At this year’s American Public Transportation Association (APTA) TRANSform Conference in Boston, LYT unveiled a more streamlined and intuitive approach for agencies to manage traffic flow, enhance transit performance, and address community needs, leveraging its software platform.

LYT runs in the cloud, connects with existing signal infrastructure, and reduces the need for roadside hardware and ongoing field maintenance. 

The updated product is a result of LYT working closely with its public transit industry partners across the country, who expressed a desire for data tools that are easier to use, provide more accurate real-time information, and consolidate operations in one place.

Findings and the Resulting Updates

A recent nationwide survey of transit professionals found:

• 39% said their current dashboards are “only moderately user-friendly with frustrations.”

• 31% described their dashboards as “somewhat challenging.”

• 43% cited a “lack of real-time data accuracy” and the need to “manually combine data from one system to another” as their biggest frustrations.

• 44% said fragmented information “moderately” limits their view of operations, while 29% called it a “significant” barrier.

• 53% said they are “very likely” to consider a new dashboard that makes accessing and sharing data easier.

• 58% believe a more connected, user-friendly solution would “significantly” improve their ability to respond to emergencies.

As a result of those findings, highlights of LYT’s updated platform include:

• One connected platform. Transit, public safety, and public works teams can now manage bus priority, emergency response, and snowplow operations in one place.

• Simpler design. A clean interface with clear menus, updated visuals, and a more intuitive map view enables staff to find and act on information more quickly.

• Real-time visibility and reporting. Teams can track vehicles, signals, and priority events in real-time, and quickly generate route- and intersection-level insights without additional manual work.

METRO Executive Editor Alex Roman recently had the opportunity to speak with LYT’s Founder and CEO, Timothy Menard, about how the company’s updated product came about and its potential impact on the public transit industry. 

Feedback Leading to New Features and More

Can you explain how you engaged with customers and how that feedback cycles back into the product?

Our product team is in constant contact with existing clients and often gets involved with potential clients in the later stages as well. For this report, we also conducted a nationwide survey to capture broader perspectives — what’s working, what issues are most pressing.

What we consistently heard was that customers are happy to see all their data in one place, finally. Still, now they want help identifying the one to two percent of data points that actually signal a real problem. That has become a major driver of our product development, as we highlighted in the demo here.

How data-savvy are transit agencies today? Are they requesting more complex information, or are they still seeking simplified reporting?

There’s definitely a spectrum. Some users are actual power users — they know tools like Tableau and want raw data so they can run their own analyses. We’ve learned a lot by observing those sessions.

On the other hand, there’s still a large group that wants confidence in the outputs: ‘Show me how you validated this so I can trust it and move forward.’ And, of course, plenty of people fall in between.

How quickly were you able to revamp the product based on this feedback?

We took a ‘measure twice, cut once’ approach. Customer outreach lasted approximately six months to refine priorities effectively. Then, in the following three months, we built wireframes, mocked up concepts, and started testing with the community. That phased approach ensured we were delivering what customers actually needed.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I believe the industry is moving toward greater interoperability between systems. Agencies might be using Swiftly, Remix, ours, or others — and the expectation is that these platforms will ‘play nicely together.’ That kind of collaboration, that ability to integrate across tools, is what’s going to drive the industry forward by leaps and bounds.