The goal of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Transit Tech Lab accelerator programme is to establish the city as the centre of innovation for mobility and public transit.
New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has chosen four companies from its accelerator programme to begin pilots that address key subway and bus challenges in the city.
The companies will advance to a year-long pilot with the MTA to test innovative mobility solutions for the city’s buses and subways as part of the Transit Tech Lab.
The goal of the Transit Tech Lab is to establish New York City as the centre of innovation for mobility, particularly as it relates to public transit.
“As the MTA experiences a period of historic reform, transformation, and innovation, we’re leveraging this new model for evaluating and introducing technologies that address some of our most critical challenges. The result is an inaugural Transit Tech Lab that far surpassed our expectations,” said Patrick Foye, chairman and CEO of the MTA.
“We are eager to develop these mobility technologies over the next year to improve subway and bus service for riders across New York City.”
Following a global competition in 2018, in which nearly 100 companies participated, six finalists were selected for the inaugural class of the Transit Tech Lab. Over eight weeks, the companies worked closely with New York City Transit and MTA personnel to test how their products could improve service and customer communications.
“We are eager to develop these mobility technologies over the next year to improve subway and bus service for riders across New York City”
Two companies will advance to the pilot phase for the subway challenge:
Two companies will advance to the pilot phase for the bus challenge:
“Thanks to the leadership of the MTA and the ingenuity of Transit Tech Lab finalists, New York City’s transit riders will benefit from mobility technologies designed to improve operations and customer service,” added Natalia Quintero, director of the Transit Tech Lab.
The Transit Tech Lab is managed by the non-profit Transit Innovation Partnership, led by Rachel Haot, previously the first chief digital officer for New York City and the first chief digital officer for New York state, and the Partnership Fund for New York City, led by Maria Gotsch.
It is modelled after the FinTech Innovation Lab that the Partnership Fund has run for the past nine years which played a critical role in establishing New York City as a hub for the global financial technology industry.
The Partnership for New York City represents the city’s business leaders and largest employers. Through the Partnership Fund for New York City, the partnership contributes directly to projects that create jobs, improve economically distressed communities and stimulate new business creation.
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