TriMet Transit App
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Date
2018
Authors
Clark, Tim
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
Students in Tim Clark’s Product Design Studio (BFA 486) were asked develop a multimodal
urban transit app to serve users of TriMet’s public transit services. The purpose of a TriMet
transit app is to provide users with real time information needed to guide everyday mobility
choices, with the goal of minimizing travel time and costs to make public transit equally
accessible and flexible as private vehicles. An integrated transit app can help draw people out
of their private cars and onto transit, while also connecting transit to the communites that it
serves. Ride-share apps such as Uber and Lyft innovated the taxi industry by demonstrating
that an improved customer experience and increased access to information through their app
interfaces. TriMet has the opportunity to do the same for transit through the development of
an integrated transit app. Over 70 different apps currently use TriMet’s open source data to
offer transit navigation systems, but none fully integrate the daily necessities of ticketing, trip
planner, geo-location, and user preferences.
Students used open data from existing transit, bike share, and ride-share programs to inform
the future development of an app for TriMet’s services. The proposed app provides real time
information of city maps, locations, transit system updates, traffic conditions, transit schedule,
bike share locations and availability, ride-share availability, parking locations and availability, as
well as overall trip fees. It also includes multiple features to enhance the rider experience, such
as gamification, personal analytics, multi-destination trip planning, and neighborhood profiles.
The app is envisioned as a planning tool that allows users to chart point-to-point trips using all
available resources. Potential sustainable benefits include support for active transportation,
improved access to urban mobility choices, reduced dependence on private vehicles and
technological advances. The development of an integrated transit app can incentivize transit
use, promote local businesses, and inform transit users about the communities where they live,
work, and play.
The class utilized five unique user profiles of TriMet services that represent different use cases
and service locations. Students analyzed each user profile to identify the potential needs
each user might expect from a transit app, and identified specific app features that could
be developed to meet those needs. Four of the user profiles and service communites are
presented in this report. These needs and features from each profile were then combined into a
presentation of potential mock-ups of a future TriMet mobile app that can deliver an integrated
and intuitive travel experience along the Southwest Corridor.
Description
54 pages
Keywords
Local transit, Mobile applications