Where Was The App My Metro Developed

Metro partners with Transit app to make riding and trip planning easier and more accurate

To help riders quickly get the info they need, Metro is announcing a new partnership with the popular Transit app for smartphones and tablets. Transit now becomes Metro's official app, replacing the agency's own app that will be phased out.

If the Transit app sounds familiar, there's a good reason why. Many of Metro's riders already use it and, in fact, the Transit app is already widely used in more than 200 cities around the world. It's proven to be popular with high customer ratings in both Google Play and the Apple App Store.

Transit offers:

•More accurate real-time arrival information for buses and trains.

•Step-by-step navigation with the app's GO feature.

•Comprehensive trip planning, including trips with transfers to Metro and other agencies, as well as info for Metro Bike and private ride share services.

•Personalized service alerts, so you can easily find the info you need about your bus and trains without having to wade through a sea of alerts.

•Offline functionality including trip planning, route maps and schedules.

•Tools to help visually impaired riders navigate the system and a commitment to accessibility.

•Improved reliability that will also provide more consistent information across the Transit app, Metro.net and our digital signage at stops and stations.

"The improved app is very timely given the ongoing pandemic as we can no longer rely on transit data from the past," said Conan Cheung, Senior Executive Officer in Metro Operations. "There is a new normal in terms of transit demand and Transit gives us the ability to quickly get an impression of how the system is being used. That, in turn, allows us to quickly make service adjustments when and where needed."

In the past, Metro developed its own app, which was time and resource intensive. We're now pivoting to using an existing app that we think already works great. Ultimately, we chose to work with Transit because the app is well-designed and the trip planner is intuitive and easy to use. We believe Transit does a great job of taking something that can be confusing by nature — navigating a complex city via transit — and making it a straightforward experience.

The contract with Transit, which was selected through a competitive Request for Proposals process, costs zero dollars and the partnership is expected to save Metro $240,000 per year in app maintenance and development costs.

"With Transit as Metro's official app, riders will know where to go and Metro gets an app platform to help build LA's multimodal future," said David Block-Schachter, Chief Business Officer at Transit. "By choosing Transit as its app, Metro is letting riders know where to turn for accurate information and the latest service updates. We're excited to work with Metro and to see more people using Transit as part of their daily routine."

Transit's partnership with Metro enables data sharing that helps Metro improve service, while safeguarding privacy and protecting sensitive user information. As part of its commitment to privacy, Transit does not engage in background location tracking, does not sell location data to advertisers, and does not share location data with Metro that could allow individual users to be identified.

As a public agency, Metro is committed to providing open data to the public. If you prefer Google Maps or Apple Maps, for example, the agency is still pushing our latest data to anyone who wants it.

Finally, this: We know many people are staying at home during the ongoing pandemic. We also know that many people are still riding and rely on Metro to get around. Either way, if you don't already have Transit, please download the app and give it a try. And let us know what you think in the comments!