Decade by decade, block by block, our grand avenues were turned into deadly car conveyor belts.
Our bustling public spaces were repurposed for vehicle storage.
Our cities and lives can be so much more if we just think differently about how we get around:
new google maps ui still fails to render the blue line correctly and also appears to struggle with some of the double- and triple-decker streets downtown
I knew Transit did biking directions – it's always an option below all the route suggestions – but I didn't know it had an overlay for safe routes.
These directions are good. REALLY good. And available everywhere! Even Google doesn't factor protected lanes into its routing.
You can no longer unlock Citi Bikes in Transit.
Lyft bought Citi Bike (and other bikeshare operators) — as a way to get you using the
@lyft
app.
Now they're killing our bikeshare features in NYC & more cities.
No more openness. Hello, walled gardens:
🙂👉 transit + ridehail connections
☺️👉 transit + docked bikeshare
😲👉 transit + dockless bikes
🤯👉 transit + scooters
🤩👉 all the above…
Now in our trip planner. Say hello to the 𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙪𝙖𝙡 𝙛𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙨𝙩 trips in your city: 🤠
Our trip planner now works...
🚇 in the deepest subway tunnels
📵 without a data plan
💀 when a server crashes
💥 if your 4G satellite gets hit by a comet
The world's first offline transit trip planner: every city, every mode.
And it's fast as hell ⏩⏩
Millions of people are still using public transit. Who are they, exactly? We surveyed 25,000 riders.
- They're essential workers (no surprise)
- 56% identify as women — just 40% as men
- Ridership is much less "white" than before the pandemic
More stats:
Rats. They're everywhere.
But mostly in New York.
We asked Transit riders to tell us when they saw rat(s) at a subway station, ran the numbers, and found which
@mta
stations had the most tails on the rails.
Behold, the great NYC Subway Rat Detector: 🐀
Demand for public transit is down 61%, according to our stats. Despite this, transit agencies continue to be a lifeline for people who NEED to travel.
Here you can see real-time demand in different cities. Agencies need our help — let's lend them a hand.
Snowplow season is here ☃️💥🚜
- Is your stop a boot-eating slush pit? ⛲️
- Need an ice pick & crampons to mount your bus? ⛏️
Folks in Vermont, Québec & Ottawa are being asked about the snowcessibility of their stop.
With this data, we can build a 1-800-ZAMBONI for bus stops.
For driverless trains? We suggest
@REMgrandmtl
🚆
For trainless apps? Try
@Apple
or
@googlemaps
! 😶🌫️
Days after Quebec's biggest transit line in fifty years started service... Larry, Sergey & Tim Apple have yet to hear about it.
Obviously, you know which app DOES support it 😏
Until today, your GO trip lived behind the lock screen. Today we’re busting those bars wide open!
👋 Hello Live Activities
🤳 See GO updates on the lock screen
❄️ No PIN (or de-mittening) required
🎅 For iOS and Android
Some (temporary) bad news: we're not appearing in the App Store and we're not sure why. This means iPhone users can't download the app and people who already downloaded Transit can't purchase Royale. We've speed-dialed Tim Apple but no luck so far. Will keep you posted 🤞
Unlock any bike. Board any bus. Plan & pay for every trip and every mode — with one account, whatever the city.
The dream starts today:
Transit Accounts.
Transit 5.0 is out:
• Monica loves our "go back" swipes ⏬
• Unified route screen changed Erica's life 🤯
• Rita got a trip plan in one tap 1️⃣
• And Tina says the new fat search bar slaps 💥👏
Same app. More mambo: 🎺5⃣🎺
Ten years of Transit. Wow.
From the (very-deep-subway) depths of our hearts, thank you for riding with us.
Tonight we'll blow out a candle and enter our double-digit era. Our wish? More 🚲, more 🚌, more 🚈.
Bisous,
Transit 🎈👋
Genie: Hello rider, you may have one wish 🧞♂️
Rider:
Fare machine:
Don't say it
Don't say it
Don't say it
Don't say it
Don't say it
Rider: Can you replace those stupid fare machines & let me buy my bus + train fares in Transit instead?
🧞♂️👉 💥📮⚰️💐
Transit Twitter is not real life.
👉 Low-income riders are 8x less likely to get transit info from Twitter than rich riders
👉 IRL + Zoom meetings? Black and Latino riders are 2 to 4x less likely to attend
How do agencies ensure all riders are informed?
