Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) partnered with Moovit, a global bus trip planning mobile app software company, to launch a new Ride On Trip Planner – a Ride On bus passenger load and local trip planning app. This new, innovative app will allow riders to plan their next trip and to tell how crowded a Ride On bus is – before it arrives – with the crowdedness indicator on the app riders can choose if they want to get on the bus arriving, wait for the next bus depending on how many people are on the bus, or choose another travel option, such as other local transit services, bikeshare, and scooter. It gives riders more control over their transportation experience. The app also includes dashboards for the Ride On Central Communications team to monitor bus loads and more quickly dispatch additional buses when buses are full. The Ride On Trip Planner app is easy to use and can be downloaded from the Apple app store. Riders choose their current location and their destination and then pick the most desirable route that fits their travel plans. Once the route is chosen, the app will give the exact time the next bus will arrive, while providing step-by-step directions on how to get to the bus stop and how to get to the rider’s destination after getting off the bus. The app will also notify riders when it's time to get off so they can browse other apps and surf the web, without having to worry about missing their stop. The app was created to alleviate stress and worry about bus times and continue to reduce the spread of infectious diseases with the crowdedness indicator. This Ride On Trip Planner app is being funded by a federal grant to help the community continue to travel locally in a safe and more efficient way. This partnership is a two-year pilot to test the combined Ride On passenger load and trip planning functionalities in the County and beyond. After the pilot is completed, decisions will be made on whether to keep this application, expand its capabilities, or use it to replace the current Ride On Real Time application, based on feedback from County residents and other users. The Ride On Trip Planner solution is based on Moovit’s long-running robust native and web transit apps designed for endless scale and serving 100s of millions of users worldwide, with zero downtime. The application features: • Multimodal trip planning – in addition to Ride On route options, it will include other options like local transit services, bikeshare and scooter options • Real-time arrivals • Customized micro-mobility integrations The Ride On Trip Planner app solution includes the iPhone app, which benefits from Moovit’s rich user interface (UI) and user experience (UX), as well as comprehensive transit data, developed in partnerships with some of the most well-known transit, mobility and accessibility organizations worldwide. The Ride On Trip Planner app will feature a range of accessibility capabilities to benefit users with disabilities, including blindness or low vision, ambulatory impairments, and hand-motor disabilities, enabling them to use public transit confidently and maximize their opportunities in the workplace, education, and social life. The Moovit technology has more than 1.7 billion users in 112 countries, 3,500 cities, 7,500 transit agencies, and in 45 languages, and is a leading Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) solutions company and the world’s most popular urban mobility app, making getting around cities easier and more convenient. For more information, visit https://www.RideOnBus.com/TripPlanner .
