Transit app Citymapper shares lessons learned from a bus service it piloted in London It looked more like a pub crawl than public transit: Londoners laughing, taking selfies with strangers, and enthusiastically sharing their thoughts on social media. For a few months last summer, most of the images tagged with a popular transit app featured people having the time of their lives?on a city bus.

Last May, the transit app Citymapper announced that it was putting its data to use by launching a bus service in London. The idea was that by studying the transportation habits of its users, the tech company could design an experience that would better serve riders. Almost a year later, the tech company is reporting on how well it worked.
To start, Citymapper?s Smartbus provided a well-designed, well-branded, tech-forward experience for riders. In addition to brand-new interiors, the buses had USB ports in the seats that lit up when people plugged into them, and large, full-color screens for sharing route and stop details.
Honestly though, the new @Citymapper buses are a work of technological genius. #citymapperbus #visitlondon pic.twitter.com/xmmtheDF5A? Nicole Lost In This Whole World (@lostwholeworld) May 9, 2017

The buses also offered more options for paying than most transit networks do. Passengers could tap with a contactless debit card, use Apple or Android Pay on their phones, or pay directly through Citymapper?s app. This is where many cities are go...