En cet interminable début de début de printemps, la
@stminfo
et Transit t’offrent la plus belle des 🌷: le positionnement des bus en temps réel. C’est comme regarder une tulipe pousser, mais en plus rapide. ☀️🚌😳
Avoid crowds with new real-time crowding info:
Now live for Sydney 🇦🇺, Staten Island-Manhattan express buses in NYC 🇺🇸, and 10+ other cities. More soon.
(If your agency has "crowd counters" on their buses or trains they can turn this on — tag em & ask!)
Today we're launching something new.
You've probably wondered at some point, "how does Transit make money???"
Well... business models are hard. We've thought about ours a lot. (A LOT.)
And we're going with one that puts transit riders first:
We have new policy muscle at Transit! And that muscle is a brain. A warm welcome to
@andrewsalzberg
, our new (and first!) policy advisor. He’ll be using his urbanist nun-chucks to help us unaddict cities from their cars.
We talk all things 🚲🛴🚆🚍🚘 ici:
Pour des trains sans conducteurs, on recommande
@REMgrandmtl
🚆
Pour des appli sans trains? Essayez
@Apple
ou
@googlemaps
! 😶🌫️
Mais vous savez bien qui était prêt (même une semaine avant l’inauguration) ? Nous-aut’, bien sûr 😏
First California city to sell bus tickets in Transit!!! It's the ever-🅱️🅱️🅱️eautiful Santa Monica.
This makes it more convenient than ever to buy a ticket (and ergo, to choose 🚍 over 🚘). Big thanks to our big blue crew
@SMBigBlueBus
& the payment princelings
@tokentransit
.
The
@NORADsanta
tracker:
-no open data
-no respect for down-the-chimney dwell times
-santa just be flyin
-funded by cold war era military alliance?
Baltimore's "Santa bus" tracker:
-uses open data
-santa actually stops for people
-no reindeer labour required
-funded by love ❤️🎅
@so_that_we_may
Ah, I see you've found some of our more experimental abstract work.
(We've passed it on to our team for some detangling. Thanks for the heads-up!)
“Where’s my bus?”
—typical Transit user
“Where’s my bus ACTUALLY THO?”
—typical Transit user (after being burned by bad data)
You wanted more precise locations. We did too. Now they’re live in our 175 cities.
Hello GO-crowdsourced locations: 🎯🚎🎯
DART is the largest US agency that doesn't share real-time data with other apps. Riders in Dallas look at Transit 100K times per month and see stale, scheduled times instead of real-time information. 🤔
Why? Good question...
Let's open that data
@dartmedia
. Frito pie's on us!
IDK why I didn't try the Transit app sooner. It's so slick.
I like to imagine if we could get DART's Chief Innovation Officer to try the Transit app for just one bus trip, they'd immediately open up real-time data & fare API so everything can be done thru Transit app.
bout to drop a track:
@kanyewest
bout to drop a tracker:
@transitapp
, now with real-time vehicle tracking in Montreal. Not just predictions: you can 👀 your bus on the map. It's our latest 🔥🚨🔥 collab with
@stminfo
.
We'll chase your bus. You chase your dreams. 👊
Network redesign: the
@transitapp
icon. The new network is less circuitous and will allow more frequent service without an increase in operating hours.
Foiled by a redirected bus? Never again! ✊
Now riders in 3 new cities can see detoured routes right on the map…
🦀 Baltimore, MD
⛰️ Burlington, VT
🌴 Torrance, CA
…with more to come, thanks to a collab with our friends at
@SwiftlyInc
1. Bus ETAs. They love to jump up and down 😤
2. But they’re too wild to be tamed by humans 🐎
3. We asked: could machines help? 🤖
4. Then we called Montreal's
@stminfo
👨👩👧👦
5. We did some machine learning magic...
6. Overnight? ETAs = 15% more accurate 😻
Getting riders back won't be an easy "one trick" fix.
But mid-COVID, agencies do have obvious cards to play — like giving riders crowding info, before they board.
Riders *overwhelmingly* want this. And now, for most agencies, it's finally possible 👉👉
We're making
@transitapp
our official app! Download Transit to upgrade your transit experience with improved trip planning and real-time information. Learn more:
POV: the solar system's going to pull off a perfectly-timed transfer
Catch the moon make its mid-day pit stop:
🧡 Laval: métro downtown!
🚊 Toronto: GO train to Oakville!
🚍 San Antonio: take the 93 to UTSA!
