New app aims to make bus travel in Los Angeles easier for riders

Students can now use a mobile app to pay for bus fares on the Big Blue Bus.

Token Transit is a mobile app that allows users to purchase bus fare on their devices. The app partnered with Big Blue Bus, which has several stops in the Westwood area and runs throughout Los Angeles.

The app’s users can purchase bus fares and show their phone screen, which displays their ticket, to the driver upon entering the bus. Users can also buy single-use passes or monthly passes through the app.

Sam Daly, co-founder of Token Transit, said he created the app with three other developers to help make public transportation more accessible.

“We believe public transit is really important to every city, and we want to make it easier for folks to use it,” he said.

The app is currently in a trial period with the Big Blue Bus.

“The trial just started, but we’ve been doing trials in other cities, which have been going really well,” Daly said.

He said he thinks carrying exact change for bus fares may be a burden and unappealing for riders.

“We need to eliminate barriers to entry,” he said. “One barrier is paying for transit fare.”

Daly said public transit ridership had been growing for 25 years, but has recently declined. He added he believes Token Transit will help change that.

“Tech is one of the major controllable factors to get to reverse that trend,” he said. “Consumers are starting to demand paying for almost everything with their mobile devices.”

Suja Lowenthal, the transit planning and community engagement manager for the Big Blue Bus, said customers have been successfully downloading and using the app.

“More than three-fourths of our customers own a smartphone,” Lowenthal said. “Leveraging the smartphone as a way to make riding transit easier is the obvious thing to do.”

Typical boarding times with cash payments take about 23 seconds, but just two to three seconds with mobile payments. Lowenthal said the Big Blue Bus would like to see a decrease in cash users.

Lowenthal said the integration of technology may be particularly appealing to students.

“Our hope is that Token Transit will allow students to experience or consume our service in a manner that’s very familiar to them,” Lowenthal said.

Kristi Hoi, a graduate film directing/production student, said she likes the idea of the app.

“I don’t use the bus often, but I possibly would use it more if it was more convenient,” Hoi said.

Kim Nguyen, a graduate animation student, said she used the bus more often during her first year at UCLA, but stopped using it as regularly because it became inconvenient.

Nguyen said she thinks the app will make the bus more accessible.

“I never have coins on me,” she said. “I had the TAP card, but when I wanted to add money I had to go to the shop or the station, and I think you could make an online account but it was too much effort.”

Nguyen said she has been thinking about getting a car, but she does not want to worry about gas and other expenses.

“The bus is cheaper, so I would rather use it than get a car or use Uber or Lyft,” Nguyen said.