time behaves much more like distance than transit time does - and that pulls the fair meeting point back towards the actual middle of the group.

This is why a group that always meets at the big central interchange is often meeting in the wrong place. If everyone is riding, the interchange has stopped being the thing that makes a spot reachable, and all its pull on the answer is left over from a different mode.

The mixed group is the normal case

Almost nobody plans a night out where all five people travel the same way. Someone rides, someone walks in from ten minutes away, someone is coming in on the train from further out. A tool with one mode selector for the whole group has to pick a lie: time the cyclist as a passenger, or time the passenger as a cyclist.

togather sets the mode per person instead. The riders are routed on the road network, the passengers on the transit network, and the comparison happens in minutes - the one unit both modes share. What comes back is the spot where nobody in the group is carrying the trip, rather than the spot that suits whichever mode happened to be selected.

Read the spread

The number to look at is the gap between the longest and the shortest journey. Shrink that and you have a fair meeting point, wherever it sits. togather shows every rider’s time next to the result so the group can check that for itself before anyone sets off.

Add everyone’s starting point, set who is riding, and send the result to the group.

How togather works it out

Add everyone's starting point
Enter up to six starting points. Riders can use a street or a junction rather than a home address, which is usually what people prefer anyway.
Set the cyclists to cycling
Travel mode is per person, so the riders are timed on the road network while anyone on the metro or on foot is timed on theirs. Nobody's journey gets converted into somebody else's units.
Compare the times before you commit
Every person's cycling time appears next to the result, so the group can see whether the spot is genuinely even or whether one rider is doing twice the distance of everyone else.

Worked through, city by city

These guides name the interchanges that actually work as a fair midpoint in each city, and why the geographic middle tends to be the wrong answer there.

Questions

Is the halfway point different by bike than by train?: Usually yes, and often by a long way. Rail networks route people through the centre, so the fair transit point is pulled inwards. Cycling routes are close to direct, so the fair cycling point sits nearer the real middle of the group.
Can it handle a group where some cycle and some take the metro?: Yes, and that is the case it is built for. You set the mode per person, each journey is timed on its own network, and the result is the spot that keeps the whole mixed group even rather than the spot that suits whichever mode is most common.
Does it use cycling routes or straight-line distance?: Real cycling routes and real cycling times, not a straight line. That matters because a river, a rail cutting or a motorway can add fifteen minutes to a ride that looks short on a map, and a straight-line estimate never sees it.
What about hills and how fast someone rides?: Cycling times come from the routing network's own estimates, which follow the roads and paths but assume a normal riding pace. Treat them as comparable between riders rather than as a promise about any one person's speed.

Also worth reading

Settle it in about a minute

Add everyone’s starting point, pick how each person travels, and send the result to the group. No download, no sign-up.

Find your meeting point