😎 Everyone else: get those ISO-approved shades ready...
Side project time 👀❗️
To help our home province (Québec) accelerate the 💉, we built
@vaccelerateur
: it surfaces hard-to-find, last-minute vaccine appointments.
We've also added 💉 locations throughout Transit (in all cities where the data is open).
Today Transit+ gets even more plus: with bus.
Also, ferries. Oh wait and personal bikes too.¹
Which meaaaans: if you plan a trip, we'll show you where combining 🛴/🚲/🚕 with 🚌/🚅/⛴ is faster than any one mode, by itself.
¹ set up 🏠+👔 locations & this'll work even better!!
What you expected:
🚏🚏🚏🚏🚏🚌
What you got:
🚏❌❌❌🚏🚌
Bus detours: they're everywhere. When you find your stop's been moved? It's often too late. 😤
If only we could detect detours automatically... 🤯
Live first in MTL, in a collab with
@stminfo
Seeing agencies work together makes our heart thump like tennis shoes in a dryer 👟🎶💚
With one fell swoop,
@cincinnatimetro
✔️
@tankbus
✔️
@bcrta
✔️
@CB_Connector
(Oct 30th)
just gave Cincinnati riders a single, seamless way to pay for *all* their transit.
What city's next? 😛
🦇 COMCAST FUTURE OF MOBILITY 🦇
—SO INCONVENIENT 😩
—NO COMPETITION 🚫
—STILL CAR-CENTRIC 🌍👉💩
🌈 THE OPEN FUTURE 🌈
—FEWER CARS 📉
—DOPER APPS ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
—MULTI-MODAL PARADISE 🌴🛴🚲🚋
they told us Open APIs could never be sexy... well well well:
💃🇦🇷 ¡Bienvenido Buenos Aires! 🇦🇷🕺
The city just launched real-time for Subte 🚇 & Premetro 🚃 & their colourful colectivos 🌈🚍. They asked if we'd be their launch partner. We told them we'd never had a South American city in Transit before...
And they said: ¡Aún mejor! 😂
When yo' line is fine 🚌💨 but yo' stop is not 🚏⛔️ we'll let you know before your bus zips by. Introducing... stop alerts 💪
See disruptions at your specific stop ONLY. In cities where "stop data" exists: DC, Boston, MTL, San Jose, Santa Monica, Vancouver, others. More soon! 👩💻
Park your zambonis. Anchor your icebreakers. Cuz baby, it's bus season: yes, Montreal finally has...
🚍🙏📱REAL-TIME DATA!!!📱🙏🚍
Track your bus live. Stay warm like a husky. All you need is Transit.
Read about our partnership with
@stm_nouvelles
👇💖👇
🆕✨ w i d g e t ✨🆕
for those days when opening an app is too stressful. the tapping of finger… the bending of joint… the typing of directions… oh, mama, spare us!
mama’s got you: instant ETAs to all your favourite locations. right on your home screen.
Peter Dovak, a legendary designer, passed away this month.
His work filled us with joy, inspiration. He was more than talented. He was a fellow transit geek.
We were very lucky to work with Peter. He designed 60+ icons for us.
More of his work:
San Francisco rebuilt their entire network in 2 days to focus on the most essential lines. It aims for frequent & safe & spacious service. A Herculean task.
You can see the new temporary network map in Transit.
For your city's COVID-19 service changes:
Big day for our friends in Ottawa:
🍾
@OC_Transpo
has upgraded their real-time
🌷 Which means you can (finally!) use GO crowdsourcing in our nation's capital
🎯 Better source data + GO = the best bus locations in Bytown
⛸️ This update laces-in better trip cancellation info, too!
We just launched GO crowding in every city:
🦘 hop on any bus (or train)
📲 tell us if it's crowded
📢 we'll let other riders know.
Agencies often don't know how many people are on each vehicle. Thanks to GO, you’ll be able to find out.
Take a peek 👀👇
The fight for open APIs just got new wind 💨 in its sails: Chicago now joins LA & DC (& others) requiring real-time ~vehicle locations~ so you can easily:
1. Find the closest 🚲+🛴 without 10 apps (transparent competition = 😍)
2. Plan 🚲&🛴-to-🚆 trips
Le 14 décembre 2017, dans les livres d’histoire:
- Record d’engelures à Montréal ❄️👃
-
@stm_nouvelles
lance son TEMPS RÉEL! 🚍📡
- Transit te le sert tout chaud dans ta poche 🔥👉📱
Notre annonce:
PS: Y fait -30°C dehors, tu devrais t’en servir.
