Szymon, Moovit’s Ambassador for Poland is a Cognitive Science and Math student originally from Wodzisław Śląski currently studying in Szczecin. When Szymon is not studying or mapping he is busy with his other interests, such as learning Finnish. He joined the Moovit Community in April 2015. Szymon came across Moovit when he was searching for a trip planner for his region, at that time there was no app or website he could use to plan public transport trips across his region. One of the reasons for this lack of clear information is due to the complexity of the transport system in the region; there are many transport agencies operating services. Just in the Western Subregion of Silesian Voivodeship (In and around Wodzisław Śląski) alone there are 8 autonomous public transport agencies who are not governed by a single body. Szymon decided that he would begin mapping Wodzisław Śląski and the surrounding Voivodeship according to agency rather than by town or city.
Szymon was motivated by mapping and public transport long ago, “When I was a kid I wanted to build something like Moovit, to help Silesians and tourists plan their journeys through my region. A lot of my friends told me that they want make their journeys more smooth.” He recounts. We asked Szymon about his proudest moment in the Community so far and he happily responded, “Opening the first agency from Wodzisław Śląski in February of this year.” The Polish Ambassador has tips for new editors just starting out, “You’re a part of Community, remember that. If you have questions, ask us everything… Get a plan… and enjoy our Community, be proud to talk about the success of your local Community.” In November, Szymon is planning to meet many members of the Moovit Polish Community in Warsaw. This is the first meetup in Poland, so it is a momentous occasion! “I’m so excited to meet the people who build within our Community.” He told us. The group will discuss opening other cities and new Voivodeships in the future. Szymon had some parting words of wisdom for the Community, “I think my Polish Community must feel that we’re one united body and we must build everything together.”
Let us now meet Elazığ’s Ambassador, Alp. He is preparing for a law degree and also enjoys learning new languages, reading books on philosophy, sociology, alternative politics and history, and when he isn’t doing any of those those things he’s playing cello and cycling. Despite having so many interests, he also decided to contribute via the Moovit Community after several years of using the app in other cities across Turkey. Alp is very proud of playing a central role in launching Elazığ on the app in June and being asked to become an Ambassador.
Elazığ’s Ambassador has grand plans for the near future, “The next step is to add the neighboring cities of Malatya and Aydın; the latter is where I was born.” he tells us. Elazığ and Malatya are relatively close to one another, around 100 KM apart. Alp elaborates, “Every day thousands of people travel between the two cities. Malatya is one of the most important cities in the district, and I’m doing my best to map this city, which has a dense transport network.” In addition to these new cities, very soon there will be major changes to the bus routes in Elazığ and Alp will endeavour to update the transport information again. Alp has words of wisdom for the new members of the Community, “Please don’t limit yourself by simply joining the Community, be an active member… use the Editor and make the platform come alive.” Alp does not just advocate being active, he leads by example, and for this we say thank you!
Maxime, a doctor by profession, had begun this year looking for a transit application for Besançon but his search was somewhat fruitless as no local app offered him departure information for bus, tram and train together. He tells us that, “Moovit seemed to work very well when I tried it during my trips to Paris. I also wanted to enjoy it (in Besançon), so I decided to offer to enter information for the city.” Maxime had additional personal reasons, it was important for him to have an easy app for public transport as, “I wanted to stop using my car and walk more; to feel better… to apply basic health principles to my own life.” He even admits that taking public transport would also help him have a more normal work schedule as having to leave to catch a certain bus or train is, “a good reason to go home!” Furthermore, Maxime was also motivated to map the transit routes in his city for selfless reasons, he says, “I thought that others would also be able to enjoy it like me.”
Besançon’s Ambassador dedicated himself to completing the public transport routes in and around the city. He describes this accomplishment as, “the greatest moment since joining the project.” To those just beginning to map their own cities he recommends first reviewing the schedules and understanding the different variations on the local agency’s website as this is key to inputting information into the Moovit Editor easily.
As Besançon is now live and available on the app, Maxime is hoping that more people will join the city’s community to help with his next big mission, to cover the transit routes of the whole Bourgogne Franche-Comté region and when the newcomers arrive, Maxime jokes that he, “will be ready to motivate the troops!” Maxime informs us that his Moovit activities now take up a lot of his free time but when he isn’t mapping, Maxime can be found conducting research at the city’s hospital, enjoying electro-pop music and cinema as well as walking and running around Besançon’s beautiful historic city centre. Just as the city of Besançon has evolved and reinvented itself throughout history, so too has Maxime. His pursuit of a healthier lifestyle serves as an example to us all.
