The Transit Authority of River City (TARC), which is the major public transportation provider for the Louisville metropolitan area in Kentucky, has launched a new Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) platform; the first of its kind in the USA.
TARC provides over 12.5 million passenger trips covering more than 12 million miles annually. The transit agency runs 43 fixed routes in five counties across two states, and owns and operates 102 paratransit vehicles and 223 buses. TARC averages over 41,000 daily riders, with 63% of all trips taken for work and another 20% for school. The Authority says it is leading the nation in offering MaaS capabilities with the official launch of its new Mobility App for smartphones and the Dynamic Trip Planner that is available on its newly redesigned website.
TARC’s new integrated mobility platform enables customers to seamlessly plan trips across multiple modes of travel including all TARC vehicles and routes, Uber, Lyft, Bird Scooters and LouVelo Bike Share. Rather than having to locate, and book each mode of individual travel separately, MaaS platforms let customers plan and book their trip from A to B (door-to-door), all in one place. The next phase of the platform, coming later this year, will include real-time parking availability and an added integrated payment system, allowing customers to pay for their full trip, across all platforms from within the TARC app. These additions will offer the full range of services as part of the globally-recognized MaaS concept.
“This app positions TARC as a leader in MaaS, enabling our transformation from a public transit agency to an integrated mobility solutions provider,” said Ferdinand L Risco Jr., TARC’s executive director. “This is a streaming service data platform. In addition to the various mobility modes available to choose from, the app will also stream activities, entertainment, landmarks and parking availability in the Greater Louisville region, all in real-time.”
Sumithra Jagannath, president of ZED Digital, which helped develop TARC’s MaaS system, said, “A major distinguishing factor of our MaaS platform that powers the TARC app is that this is the first of its kind to provide analytics and real-time data on system usage, origins and destinations of trips per mode of travel, transportation cost savings to riders from app usage, and more.”
