Citymapper is a transport app for cities. Citymapper uses the power of mobile and open transport data. Citymapper builds mobile apps and routing and transport data about cities, everywhere in the world. This app will let you know exactly what bus or train or any form of public transportation you can take to get from point A to B while tracking them live on your phone. The company was founded in London back in 2011 by Azmat Yusuf, now is it worth $217.8M. The app is available on google play and the apple store.

After looking into the company and Started using their app. I ran into an issue. I interviewed 5 people about public transportation in my area (Miami FL) and across the board everyone agreed this issue is a problem. the problem is that there is currently no way of using the app to get from point A to point B without doing anything extra. For example, you cannot put the destination you are going to into the app and go straight to the bus Stop and wait for your bus. You must either go to the ATM to get cash or find a way to purchase a bus pass. From what I can tell the buss passes are only purchasable from the bus terminal or a college campus. That was a problem and a big one, especially for people who have not used public transportation before and are unaware of that fact.

As part of my assignment a had to think for a solution for the problem I found. I come up with a few solutions, after many considerations and talking to my interviewers we all agreed on the same solution. That solution would work perfectly with today’s technology, it would eliminate the need to interact with a third party to ride the bus and it would feel very familiar. That solution is to Build and pay feature directly into the Citymapper app. Users would be able to enter their destinations and pay the bus fee using their phones, which would charge their bank via debit/credit card information stored on the app. Upon choosing to pay the app would create a bar-code that you can scan as you get on the bus.

hand-sketched Prototype by: Wisler Altidor

This solution does not only work for buses but also any form of public transport. Like in New York where train transport is regular this option would be even better. No more waiting in long queues just to buy a train ticket, user would be able to pay using their phone through the NFC reader. It would save the users lots of time, it would be extremely useful for tourists especially these who are not a custom to taking trains. Another great benefit of this pay by phone is that it’s environmental friendly, less tickets would need to be purchased and so less paper and plastic would need to be printed, cleaner train terminals, cleaner streets.

One thing that I lean doing this project is that even when public transportation is unreliable people still use them rather than the alternative Uber or Lyft. “Why is that?’ you might ask. There is only one answer to that question, and it is the cost to get from A to B. although Uber and Lyft are more reliable, that reliability come at an extra fee and most please cannot afford that fee. Taking the bus is much cheaper than taking a Taxi, Uber or Lyft, that’s why people are still prefer that option. If we can make that process a lot or even a little bit easier for people, I think a lot more people will be using public transportation.