Summary:
A Grade 12 student from Toronto, Zarif Ali, has come up with a concept that could revolutionize the city’s public transit system, inspired by an assignment in his geography class.
Ali’s idea focuses on creating a new app, Transit+, that integrates aspects of Hong Kong’s highly efficient MTR system and aims to make public transit more attractive and accessible for Toronto residents.
“I watched Hasan Minhaj’s Patriot Act episode on the state of public transportation and that inspired me to find a solution to the consequences of poor transit,” says Ali. “Transit equity is a fundamental human right, and reliable public transit is closely tied to improved education and employment opportunities. I wanted to explore solutions for Toronto and other cities in Ontario that suffer from transit poverty.”
Transit+ intends to incentivize car drivers to switch to public transit, offering a rewards-based program modelled after Starbucks’ rewards system. Users would earn points for each transit ride, redeemable for free rides or purchase credits at vendors supported by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) and Metrolinx.
“The Transit+ rewards program is designed to benefit everyday riders and generate revenue for the TTC to improve infrastructure,” Ali explains. “By implementing a rewards program and expanding the usage of the Presto Card, the TTC and Metrolinx can increase revenue and reduce dependency on government subsidies.”
One of the biggest changes would be to also implement a Digital Card for PRESTO, which leverages NFC on smartphones, so riders can just tap their iPhones or Android devices at Presto card readers, via Apple Wallet and Google Wallet.
Transit+ would also capitalize on the TTC’s land assets, says Ali, allowing new developments and retail spaces along transit lines, further generating revenue for the public transit system. Ali’s ambitious concept aims to create a more efficient, streamlined, and environmentally friendly transit system in Toronto, ultimately improving the quality of life for city residents.
The concept looks pretty convincing but at the end of the day, trying to get transit officials to adopt such a drastic change might be a very hard sell.
Cellphone service in underground subways is only coming to Rogers customers (and possibly more) after the latter acquired BAI Canada, which owned rights to the network.
What do you think of this app concept for Toronto transit?
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Great idea, we definitely need to upgrade the digital card for mobile wallet payment through Apple Pay or Android Pay. It would be very convenient for users to just tap through the transit. They already have a nfc tapping system on transit they just need to upgrade the mobile app and allow it to be added on to Apple Pay or any other mobile wallet application.
This is great, but the elephant in the room is the current murder-of-random-passengers problem that has plagued the TTC. Playing Russian roulette with your life shouldn’t need to be part of “the better way”. Passengers being stabbed to death and set on fire at random – cut out some of that first, and then focus on being able to tap your phone to pay. You know what’s bad for the environment? People being too scared to take the TTC any more and electing to drive instead even though it costs more for parking and gas. I work with people that have told me they will never take the TTC again because of personal incidents that have rattled them. I don’t think any app feature updates are gong to win them back. The focus really needs to be on safety before they can ever hope to get their ridership levels back up.