The Transit App is Right on Time

As Google’s diligently incorporated dozens of local transit services in to Google Maps over recent years, Apple’s decided to throw Google under the bus and rock their own Maps. While iOS 6 showcases some gorgeous new maps with walking directions and turn-by-turn right at the get go, Apple’s made it clear they’re leaving transit with the developers. Just weeks after the 2012 WWDC keynote, The Transit App is right on schedule and on route to iOS 6.

The Transit App is beautifully crafted by Sam Vermette and Guillaume Campagna out of Montréal, Canada. Being homegrown here in Canada, Transit’s agency support is currently limited to a variety of Canadian cities, notably Montréal, Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, Québec City, Winnepeg, and Halifax. Actual agency support is a little more extensive if you take a look at the list of supported cities.

Transit is stunning, with hot colours, crisp glyphs, some fine type, and the beautiful simplicity you need in a Transit app. For most, public transit can be overwhelming enough, so scrolling through hundreds of bus schedules is no easy feat. Functioning quite differently from most transit apps, Transit pushes that simplicity aspect and shows you the routes around you, however you’re free to manually search for routes elsewhere. That said, departure times or a gorgeous stop-by-stop map view is just a tap away.

While there’s currently great Canadian coverage for most metropolitan areas, over half of those were tossed in over the first week alone so it’s no doubt further service incorporation is full-speed ahead.

Transit is working with a different pricing model. The free version of Transit will suit many just fine, limiting itself to displaying the 3 closest routes and working only on online data. Subscriptions are available at $0.99, $2.99, and $4.99 for 1, 6, and 12 months respectively. A subscription will let you view all routes in a 1.5km radius and use Transit offline.

As Transit has only just left the station, international support and trip planning are still in the works, but for those commuting Canadians with an eye for design this is no doubt the transit app you need. Grab it in the App Store.