OpenTransit

Phase One: Research

Thoughout the summer and Fall of 2020, supported by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the OpenLocal research team conducted field interviews with businesses, municipalities, customers and experts in the transit and mobility space. The result is three research papers that provide deep insights into key areas where technology and service delivery make a difference in people's lives.

Stephanie Kwan’s The Future of On-Demand Transit in Canada explores on-demand and microtransit projects across Canada, and how these emerging services are being leveraged to solve municipal and rural transit challenges.

Nirvana Garreffa’s Design Tech and Essential Services looks at the dramatic expansion of delivery services through the experiences of people living with disabilities, and how essential services can be made more accessible and inclusive.

Finally, Nam Hoang’s Reclaiming the Future of Work explores how digital technologies are shifting the nature of work, and how we might design software platforms that empower all stakeholders in the Future of Work.

If you would like to recieve a copy of any of these research papers, please email us.

Partnerships

We have secured partnerships with a number of academic, private sector and not-for-profit organizations (see our Partners page for a current list) and are looking to develop additional relationships in the areas of digital skills development, smart cities initiatives and improving digital services. For organizations with little presence outside of urban areas, OpenTransit and OpenLocal's intention to directly serve rural communities provides opportunities to promote digital literacy and quality of life initiatives on communities that may otherwise be difficult to reach.

We invite you to Download our Whitepaper:Remix, Rebuild, Recover (v.1.1_May 2021), and please get in touch if you are interested in working with us!