LA Metro is to launch a “mobility wallet” to allow riders in Los Angeles to access a bike, scooter, car, train or bus from next summer.
The new pass will integrate these options into one payment system on Tap (transit access pass) in an area roughly bounded by Grenshaw and Alameda and Florance and the 10 in South LA.
The plans were unveiled at a workshop at this year’s CoMotion LA conference on technology and transportation.
A report by Dot.LA reveals that the pilot is seeking to offer multimodal transportation through a single portal with the aim of increasing transportation equity.
Avital Shavit, senior manager at LAMetro’s office of extraordinary innovation, says: “We know that from our community engagement, from our rider surveys, that people sometimes need more flexible services. Sometimes a bus or train is not close enough to where they live or is not fast enough to get them where they need to go to access opportunities.”
Shavit insists that many low-income LAMetro riders are “unbanked” and “untech-ed”.
The programme will purchase smartphones with data plans for the 20% of LAMetro users who do not already own one.
“The emphasis is on outreach and teaching people and meeting them where they are,” Shavit adds.
The pilot is being rolled out in collaboration with the Los Angeles Department of Transportation(LADoT), Uber Transit, BlueLA and Curb Mobility.
Shirin Sadrpour, LADoT environmental affairs officer, says: “Without access to transportation, you can’t get a job, keep the job, have access to basic needs for basically a meaningful quality of life.”
LAMetro is planning to pilot the programme with 2,000 users over the course of one year while also setting out to double enrolment in its low-fare pass (Life) programme before it resumes collecting fares in 2022.
