The city of Tampa’s Mobility Department is looking for 200 people to participate in a MaaS pilot with Moovit. Moovit is an urban mobility app that helps users plan multimodal trips, whether they prefer to walk, bike, scoot, drive, ride the streetcar or take the bus. The Moovit app is available to everyone today even without signing up to participate in the pilot.
Unlike using Google Maps or Waze to plan trips, Moovit also offers mobile ticketing for public transit, real-time arrival information and displays parking lots and park and ride locations, in addition to providing accurate and reliable urban mobility information.
The Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Pilot starts with the local launch of Moovit with multimodal trip planning and HART mobile ticketing integration. The program seeks 200 people to answer three-question surveys in 30-day intervals over a six-month period. The surveys and a feedback portal grant participants the opportunity to influence the seamless functionality of micromobility and other mobility mode choices within the app.
The city has pressed Moovit to expand more into addressing gaps in the access to transit, and improve the connectivity between modes of transportation, by building out from Moovit’s transit app.
“The cost of travel, both financial and time cost, is going up across Tampa Bay,” said Vik Bhide, city of Tampa mobility director. “With the Moovit app, the city of Tampa is trying to make it as easy as possible to get people where they need or want to go.”
“As our population in Tampa Bay continues to grow, so does the demand on our transportation system,” said FDOT District 7 Secretary David Gwynn. “Providing access to multiple mobility choices is vital in serving this demand. We appreciate partnering with the city as they lead Phase I of the MaaS pilot and bring the Moovit app to broaden mobility options for the region.”
As part of the pilot program, participants are asked to answer survey questions and provide feedback on functionality of the app for their personal use and on expanded features for improved experiences.
Both the Florida Department of Transportation and the city have each contributed $150,000 to the launch of Moovit in Tampa.
“We are pleased to work with the city of Tampa to encourage more residents to use public transit, including car drivers, by displaying where to park at transit hubs or park and ride stations to easily make the switch to transit to finish their journey,” said Yovav Meydad, Moovit’s chief growth and marketing officer.
