Transit App gains even more data points with Car2Go partnership

Transit App has grown into a worldwide sensation, topping transit riders’ lists across North America and Europe. It was recently selected as the official transit app for Toronto’s TTC ridership. Today, the Montreal-based startup has added another data point to its extensive database with a Car2Go partnership, displaying all the nearby lots and their availability.

Car2Go was founded in 2008 by Daimler AG, owners of Mercedes-Benz, and expanded from Western Europe to North America in 2011. The car sharing service employs remote-unlocked Smart Cars, both in electric and hybrid variants, to shepherd people across cities on a per-minute rate. While more expensive than traditional car shares like Zipcar and Autoshare for long-term rentals, Car2Go’s partnership with parking lots like Toronto’s Green P ensures drop-off points are plentiful, and overages rare. Car2Go operates in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary.

Transit App’s partnership with Car2Go comes after the startup integrated with Uber late last year. At the time, responding to criticisms that Uber was the very opposite of “public transit,” CEO Sam Vermette said, “For public transit devotees, you might realize that some trips just make more sense with Uber. Most of all, we want to show drivers that public transit and sharing services are an attractive and reliable alternative to private cars.” This latest update also adds support for Montreal-only car share, Auto-mobile, and lays the groundwork for Quebec-wide Communauto in the coming weeks.

On the iOS side, Transit App has also added a neat feature that integrates with the system calendar. Now, if a calendar entry has a physically address attached, Transit App can automatically navigate in the shortest time. Vermette and co. also redesigned the Today View Widget again.

[source]App Store, Play Store[/source]