Shortly after the major news outlets made it official and named Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, his campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon shared a maxim that is uttered on a regular basis in our household, especially over the past 18 months of the pandemic: “We can do hard things.” I originally learned of the phrase … Read More
Editorial: The Real Threats to Public Transit (Hint: It’s Not Uber and Lyft)
On a brisk morning last May, Sunny Madra, vice president of Ford’s accelerator program, left his Manhattan apartment to catch a plane to San Francisco. After unsuccessfully trying to hail a cab for 20 minutes, he booked an Uber to JFK International Airport for a whopping $248.90. Little did he know that his 18-mile ride to the airport would cost … Read More
Three Quotes from TransLoc and CoMotion’s Transit Utopia Webinar That Have Us Talking
The Transit Utopia may no longer be exclusive to the dreamers. On August 11th, Tyler Means and Austin Stanion — two of our AICP-certified planning and design strategists — partnered with CoMotion for the webinar Transit Utopia: Where Movement Meets Possibility. The riveting discussion produced thoughtful perspectives and strategies about mobility data, community engagement, and equitable transportation. The big takeaway? … Read More
What Rider Sentiment Tells Us About The Future of Public Transit
While the onset of COVID-19 brought life to a standstill, many aspects of life continue to experience change as communities begin moving again. Last month, TransLoc polled 1,200 American transit riders about their pre-pandemic and current transit usage. The results offer clarity on the future of transit services that agencies should be moving towards. Prior to the pandemic, it was … Read More
Four Lessons We Learned About the Needs of Today’s Public Transit Rider
Experts predict that we are on the cusp of a transit evolution led by smart technology and data-driven planning. But how do the people who use these services everyday feel about public transit’s current state and emerging trends? In July 2021, we surveyed 1,200 working U.S. adults (ages 18 and older) about their transit usage prior to COVID-19 and new … Read More
Editorial: What More Can Public Transit Do to Keep Women Safe?
Women have a sixth sense; an awareness developed overtime that keeps us out of harm’s way. Like a computer program running on autopilot, we are constantly scanning our environment to avoid external threats. Public transit provides freedom of mobility for so many women across the country. Unfortunately, riding public transportation can sometimes be one of those situations where a woman’s … Read More
Transit is a Family Business
When a TransLoc employee says that “TransLoc is a family,” it’s an expression that carries a deeper meaning to Megan Wilson and Ally Hatfield. In January 2017, Megan joined TransLoc’s Morgan, Utah office as a senior account manager. On the side, she assisted with TransLoc’s backend account setup to help the budding start-up scale in size and scope. Recognizing that … Read More
Editorial: What the $550 Billion Infrastructure Bill Means for Public Transit
The Senate has passed the largest ever federal investment in public transit: a $550 billion infrastructure package that improves transportation, internet and water/power systems to “grow the economy, enhance competitiveness, create good jobs and make our economy more sustainable and resilient.” Notably, the bill includes $39 billion in public transit funding, which will fund maintenance, replacement and expansion projects, enhance … Read More
Addressing the Barriers to the Freedom of Movement for All
Prologue: Yesterday, we launched the first of two special episodes of The Movement Podcast showcasing challenges that people with disabilities face to access mobility and what can be done to improve it. You can catch that episode here.
Editorial: Can the American Rescue Plan Save Transit from Itself?
Transit professionals around the country joined in a collective sigh of relief with the passing of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARP), and its $30 billion in funding for transportation. After more than a year of facing budgets deep in the red, transit can breathe again. Agencies will use most of the ARP funding to pay back debt, restart paused … Read More
Editorial: Fixing Transit Requires Grappling with Racism
The U.S. and Europe have vastly different public transit systems. The accessibility and affordability of Europe’s robust public transit system is in contrast to the U.S., which, at best, is convenient and expensive in major cities and non-existent in many rural and suburban communities (hence microtransit‘s recent surge in popularity). Why do these differences exist? Transit is complex. Understanding why … Read More
My Fantastical Journey as a Woman in Engineering
Well, I wish I could regale you with a grand, fantasy-filled story of being a little girl on a farm in rural Eastern North Carolina who wanted nothing more than to realize her dream of becoming an engineer whose days were filled with writing automation code. However, that is not at all the case—I really wanted to be a veterinarian, … Read More
Inequitable Public Transit: A Detriment to Community Health
Health is everything. If that wasn’t clear before, then the COVID-19 pandemic made it crystal. The absence of a healthy body and mind robs people of life’s greatest joys.
The Convenience of Asynchronicity Has Us Out of Sync
Prior to my kids learning from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, I had never heard of asynchronous learning: a term used to define learning that happens at different times for different students, enabling them to design a learning schedule that best meets their educational needs.
