There’s some exciting news for public transit riders here in Las Vegas! The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC) has released a new smartphone app that makes it easier than ever to purchase tickets and find bus routes around the city. The app, rideRTC, was developed in a partnership with Masabi, a London-based technology company whose JustRide mobile ticketing platform is used by more than 25 other transportation agencies around the globe. Using rideRTC, commuters and visitors to Las Vegas can locate bus stops, track buses in real time, and purchase transit passes in advance. “RTC Transit takes you… Read more »
In recent years, transit companies all across the country have begun installing a variety of amenities such as Wi-Fi routers and charging stations in buses to try to incentivize ridership. It’s a strategy that makes sense in theory, given our ever-increasing dependence on handheld electronics and Internet connectivity. In practice however, it may not be as effective as transit services would hope. According to a new report from research group TransitCenter, Wi-Fi routers might be nice frills, but it’s fast, reliable service that riders really want. The researchers surveyed more than 3,000 respondents from 17 regions throughout the country about… Read more »
In the first half of the 20th century, Detroit was one of the foremost hubs of industry and engineering in the United States. For decades, the Motor City manufactured millions of automobiles for drivers all over the world. Then, the energy crisis of the 1970s forced American automakers to scale back their operations, and the city fell on hard times. Since then, Detroit has struggled to curb an economic collapse that left the city in bankruptcy in 2013. City planners in Detroit have long identified a slow, fragmented public transit system as one of the chief obstacles to the city’s… Read more »
Over the course of the past couple of years, a number of industry disruptors such as Uber and Lyft have forced public transit services to rethink their business strategies to keep ridership levels afloat. San Francisco, a city with a long history of innovation in public transit, is the latest municipality to update their business model for the 21st century. Back in January, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) announced that they would be partnering with mobile ticketing and payment platform GlobeSherpa to create a dedicated mobile app for ticket transactions. After months of planning and anticipation, the app… Read more »
No, that wasn’t a typo. A Tokyo-based company is now offering luxury bus tours throughout the country for $1200 a pop. And get this: that’s the economy package. A longer three day trip can cost you upwards of $2500. Granted, that price does include the cost of your meals and a stay in a hotel, but we suspect these expenses account for a pretty small portion of the total ticket price. The passenger compartments of the buses are based on the first class sections of airplanes. With plush leather interiors, flat screen seatback TV’s and more legroom than you can… Read more »
In recent years, environmentally minded engineers have begun experimenting with a variety of different fuel sources in an attempt to find a viable alternative to crude oil. From vegetable oil to natural gas to lithium-ion batteries, conscientious gearheads have begun experimenting with all sorts of different fuel sources over the course of the past decade or so. The latest of these experiments comes to us courtesy of Reading Buses in the UK, who have made a bus that runs on nothing but cow excrement. Strictly speaking it runs on biomethane fuel derived from cow manure, but let’s not get bogged… Read more »
Honolulu has a homelessness problem, and state officials are tackling it in an unconventional and extremely resourceful way. With the help of architecture firm Group 70 International, the state plans to retrofit a fleet of retired city buses and deploy them as roving homeless shelters throughout Honolulu. Each bus will serve a different purpose; one will house showers, while another will provide sleeping quarters for the homeless population in the city. The buses will require extensive renovations in order to convert them from transit vehicles to comfortable living spaces. They are all in good working order, but have been retired… Read more »
Until recently, American city dwellers have been fairly limited in their choice of mass transit options. Public bus lines typically constitute the cheapest but least flexible option, while private cab companies offer a straight shot to your destination, but at a higher premium. In some cities rail lines supplement bus service, but commuter trains are subject to many of the same scheduling headaches as public bus lines. Over the course of the past decade, however, a new generation of entrepreneurs has been shaking up American public transit by serving patrons with small fleets of vehicles that satisfy niches long… Read more »
