Transportation startups create 'smart routes' to provide greater mobility options

摘要

Technology is playing a key role in changing public transportation in cities. With smart phones, sharing our location can be as easy as logging into an app. And, pop-up transit companies like Bridj and Shift are taking advantage of this data and creating a flexible transit system that comes to the customer instead of vice versa. For Boston-based Bridj, the idea of pop-up transit started in the dorm room of Middleberry College student Matthew George. Bridj stemmed from a transit network George designed to take college students home for breaks called BreakShuttle. The system is now the largest provider of collegiate academic break transit services in the country. "He [George] had experience in the transit realm after BreakShutde, and then realized there was this opportunity within cities," said Ryan Kelly, marketing manager of Bridj.