Destination Vaccination: Ensuring Access to COVID-19 Vaccines
What a year. We’ve been so busy simply surviving and getting through the day-to-day of a socially-distanced quarantine life, it’s hard to believe COVID-19 has been a part of our lives for a year. Between the loss and trauma, we have been through a dark night of the soul. We are longing for human interaction outside of our carefully-vetted pods. … Read More
2021 Transit Predictions
What does 2021 have in store for transportation? We don’t have a crystal ball, but our solutions engineers have a strong pulse on the industry and have made their predictions for the upcoming year:
Race and Place: Who Do We Plan For?
Most planners have an aspiration toward placemaking: we dream of quaint public squares where residents can walk to local businesses as streetcars hum past tree-lined sidewalks. We dream of the “15 Minute City”, of cheerful connected places where community and opportunity thrive in abundance.
Your Mayor Should Be Riding The Bus
After losing his wife and daughter in a car crash in 1972, newly-elected US Senator Joe Biden famously took Amtrak home from Washington DC to Wilmington, Delaware almost every day so that he could be home for his two sons as they grew up. So now that we have our first modern public transit-riding president en route with Joe Biden, … Read More
Tools for Accessible Transit
At TransLoc, a big piece of our mission has and will continue to be providing users with an equitable transit experience. This commitment has driven our investment in building product features that provide transit opportunities to all users, with accessibility needs and beyond. While the work is never done, we’re excited to share five TransLoc App features we’ve launched this … Read More
When Roads Are Racist
The LA Times published an opinion piece arguing that the freeways of Los Angeles are California’s largest monuments to racism. The author outlines how freeways were intentionally built through Black and Latino communities and even used as fortress-like barriers to maintain racial segregation. It is important to recognize the history of freeway racism, because this legacy is still very much … Read More
Brave New World: A CoMotion LA Recap
CoMotion Los Angeles was billed as “The Global Laboratory of Future Mobility.” This lofty, aspirational idea turned out to be more than just a toothless marketing tagline, as the organizers of CoMotion and the city of Los Angeles are both putting their resources to work making the new world of mobility a reality. Minutes into the introductory keynote speech of … Read More
Let’s Talk TRANSform: Recapping Our Time at APTA’s Annual Meeting
Another great APTA Annual meeting has come and gone, but not without leaving us with a wealth of knowledge to mull over. This year’s meeting was hosted in the city that never sleeps at the New York Marriott Marquis. The big city lights paled in comparison to the powerful discussions happening inside, and we’re here to recap some of the … Read More
A Versatile Mobility Solution
“Existing urban transit modes can continue to operate, but today citizens demand more than simply expanding old systems. They have access to smartphone apps and flexible ride options that have become popular by focusing on ease of use and a great rider experience.” Transit leaders are struggling to overcome the obstacles presented by an increasingly outdated public transit system. As … Read More
Mobility Row: Ann Arbor Talks Technology and Innovation
Ann Arbor is a bustling, vibrant town, sporting an exciting blend of campus, commercial, and community life. With the University of Michigan practically growing directly out from the city center, there is a real sense of a thoughtful progressivism and ideas-first culture that pervades and informs citizens’ opinions on a variety of topics, from politics to technology.
How TransLoc is Forging a Company Culture that Promotes Personal Growth
“Company culture” is a phrase thrown around the internet quite often these days. Organizations are competing for the best employees in a fairly tight talent market, and “culture” is a term used to attract that talent.
It’s All About Partnerships: Findings from NCPTA
Transportation is doing a deep dive on finding ways to implement industry innovation while keeping the rider at the center of the conversation. This month, TransLoc’s business development team attended the North Carolina Public Transportation Association’s (NCPTA) 2019 Annual Conference and Expo in Wilmington, NC. Bringing together over 400 industry leaders from across the state, the conference covered the future … Read More
The Road Ahead: Lessons from CalACT 2019
At the end of April, the TransLoc team attended the 35th Annual CalACT conference in Coronado, California. We met with innovative transit agencies looking to improve their systems and create a better tomorrow. While we can’t deliver to you the beautiful birds and beaches of the Pacific, we can bear the gift of knowledge. Here’s what we learned at CalACT … Read More
Ohio Needs Transit: Transforming Mobility & Redesigning Our Future
Transforming Mobility and Redesigning Our Future was the theme of this year’s Ohio Needs Transit conference. The annual conference is run by the Ohio Public Transit Association (OPTA), and focused on the rapidly developing technology that is directly impacting transportation systems in Ohio and beyond.
What’s Easy vs. What’s Right
At the recent National Shared Mobility Summit, Chicago Transit Authority President Dorval Carter introduced the keynote speaker, former US Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, now Chief Policy Officer at Lyft. In his remarks, Carter asked the audience rhetorically “What kind of city do we want?” as a heuristic to guide the decisions that elected and appointed officials and the … Read More
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