Transit’s first Roundtable

Hear ye, hear ye!

While we’re very good at collaborating with our partner transit agencies over Zoom and email, there’s something special about gathering in a single place. We took advantage of the Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA) hosting its annual conference in Montreal in October to bring our Canadian partners together in one room: for them to meet the whole team and see what we’re working on, and for us to get an unvarnished take on what agencies need — and what they’re hearing from riders on the ground.

So we made it happen: on Thursday, October 27, Canadian transit agencies from far and wide gathered at Transit HQ for the first ever Transit Roundtable ​​🎉

Sam Vermette, Transit’s CEO, kicked off the day by welcoming agencies to our office, reflecting on Transit’s journey over the last 10 years, and giving a sneak peek of where we’re going next. Then we opened up the discussion and dove into the nitty gritty with our partners.

Our first round of sessions

• Marketing toolkit: Allison Gray, Marketing Consultant at Saskatoon Transit, joined Shanti Gonzales to discuss tactics for consistent and flexible messaging, like our research into how riders are getting information from their agency
• Detours and machine learning: Christine Mongeau and Marisa Henry shared a sneak peek into our newest project that will automatically help riders navigate detours in the app 

Later that morning, we broke into groups for round two:

• What’s new in GTFS: Jeremy Steele broke down the newest additions to the GTFS data standard that can help agencies get more accurate information to riders
• Rate-My-Ride: Kerra Shukster and David Block-Schachter challenged agencies with an interactive quiz that revealed what their riders are reporting every day in the app

In the afternoon, we loosened up a bit for some open discussions:

• Better cities, better transit across Canada: Sophie Le Blanc took to the whiteboard and led a discussion on what Transit and our partner agencies can do together to build cleaner, greener, healthier car-free cities across Canada.
• Quebec clubhouse: Christine Mongeau and Kaj Huddart shared feedback we received from riders in the Belle Province about their agencies. Agencies chimed in with how we can hone our tools to collect the insights they needed. Then we got back to the whiteboard to break down what it will take to integrate mobility across Quebec and put riders first.

It was an energizing little get-together, and something we plan to do more often with our partners. Drop us a line and we’ll let you know when we’re coming to a city near you. And remember, you’re always welcome to visit us at Transit HQ 💚