Inan, a graphic designer specializing in animation and motion graphics, is also Istanbul’s volunteer Community leader. Inan joined the Moovit Community when he became interested in finding a community-based public transportation app that he could contribute to in the same way as Openstreetmap. Inan relies heavily on public transport, noting, “I’ve been using public transport since childhood and I love the community project and try to support it as much as possible.”
Inan was invited to become an Ambassador for the city after he showed a clear enthusiasm and passion. Inan tells us that being asked to be the Ambassador for Istanbul was a great achievement. We asked Inan if becoming an Ambassador has influenced his contributions to the Community in anyway and he explained that he has interestingly started checking and analyzing the application in a more detailed way. He elaborates on how important this is for Istanbul as the transport network is incredibly complex and there are multiple independent transit agencies whom Inan is trying to contact to gather information from. He tells us, “I feel like I am playing a computer game and I’ve reached the highest nightmarish level, but I do still really enjoy it.”
For his next challenge Inan tells us, “I plan to get people to come together with other editors and plan a mapathon, as others have done in other countries.” We look forward to hearing more about the mapathon soon!
Mehmet first heard about Moovit on a technology news site and joined the Community immediately after. He stressed that as a populous university city Samsun should be added to the app without delay which prompted the Moovit Team to build a partnership with the local transit agency and this month the city was launched on the app. In addition to Samsun, Mehmet volunteered to map the city he studies in, Muğla. He describes these country-wide contributions as, “my biggest achievement in my community so far.”
Recently Mehmet has learned that gathering official information for Muğla’s transit system has so far proven to be challenging, and so Mehmet is reaching out the the local transport operator for further assistance. Mehmet feels that the opportunity to be a Turkish Ambassador has helped him develop his leadership skills, and going to great lengths to obtain the information attests to his feat.
Mehmet studies computer engineering at the University of Muğla and maintains an active lifestyle by regularly swimming and cycling. If he isn’t contributing to the Moovit Community or studying, he’s learning new software languages or helping to develop applications for Android operating systems. Despite all of this, the region’s Ambassador says he next plans to rally the other Community members toward their goal of getting Muğla onto the app. Mehmet encourages new members never to hesitate to ask him anything if they want to join the communal efforts. Well done, Mehmet!
We move now to Belgrade, Serbia to meet an Electrical Engineering and Computer Science student named Milos, who enjoys dance, music and photography. Milos heard about the Community when he first downloaded Moovit and saw that he could help improve his city. Milos admits, “I didn’t start editing right away. A couple of months passed before I started editing. At first I wasn’t sure what I was doing…” Milos’s modesty is extraordinary because thanks to his enthusiasm and perseverance in learning the methods of the Community Editor inside and out, he was invited to become the Ambassador for the whole country of Serbia. Milos describes the moment he was asked to become Ambassador as, “The biggest achievement for me so far regarding Moovit.” Milos has had many such achievements in his Community history; for example, he obtained the elusive public transport information for the 84 bus routes in the second largest city in Serbia, Novi Sad, where it had previously seemed impossible to obtain the information. He tells us, “I am proud of myself because I did manage to insert all the information in Novi Sad and I think I can say that thanks to me, now we have that city in the app.”
Milos states, “I’ve been trying to help the Community since I first enrolled in the Program and started editing, but when I became the Community Ambassador I got a whole new level of responsibility.” Milos now moderates all the changes not only for Belgrade and Novi Sad but for all of the active Serbian Community cities. “I’m more committed to help everyone get to know the Editor,” he adds. Addressing the Serbian Community directly, he would like to reassure newer members, “If you have any questions, if you have suggestions how we could improve the Community, please write to me and I will do everything I can. Be brave and do something for your local community.” Milos is not alone in his mission to help public transport users across the country and heartily recognizes the efforts of Nikola K., for adding the suburban routes around Belgrade. He declares, “In the name of all the Community, I thank you! Congratulations and keep it up.”
Our Serbian Ambassador is not content with resting, despite adding or editing more than 200,000 unique data points in the country in under a year. He has also just finished mapping Kragujevac, the fourth largest city in Serbia. Milos is now in the middle of his intensive exam period for his penultimate year at university, has just finished filming for a Serbian TV show for which he is a background dancer, and still finds time to map new cities to help even more people use public transport with peace of mind. We have only one word to describe this. Wow!
