The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) recently surveyed its members representing most major transit systems in the U.S. about what mitigation efforts they are undertaking as a response to COVID-19. The response was overwhelming. Most transit agencies are ramping up their technology and moving to low touch solutions on their services.
These solutions include moving fare payment from cash to contactless payments of credit cards and smart phone app-based faring; adding on-demand applications; introducing common payment platforms and Mobility as a Service (MaaS) applications so that all the public mobility options in a city can be accessed and paid for on one smart phone app; and including vehicle occupancy in their GTFS real time data feeds to the public so they can see if a bus is already full before it gets to the bus stop.
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