Biz Briefs highlights the latest in public transit/supplier partnerships.

The latest installment features partnerships in Ohio for Via and Masabi, as well as new capabilities through Moovit's service.

Via, Ohio’s Lorain County Team for New On-Demand Program

Ohio’s Lorain County Transit launched “Via LC” — a new on-demand public transit service in partnership with Via.

ViaLC will expand access to efficient, affordable, and flexible transportation for residents in Lorain and Elyria with rides that can be booked at the touch of a button.

ViaLC will make Lorain County Transit’s entire public transit network more accessible for the community, enabling residents to book rides anywhere within the cities of Lorain or Elyria through the ViaLC mobile app, or to connect to a Lorain County Transit bus to go even further.

In addition, Lorain County Transit will transition to Via’s software to manage their existing demand-responsive services, including Dial-a-Ride and the Oberlin Connector.

Moovit Launches Cross-Regional Planning Capabilities

Moovit, creator of the popular urban mobility app which has guided more than 1.5 billion users in 3,500 cities across 112 countries, is launching cross-regional journey planning.

Moovit’s new capability enables transit riders to plan and navigate public and shared transportation journeys country-wide. Moovit is also unveiling the ability for users to plan journeys outside of their current region.

Users around the world can now plan and navigate public and shared transportation journeys between cities within a country. Riders can search for, and select, routes between cities and towns that are located in different regions, wherever Moovit is available.

Masabi, Central Ohio Team to Launch Mobile Ticketing

Masabi launched mobile ticketing for the Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA) within Google Wallet.

Riders looking up directions to a destination in Google Maps on Android and checking the public transit options will now be given the option of buying and saving COTA tickets in Google Wallet. This gives people easier access to ticketing options and provides a seamless method for riders to plan and pay for travel on public transit.

 COTA is a public transit agency serving the Columbus metropolitan area. It operates fixed-route buses, bus rapid transit, microtransit, and paratransit services over 40 routes. From today when riders select “Buy Ticket” from Google Maps, they will be taken to a guided flow where they can go through the steps to buy one or multiple day pass tickets.

Once the purchase is complete the tickets are pushed directly to their Google Wallet. Payments can be made by credit card and Google Pay.