Bjorn is from Eisenach, a large historical town northeast of Frankfurt, Germany. Bjorn is an avid technology user and admits “being fascinated with computers, the Internet and telephones since early childhood.” He was actually searching for new technology online when he first read about Moovit on a website for new apps and tech, and says, “The Live-Directions feature first roused my interest, since it has happened to me that I slept right through my stop before.” A tale we can probably all relate to in our shared public transport experience! Bjorn has previously contributed to other online communities, and was therefore happy to join the Moovit Community with the aim of “enabling the app’s service for the people of Eisenach and visitors alike.”
Perhaps Bjorn’s previous experiences in other online communities prepared him for the Moovit Community because he instantly made mapping on the Editor look like child’s play. He joined the Community in December of last year and within 4 months quickly became a mapping pro. He mapped Eisenach’s full transport system of 73 routes with a total of 815 different trip variations! Because of Bjorn’s commitment, passion and natural inclination for participating in online communities, he was invited to become the Community Ambassador of Eisenach. We asked Bjorn if he feels if anything in his approach to the Community has changed since he became an Ambassador, and he replied, “Yes, absolutely. I try to take advantage of any of my free time to talk to new community members, talk to people about Moovit at bus stops and even tell bus drivers about the app.” Indeed, Bjorn is the local champion of fellow Eisenach residents using the valuable information in the app he mapped.
Bjorn tells us that moving forward he is looking forward to arranging Community meetings in order “to exchange views on issues and hear suggestions.” Bjorn, who was originally an electrician and then subsequently re-trained to become a process manager in the vehicle registration department, is also kept busy with his other volunteering activities. Impressively, Bjorn has been a volunteer firefighter for 7 years and is now also a medic with the German Red Cross. Bjorn’s tremendous zeal for volunteering and civic participation is extraordinary and on behalf of the people of Eisenach, we would like to say a huge thank you for always looking after others before yourself!
We move now to Murcia, a city in south-east Spain, to hear the story of Community Ambassadors Daniel and Sebastian. The project began in August of last year when Daniel was looking for a public transport app and found Moovit, but saw it was not yet available in Murcia. Within two short months, Daniel had added all of the inner city lines of the city and Murcia was added to the app. A few short months later, as a result of Daniel’s dedication, the Moovit team invited him to become an Ambassador for Murcia. Daniel will begin college this year, but also enjoys bike riding, cartography, and listening to music. What astounds us is that Daniel doesn’t even take the bus that often, but cares more about his contributions helping others.
Soon after Murcia was launched on the app, Sebastian, who also loves photography and capturing his city’s beauty in snapshots, joined the efforts. Interestingly, Sebastian actually joined the Community a while ago but was recently inspired by Daniel and thus began to actively contribute to the information for the city. We asked him to describe some of his achievements so far and he replied, “Undoubtedly, the power to share such information with others, given the limited information that exists in the region of Murcia on public transport. It’s amazing how each person can contribute their part.”
Daniel and Sebastian began to collaborate exceptionally well. They used the Community Wall to exchange ideas, utilize each others’ knowledge of the city to collate information and discuss expanding the coverage of the app. It was at this point that Daniel wanted to share the role of area Ambassador with Sebastian. This marvelous dual approach, combined with their open communication style, means there is no stopping these guys. Sebastian explains that since being appointed as a partner Ambassador, “My commitment to the Community has increased a lot… you discover how much you know about public transportation in your city, and how useful this knowledge can be for other people who use the bus, tram and train daily.”
We asked the guys about their next steps and Daniel told us, “Right now we’re mapping to include Cartagena’s [a city further south of Murcia] lines in the app.” Daniel elaborated on their plan, “…we are striving to have all the Regional lines mapped, which would have information on public transport lines in an area of 11,300 km2 and for 1,400,000 people.” This is a very important achievement for Daniel, Sebastian and the entire region of Murcia!
We are happy to introduce Fabio, a native of Bogota, Colombia. He is in his final year pursuing a Mathematics degree and in addition, works teaching students who find calculus challenging. We are certain these teaching skills bestow him with his natural flare for guiding the entire Community of his city. Fabio’s journey in the Moovit Community began about 6 months ago. He wrote the Support Team of the app to highlight some local information that could be improved. He tells us, “The Team responded with an invitation to join the Community. Before long I was already editing and improving data.” Fabio’s description of his contributions does not do his deeds justice! In the past six months he has contributed to more than 250 lines and has created 150,000 unique pieces of information about Bogota’s transport system.
