Join the Mobility Revolution with These Five Apps - Technology Review Just in time: When’s the bus coming? NextBus takes away the guesswork: the app tells you exactly how many minutes away your bus is. It works using GPS signals from devices installed inside city buses. Boston has signed on, and so has San Francisco, where the app also keeps track of trolleys and cable cars. NextBus is a 15-year-old company, and it was “tough going” for many years, says chief technology officer Michael Smith. Originally, riders got updates by calling a number or consulting bus-stop displays. Now the rise of smart phones has made the system much more powerful. About 30 percent of NextBus’s 800,000 daily users access the app via iPhones or other smart devices. NextBus charges transit agencies a few hundred dollars per bus per year to use its service, and more if the buses don’t have GPS yet. The fee Los Angeles pays to use the software in its 2,500-vehicle fleet: $1.5 million over three years. But that’s quickly made back in increased ridership. Bus-stop haters can now arrive just in time.

Join the Mobility Revolution with These Five Apps - Technology Review

Just in time: When’s the bus coming? NextBus takes away the guesswork: the app tells you exactly how many minutes away your bus is. It works using GPS signals from devices installed inside city buses. Boston has signed on, and so has San Francisco, where the app also keeps track of trolleys and cable cars.

NextBus is a 15-year-old company, and it was “tough going” for many years, says chief technology officer Michael Smith. Originally, riders got updates by calling a number or consulting bus-stop displays. Now the rise of smart phones has made the system much more powerful. About 30 percent of NextBus’s 800,000 daily users access the app via iPhones or other smart devices.

NextBus charges transit agencies a few hundred dollars per bus per year to use its service, and more if the buses don’t have GPS yet. The fee Los Angeles pays to use the software in its 2,500-vehicle fleet: $1.5 million over three years. But that’s quickly made back in increased ridership. Bus-stop haters can now arrive just in time.

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Spaniards Trade Cars For Lifetime Trolley Pass

Image Credit: www.mejorentranvia.com via springwise.com

To get citizens out of their cars and onto a newly-opened public trolley system, the city of Murcia, Spain recently embarked on a rather radical campaign: it offered people lifetime trolley passes in exchange for permanently reliquishing their cars.

Despite the growing popularity of hybrid and electric vehicles, giving up your car is still the single best way to reduce your carbon footprint. Car sharing services like Zipcar and RelayRides make a significant impact, but the bottom line is that those vehicles still contribute to poor air quality, traffic, and wear and tear on the roadways.

But not everyone lives in a bikeable or walkable city, and public transportation, at least in the United States, is usually only a option for those that live in dense metropolitan areas. So convincing people that they can survive without their cars takes some creative marketing.

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