Pop-up transit companies like Bridj and Shift are taking advantage of today’s growing amount of data availability and creating flexible transit systems that come to the customer instead of vice versa.
Boston-based Bridj defines itself as “the world’s first pop-up transit system.” The idea of pop-up transit started in the dorm room of Middlebury 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 had experience in the transit realm after BreakShuttle, and then realized there was this opportunity within cities,” says Ryan Kelly, marketing manager of Bridj.
Work with companies that offer pop-up, flexible transportation options to build TDM and open-data practices into their models.
However, George isn’t the only one on the Bridj team with transit experience. Gabe Klein, former head of the transportation departments in Chicago and Washington, D.C., joined the team as the company’s chief operating officer earlier this year. Also leading the company’s data team is former Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s (MBTA) Director of Research and Analytics David Block-Schacter.
Bridj has been in its beta-testing phase for a few months, but has its jitney license in Boston and Brookline and just got the green light for the Cambridge area. With $4 million in funding from Atlas Ventures, NextView Ventures, Suffolk Equity, Freshtracks Capital, and a group of angel investors who were also early investors in ZipCar, the company’s momentum will only continue to build.
On the other side of the country, is Shift, which promises to get you “on your way within five minutes, guaranteed” anywhere in Las Vegas with its fleet of 49 smart cars, 102 bicycles, 30 Chevrolet Volts, 12 Tesla Model Ss, and one circulator trolley. Like Bridj, Shift started from another venture called Project 100. It caught media attention after venture capitalist Tony Hsieh invested a whopping $10 million.
The breakdown of vehicles in Shift’s fleet: 49 smart cars, 102 bicycles, 30 Chevrolet Volts, 12 Tesla Model Ss, and one circulator trolley.
How they work
Both companies have an algorithm combining data from users and social media to create routes in real time and pick up passengers on the fly.
For Bridj, bus routes fluctuate based on demand and traffic. Once a user has requested a pickup location and destination, Bridj lets the customer know where to meet based on the amount of commuter responses, and sends one of its 14-passenger Mercedes-Benz Sprinters on routes in four areas of Boston.
The premise of Shift is slightly different from Bridj’s, in that the choice of transportation varies by what the customer needs to do. “The nature of mobility is different every time,” says Zach Ware, founder and CEO.
Also, Shift is based off a monthly membership. When a customer logs onto the app, she answers a series of questions about her trip like how far she plans to go, and if she has a preference for how to get there, whether by bike, car, or shuttle.
Although the concept sounds similar to Lyft or Uber, Ware and Kelly emphasize that neither company inspired Shift or Bridj.
“Lyft and Uber were trying to solve the problem of the taxi industry, but we are trying to figure out how people are moving around in the city,” Kelly says. “We think, in order to keep up with the pace of city populations, we need a dynamic transit system that doesn’t cost a lot to build.”
Public transit’s response
Despite the taxi industry’s heavy resistance to Uber and Lyft, Joe Pesaturo, communications director at MBTA says it is pleased that Bridj will make it easier for some people to connect with the MBTA subway system.
In the end, Ware says he sees both the regional transit commission and city planners as friends of Shift. “We have this really cool back-and-forth with the city because they like what we are doing. It reduces the pressure on them to do things that their transit systems don’t support well. “We are going to cover the last-mile problem, and the people using Shift are moving in patterns that public transit doesn’t cover, so we aren’t deferring anyone from public transit,” he said.
Expansion in the future
While Bridj is proving to be a popular form of transportation even during its beta phase, the company wants to expand the service in Boston and refine the technology before launching in new markets, Kelly says.
As for Shift, talks of expansion beyone Vegas are underway. The company wouldn’t disclose which cities it’s eyeing specifically, but Ware says this time next year, Shift will be in one if not two more cities.
This article was originally published by METRO Magazine. Photos by Shinichi Higashi and METRO Magazine.