Building H Index
Transit
INDUSTRY
transportation
Category
mapping and directions service
products Profiled
Transit app
H-Score
63
ranked 3rd of 7 within transportation industry
ranked 7th of 37 overall
product descriptions
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 Transit Accounts, which provides a single interface to pay for public transportation and bike share services in many cities and Transit GO, which is a real-time directions service with prompts for next steps (such as getting off a train) during a route.
Transit is a free service, although they recently introduced a premium subscription service, known as Transit Royale, that is required for features such as looking up schedules far into the future or browsing transit lines far from one’s locations.
Transit partners with 80 public transit agencies in the U.S and Canada as their official or preferred app.
product usage
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. 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.
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 increases in physical activity and in outdoor time, each of which can positively affect sleep.
Engaging Socially
slight positive influence
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. However, it is not clear from the literature whether social interactions in public transportation settings in general represent a net positive for social connection. People experience these interactions differently.
- Create “social route” option (see above) that would increase casual social interactions among walkers.
- Experiment with offering opportunities to provide feedback on public transportation rides, e.g. by rating experiences or reporting harassment.
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
Steve Downs. A Survey of Modern Life: Mobility. Building H on Medium. January 12, 2022
Ibid.
Dane Glasgow. Redefining what a map can be with new information and AI. The Keyword (Google blog). March 30, 2021
Building H’s consumer research showed that a majority of users of mapping and directions services used automobiles for trips of less than one half mile. See Downs (2022