Dang, Chicago.

Cities are coming along to the idea. Doing some research. Maybe they’re reading our policy paper. But Chicago? Y'all just threw down for Open APIs. You required all scooter companies on city streets to share their real-time vehicle locations. Why? Because it's easier for riders to find a scooter with 1 app instead of 10. And with all those scooters in Transit's multimodal trip planner, it's easier to ditch the car, with more of those miraculous, planet-saving, congestion-killing car-free trips. 👌

When we announced we had scooter locations from 🦉 Bird, ⚡️ Bolt, 🛴 JUMP, 🍋 Lime, 🎀 Lyft, 🌋 Sherpa, 💫 Spin, and ☸️ Wheels, people in Chicago reacted immediately: in the first month, more than 43,000 people tapped on scooters in Transit. If you thought the average Joe didn’t care about open data, read this thread on Reddit: people in Chicago articulate their exasperation with “walled garden” scooter apps, and excitement about a better, open, inclusive alternative.

Next month, we'll be in Toronto for NACTO's Designing Cities conference, talking about Chicago’s Open API masterstroke. Let us know if you want to hang out!

Pittsburgh 🐧👷

It’s not just about Open APIs though. We need physical infrastructure to induce more car-free trips. So we’re elated to’ve been chosen by Pittsburgh as part of a consortium with Spin, Waze, Zipcar, and others, as the City builds integrated digital AND physical infrastructure for car-free commuting. (More than open APIs and cross-platform payments, they’ll also be building new on-street mobility hubs—all discoverable in Transit.)

By building a mobility ecosystem, the City of Pittsburgh gets all the upsides—like better consumer choice and fewer car trips—without having to build the apps and services itself. It’s a win-win-win for the city, planet, people, and partners.

Want to create an open mobility ecosystem in your city? Alta Planning + Design are offering a free workshop on new mobility in one lucky city 👉 you’ve got till August 30 to apply

Partnerships 💼🤝📱

We’re partnering with cities and mobility companies both: we’ve just added fleets for: U-bicycle in Victoria, BC; Donkey Republic bikeshare in Europe; as well as Communauto FLEX carshare in Toronto — which now offers native unlocking & booking 💪 right inside our app; plus our first scooter partner Spin. They’re offering $5 ride credits in Austin, LA, Portland, and Baltimore for Transit users who haven’t yet… spun.

So many modes. So many partnerships. One more: microtransit. Why? As agencies begin to experiment with point-to-point services (to complement their fixed route options) they want ways to attract folks who aren’t familiar with the bus, and to make transit more accessible for people who don’t live near a bus stop. That’s why Las Vegas’s RTC, working with Via and Keolis, launched Trip to Strip, a new ridehail service and Transit partner. When someone plans a trip along the Vegas Strip (or to the airport), they’ll now see Trip to Strip’s 11-seat vans in Transit, and microtransit-to-bus trip plans.

Are you an agency, operator, or just someone who happens to have 1,000 e-scooters stowed away in their backyard? Want to see them in Transit? Hook us up with your API!

Agency Partners 🙌

Hello Golden Gate Transit, Green Mountain Transit, Roam Transit, and the lovely Utah Transit Authority: all new members of the Transit family. One of the family perks? All the tools we build for our agency partners, like the new stop-based alerts tool in our partner dashboard:

Launched last month, it lets an agency notify riders if service has changed at their stop—and route them around the disruption—without bothering EVERYONE along the line. Agencies like DDOT (Detroit) and UTA (Utah) and Golden Gate Transit (SF Bay) and PSTA (Tampa Bay) and VTA (San Jose) and Metro Transit (Madison) are using our dashboard to create hyper-local alerts, and taking advantage of other dashboard features as well. 🕺

Ticketing 🏀

Alley-oopin’ our way into Ohio, we’re happy to announce Lebron no longer has to buy his transit tickets at a kiosk or store when he’s home in Akron! Akron METRO RTA is one of four Ohio agencies (with more to come, thanks to EZfare) that now let riders buy fares in Transit.

Riders shouldn’t need to juggle apps to use car-free options. Now, they can plan and pay for their trip instantly. (No surprise, our ticketing integrations have been a hit among riders.)

Our team at Transit can support whichever ticketing platform your agency uses. So if you want to talk tickets, just shoot us an email!

New Cities 😏

Buenos Aires just launched real-time transit data this summer—in conjunction with Transit going live there, too! Now for the past month, B.A. has been one of our fastest growing cities, with influencers™ 🤪 and newspapers 🎩 all going ga-ga for Transit. At any rate… our team has been meticulously checking the feed, fixing the occasional data turbulence, even adding support for Ecobici, the city’s bikeshare. Exciting times ahead.

We’ve also added support for Stockholm (välkomna vänner!) and launched real-time data for our old friends in Victoria, BC.

Know a city with plans to launch real-time data? Give us a holler. 🇦🇷🏃🌲

Okay enough from us. Please, sneak home a little early today. Enjoy that park… backyard… balcony… kiddie pool… beach... roof… open fire hydrant.

We won’t tell if you don’t!

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