Portlanders seem to like having an option to buy a public transit ticket with their smartphones.
TriMet, the city’s transportation service, today announced that riders have purchased more than 500,000 tickets using its mobile ticketing app.
That app, which has more than 60,000 downloads, was built by Portland-based GlobeSherpa and launched back in August. TriMet General Manager Neil McFarlane said that he didn’t expect such rapid adoption of the app, which eliminates the need to purchase paper tickets from a machine and allows riders to easily buy transit fares using an Android device or iPhone.
“Frankly, the use and enthusiasm over the mobile ticket app has been surprising,” McFarlane said in a statement. “We are always looking for improvements that benefit our riders and we knew mobile ticketing would provide them a new convenience, we just didn’t know how quickly they would embrace it.”
Portland is the first city in the U.S. to implement this system-wide. Places like Boston and New Jersey have implemented similar mobile ticketing tools, but for just one mode of transportation at a time.
Speaking of GlobeSherpa, the startup just released its “vision for an integrated mobile future.” The company has plans to expand past just mobile ticketing and into a variety of other ways that help citizens take advantage of connected cities.
Here’s an example of that vision:
Editor’s note, 6:05 p.m. : The article’s headline incorrectly stated that TriMet had sold “500M” tickets with the app. It has been corrected to “500K.”
