Innovations
in Mobile
Applications
The use of mobile applications continues
to rise as technology innovation
continues to allow greater access to data
at your fingertips.
By Maile Bucher
A
GENCIES HAVE EMBRACED
the shift toward the use of
mobile applications in fare
collection and real-time
data, as well as management.
Mobile applications
and the technology behind
it can not only reduce agency
costs, but also provide up-todate
information to passengers
and the agencies operating behind
them.
Mobile applications reflect
the industry. As multimodal
transit options continue to rise,
these apps begin the incorporating
these modes as options for
their users.
Jake Sion, Transit’s chief operating
offi cer, explained that when
Transit fi rst introduced its app in
2012 the main focus was getting
users information on their bus or
train as quickly as possible.
“You would open the app and it
would instantly show you departure
times for all the transit options
around you. Th e one thing
that we quickly realized was that
urban mobility was just starting
to shift . People used to have two
choices: they would take their car
or ride transit, but now there’s a
multitude of options,” said Sion.
“What we’ve been trying to do
is make it as easy as possible to
24 | Mass Transit | MassTransitmag.com | FEBRUARY 2018
get from A to B in any way that
is available. We’ve integrated ride
sharing with Uber; you can book
and pay for the Uber all through
us without leaving the app. You
can buy bikeshare passes for 10
diff erent cities.”
Developments also integrate
apps that can be utilized within
an agency in a multitude of ways.
Engie launched the Navineo Intelligent
Transportation Systems
mobile solutions. Th e three different
options are:
• Navineo Mobile Apps for
Passengers
• Navineo Mobile Supervision on
Smartphone
• Navineo Driver Terminal on
Tablet
“Th e fi rst one, which I would
say is the most standout one, is
an app for the passengers. You
can plan your trip, track the bus,
you get all your real-time info.
You can track the bus; you can
track them on a map and see
where they are in real-time,” said
Kilian Ollivier, business development
manager, North America,
for the Intelligent Transportation
System line of business at
Engie. “Further enhancements
that we are looking at next year
will be the passenger loading information
on the bus, so when
you track the bus there will be
diff erent colors for the loads for
each bus. Green if there are not
very many people inside the bus,
as well as yellow and red — so
people can have a choice in their
journey to choose a bus that is
not that full.”
MOOVEL’S
PARTNERSHIP
with Google,
INIT and TriMet
offers seamless
payment through
the Android app.
TRANSIT
EXPANDED its
app offerings
to include
bikeshares in
a number of
different cities.
moovel
Transit
/MassTransitmag.com