In the race to the smart grid, wireless will power grid modernization
Source: Gov Tech by Skip Descant
Planning and paying for trips across multiple transportation modes in San Antonio, Texas, can now be accomplished in a single app, enabling a long-sought customer convenience.
Transit and bike-share users in San Antonio, Texas, can now book and pay for service all in one smartphone app.
The Transit app has integrated BCycle and VIA Metropolitan Transit, the transit provider in San Antonio, into its operations, enabling payments and ticketing across mobility modes.
“Using their single Transit account, users can both purchase bus passes for VIA Metropolitan Transit, and passes for San Antonio BCycle,” said Stephen Miller, communications lead for Transit App.
The app’s integration between bike-share and transit will offer “a much cleaner solution for people to get around,” said JD Simpson, general manager for BCycle in San Antonio, which operates about 250 pedal-assist e-bikes across 50 stations.
The ease of interoperability between transit and bike-share is essential for increased ridership, “but it’s also just solving the transportation problem like first-mile and last-mile,” Simpson added, underscoring perennial concerns among transportation leaders exploring opportunities to get people out of single-occupancy cars.
Riders can unlock bus passes, as well as unlock a BCycle bike with the tap of a button in the app, explained Miller.