Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority riders can now use their smartphones to pay for their bus fare by downloading the MyDART app. MyDART lets riders purchase bus passes on their smartphone they show to the bus operator when boarding any DART Local, Express, Flex/On Call or Paratransit vehicle.
“Mobile ticketing is an increasingly popular way to pay for public transit,” said DART Chief Executive Officer Elizabeth Presutti. “With 73 percent of DART riders owning a smartphone, we hope the addition of the MyDART app improves the customer experience, and also attracts new riders to the system.”
Until today, DART riders had to use exact cash, valid employer/school ID cards, tokens or printed bus passes to pay their fare. More than half of riders use printed bus passes, which must be purchased in-person at DART Central Station or at a pass sales outlet, typically a retail or grocery store. By using the MyDART app, these riders no longer have to keep track of a printed pass and can save time by purchasing bus passes anywhere, anytime on their smartphone.
When DART installs new fareboxes in summer 2018, riders will be able to scan the MyDART app at the farebox instead of showing activated passes to the bus operator. In the future, a trip planner and real-time bus arrival information will be available in the MyDART app.
New passes available
With the launch of the app, DART is introducing a day bus pass. Another benefit to riders is that weekly and monthly passes are sold in the app as 7-day and 31-day rolling passes. Riders can activate their pass any day of the week or month, rather than being tied to the first day of the week or month.
MyDART was developed by Bytemark, a mobile ticketing platform company, with a connection to Greater Des Moines. Bytemark CEO and Co-Founder, Micah Bergdale, is a native of Urbandale and excited to be working with his hometown community.
“Des Moines is my hometown where I grew up. I rode DART numerous times as a kid around Des Moines and Urbandale. To know Bytemark is bringing the technology we have developed back to where I grew up to make transit all that much better in Central Iowa is an absolute thrill. We are looking forward to a fruitful, multi-year relationship with DART that helps put technology front and center on how we can improve transit in the region.”
