Dive Brief:

• The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro) selected Transit as its official mobile app partner, replacing the agency's Go Metro LACMTA app. 
• The Transit app will offer LA Metro riders real-time bus and train schedule information; step-by-step navigation and trip planning; personalized service alerts; and accessibility tools for those in-need, among other features. "Transit does a great job of taking something that can be confusing by nature —  navigating a complex city via transit — and making it a straightforward experience," LA Metro wrote in a blog post.
• Transit was selected through a competitive request for proposals (RFP) process that started in fall 2019, and is providing its app through a no-cost marketing agreement. The partnership is expected to save LA Metro $240,000 annually in app maintenance and development costs, the agency wrote in the post.  

Dive Insight:

It's been nearly a decade since Los Angeles County mixed up the host of its official mobile app. Go Metro LACMTA has gone through a number of iterations since its launch in 2010, yet the agency-built app has earned only a 1.8-star rating in the App Store and is a drain of both time and resources for the county's Metro team.

"That app had schedules, connection to real-time info, but its functionality was pretty limited and difficult for people to use and to find the accurate information they were looking for," Stephen Miller, communications lead for Transit, told Smart Cities Dive in an interview.

Miller said adoption of the Transit app will increase "ease of use" for LA Metro riders by integrating information from multiple transportation options in the Los Angeles region — including bike-share services, scooter services and ride-hail services — to streamline trip planning. The app also has the capability to offer features like mobile ticketing, which can aid transit in recovering from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. 

"Providing that option to riders can go a long way to making people feel confident about taking transit and reducing the contact they have with surfaces or other people," Miller said.

In late April, Transit released the findings of a 25,000-rider survey assessing those who are still taking transit amid the pandemic. The survey found riders are largely Black and Latino women who are considered "essential workers," and they're traveling to healthcare and food jobs. 

"When things settle down, and when more people begin to return to public transit, we’re all going to have to ask ourselves some tough questions about how our transportation dollars are allocated," Transit wrote in a blog post regarding the survey. "Our society’s dependence on good public transit has never been so obvious."

Beyond Los Angeles, Transit has partnered with transit agencies in Silicon Valley (VTA); Boston (MBTA); Montreal (STM); Baltimore (MDOT MTA); Kansas City, MO (RideKC); Salt Lake City (UTA) and Bakersfield, CA (GET).