And that's a wrap!
🎬 Our 3-year partnership with
@metrolosangeles
has come to its predetermined end™
😎 What we accomplished, and what comes next:
👑 Want to support our work in LA? Get Royale!
📬 Can't afford it? We got you. Message us in the app.
Waiting for your ride? 🗺️👀
If an upstream rider is sharing their 🚍/🚊 location with GO, you can now send that rider a big beautiful THANK YOU within the app.
Say thanks 👉 brighten someone's day 👉 better real-time data for your city 😎🫶
📣 What do we want?
🙌 Mobility hubs!!!
📣 Where do we want them?
🙌 Everywhere!!!
📣 Where should we start?
🙌 Pittsburgh!!!
We're forming a Mobility Megazord with
@ridespin
@wazecarpool
@Zipcar
@PghDOMI
in Steel City to replace Steel Boxes ☠️🚘☠️
By our count, the
@MTA
is about to release its 8th app 🤔
But hold on, what’s that?
🔎 ENHANCE
🔎 ENHANCE
🕵 RIGHT THERE!
Appears MTA managing director Ronnie Hakim already has the single best app for getting around NYC.
🅰️gencies can now build their own Transit-powered trip planners, kiosks and more 💪
🅿️ull trip plans, departure times, stop locations, etc. — with data that's reliably pristine, thanks to Transit's in-house magic ✨
ℹ️t's finally here: the Transit API
The votes are in. The riders have spoken. The tuxedo has been taken out of the mothballs.
We asked our riders how happy they were with their local transit agency 🙂🙃
And the winners for 2023 are…
Big news! We've partnered with
@APTA_Transit
: the Major League Baseball of all things bus, train, or tram-related in the USA 🚍🙏🚊
Together, we've created:
It helps agencies unpack today's tOpSy-TuRvY ridership trends — so you get better service ❤️
We're rolling out the green carpet for our team this week... because they've been nominated for an Apple Design Award!
Tune into the awards show — we promise the only 💥👋 we’ll be doing is high-fiving the bus driver.
Today we're going on a celebratory cool-down in the frosty St. Lawrence River 💻🥵👉❄️🏊♂️
Because we just sold our 1,000,000th fare! 🎟😲
We've helped riders in 50+ cities go cash-free — and virtually eliminated lines at the kiosk.
Your city, next? ⌚️👀
bus • /bəs/
noun
1. the original stretch limo
2. the best way to get around Las Vegas
3. a magical service you can pay for with
@transitapp
— starting today — thanks to
@RTCSNV
!!!
We can't wait to bring faster, accessible 🚍 payments to more & more cities this year 🎊
@samwightt
All our essential features are free, and the Royale ones can be too if you can't afford a subscription! 😊 All you have to do is send us an email via the app to let us know and we'll be happy to take care of it - Gear icon ⚙️> Transit logo tab > Email us ✉️.
IRELAND! It's been a long time coming 👋🇮🇪
Whether you're looking up the bus 🚍, catching the DART 🚉 or taking a dublinbike with yr nan 🚴♀️💨🚴♂️💨 — you can now use Transit to plan all your trips.
Now live in Dublin, Cork, Galway, and beyond.
Dia duit!
Most cities don't have open mobility APIs. 😩🛴🚫
But when cities DO have them—the market is MUCH more vibrant.
Case in point? Washington, DC. We found when riders aren't locked into one operator app, it's 2x as easy to find a scooter 🏛📈👉
It's happening! The
@REMgrandmtl
is live in Transit!
🚂 Maiden voyage: July 31st
🙌 Until then? You can preview your commute
🗺️ Plan a trip, see stops & schedules
🚍 We'll also show you which bus lines are changing in Longueuil, Brossard, Saint-Lambert & Nun's Island
In November, we made a public call for Open Mobility APIs. They’re the only way to guarantee that new ~floating~ transport modes (i.e. 🚖🛴⚡🚲) can fulfill their traffic-killing, city-saving potential.
Now: 14 major cities are throwing down their very own API gauntlet. 👊🚍⚖️
14 major US cities have signed a joint Dockless Mobility Open Letter via
@DataSmartCities
Civic Analytics Network at
@HarvardAsh
. Overseen by
@GoldsmithOnGov
, it recommends best practices & guidance on city data policy for dockless & new mobility services!