Product Profile: Transit
INDUSTRY
transportation
Category
mapping and directions services
product Profiled
Transit app
H-Score
63
ranked 8th of 18 within the transportation industry
ranked 16th of 76 overall
product description
Transit is a smartphone-based personal transportation service that helps people figure out how to get from one place to another, using many different modes of travel. It does not offer underlying services, such as car share or bike share, but rather puts a layer of information -- and some transactions -- on top of those services to assist people with using them. Transit’s core service is providing information on transportation options, but also offers a single interface to pay for public transportation and bike share services in many cities and a real-time directions service (Transit GO)(1) with prompts for next steps (such as getting off a train) during a route.
Transit is a free service, although they offer a premium subscription service, known as Transit Royale,(2) that is required for features such as looking up schedules far into the future or browsing transit lines far from one’s locations. Transit Royale is often offered free to users of partner public transit agencies.
Transit partners with many public transit agencies in the US and Canada as their official or preferred app.
product use
Transit presents as a smartphone app that opens to a map, showing the user’s location, nearby transit options, and a box prompting the user for a destination. (Transit also offers an Apple watch app.) Depending on the underlying transportation services available in the region (and the services to which Transit is given data access), Transit then offers multiple trip options, often including buses, subway and trains; bike share, scooters and car share; as well as walking and bicycling directions. Through Transit+, it also offers combinations, such as taking a shared bike to a bus stop or taking a scooter to a subway station. It does not offer driving directions. Transit has integrated payments for services in some locations.
Once a user selects a trip and taps “GO,” Transit notifications remind the user to follow through on each step of the journey.
who’s affected
Transit is available to all smartphone users in approximately 150 regions throughout the US. Eighty-five (85) percent of US residents own smartphones, with ownership higher among younger and more affluent populations.(3)
influence on health-related behaviors
EATING
neutral influence
Transit has no clear influence on the healthfulness of its users’ eating habits.
- When presenting directions, encourage people to stop and pick up fresh food by highlighting fresh food outlets that are on their way.
PHYSICAL ACTVITY
slight positive influence
Transit promotes the use of public transportation and, to a lesser extent, a variety of active transportation modes -- walking, bicycling, and scootering -- by improving the overall user experience of these services. (According to Transit, the vast majority of its users’ trips are by public transit, with the other modes playing a supporting role.) Transit provides a valuable layer of information that helps users understand how they can use alternatives to driving or being driven. Through its GO feature, it makes the experience of the trip smoother and, through its integration of payments, takes some of the friction out of payment transactions. For bike trips, Transit prioritizes routes that have separated cycle paths or on-street bicycle infrastructure, enabling a safer experience. By making more active modes of transportation more palatable, Transit encourages more physical activity by its users.
Transit does offer access to car share services such as Lyft and Uber, but it clearly gives preference to more active modes in its presentation of options.
- Offer experiential options such as “scenic route,” “nature route” or “social route” for walking and biking directions, as alternatives to the fastest routes.
Sleeping
neutral to slight positive influence
Transit’s influence on sleep is indirect and largely a function of potential increases in physical activity and in outdoor time, each of which can positively affect sleep.
Engaging Socially
slight positive influence
To the extent that Transit facilitates people leaving their homes by making it easier to get to places, it could lead to casual social interactions.
Using public transit is an inherently more social experience than driving a private automobile, so in that respect, Transit is designed to increase social interaction. It is not clear from the literature whether social interactions in public transportation settings in general represent a net positive for social connection as people experience these interactions differently, although some research has shown that most people have positive experiences when they do talk to strangers in public transportation settings.(4)
Transit encourages users to contribute information, such as how crowded a train is, how safe it feels, or their general experience, to improve the collective experience of the app.(5)
- Create “social route” option (see above) that would increase casual social interactions among walkers and spontaneous drop-ins with friends. Social routes could be constructed from, for example, users’ contacts’ addresses or locations of popular gathering spots.
- Experiment with offering opportunities to provide feedback on safety of walking and biking routes.
Getting Outdoors
slight to moderate positive influence
Transit’s emphasis on public transit and active modes of transportation over auto trips encourages its users to spend more time outdoors.
- Pursue opportunities for alternative routes (see above) that would encourage longer walks or bike rides.
Notes
Transit App. Transit website, accessed November 30, 2023.
Royale FAQ. Transit support website, accessed November 30, 2023.
Mobile Fact Sheet. Pew Research Center website. April 7, 2021.
Julianna Schroeder et al. Hello, stranger? Pleasant conversations are preceded by concerns about starting one. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Volume 151, Number 5 (2022), pp. 1141-1153.
Rate-My-Ride. Transit blog. October 2, 2023.