Fabio’s contributions to the Bogotano Community go above and beyond editing. We asked Fabio about what he felt was his biggest achievement since joining the Community and he replied, “Undoubtedly, the greatest achievement has been to expand the Community.” This growth is by direct virtue of Fabio; once he was crowned city Ambassador, his mentorship abilities began to radiate as he started to offer incredible support to other editors in a number of ways. He offered newly-joined Community members weekly video calls to teach them about the mapping tools, welcomed everyone with personal messages and taught enthusiastic newcomers about best practices and collaboration. For the Community of Bogota, not one question has gone unanswered! Fabio tells us, “Now we are already several people who frequently edit. This makes me know that it is all worthwhile.” Fabio’s innate ability to guide others come across clearly: “I like members of the Community to know that in me they have someone who can help them with every edit,” he informed us.
Fabio is devoted to educating newcomers to the Bogota Community and is considering “planning meetings with other editors in the city”, to show them how they can contribute. He explains his motivations, “Being an editor goes beyond just volunteering, it is about improving the community where you live.” He continued, “My advice to the new members of the Community is that just 5 minutes a week of contributing to the Editor, no matter how small the change might seem, will be useful to someone.” Despite Fabio’s tremendous contributions thus far, he recognizes that, “due to the extensive transport system we have here in Bogota, we can still improve information.” That is exactly what Fabio continues to do when he is not reading, socializing with friends or cycling around the city. He concludes, and we agree, “…the Community in Bogotá will be a great success because together we are improving faster and better.” Thanks to Fabio, the population of 9.6 million people in the metropolitan area have access to clear information about public transport in their city. That’s the spirit, Fabio!
Our next Italian star is Daniele from Trieste, a coastal city in the north-east of Italy, close to the Slovenian border. In his day job, Daniele works in Port Security, where much of continental Europe’s oil arrives from the Middle East. Being closely situated to several Eastern European countries has caused Daniele to become comfortable in several additional languages, including German, Slovak, Croatian and English. In July 2014 Daniele heard about Moovit’s presence in Italy but saw that Trieste was not yet available. “I contacted the Moovit Team and got access to the Editor and within one month I had completed the main lines of my city. Without doubt, when I saw my city in the app it was the best feeling ever!”
Daniele has had an enthusiasm for transportation since he was a child and says that before Moovit, “…there was no app for buses and I wanted to help the people of my city get around. Day by day I want to improve the information for Trieste.” Daniele, together with the other great contributing members of the Trieste community such as Alessio, Marco and Stefano, have helped enormously the city’s population of 200,000 by mapping and perfecting over 160 lines. Furthermore, the editors have been mapping more public transport lines to connect more towns and cities across the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, such as Gorizia. If the group continues at this pace, up to 1.2 million people will be able to benefit from their efforts.
Daniele’s tips for helping so many people include knowing your city and being a regular user of public transport. “I travel every day on the bus.” He notes. He also notes the importance of building a local community, “I found a friend that shared the same passion.” Thank you Daniele for sharing your incredible story and assisting the people of Trieste with their daily journeys.
Members of the Brazilian Community were deservedly recognized and honored for their contribution to Porto Alegre’s society by the Mayor of the city. Brazil’s 4th most populous city has been benefiting from the Moovit Community’s efforts since March 2014, when the Community members took it upon themselves to take the city’s official data and update all of the information. The Porto Alegre Community, consisting of top contributors such as Cristiano, Fabrizio and Daniel, among others, have since decided to map 14 surrounding commuter cities. This amazing achievement is a record by any Community group and it means that the entire metropolitan population of 4.5 million can benefit from this up-to-date transport information. Moovit strives to honor its members’ valiant contributions, but recognition from the highest order – the mayor of the city – is a new accomplishment! Cristiano reflected on the occasion, “The greatest honor that a community of volunteers can receive is to have its efforts and dedication recognized by the City, represented by those who were elected to look after it. It confirms the importance of our contribution in the Community, and the relevance that it has for the entire population of the city.”
Yoav Roth, Moovit’s VP of Business Development, represented the Community on the day and later said, “I was touched and am very proud on behalf of the Community for their astounding efforts.” The Community leaders plan to meet this month where they will receive their personal certificates.
Over the past few months with the marvelous assistance of the trusted Community, we have been able to bring Moovit to the megacity of Mumbai, India. With more than 21 million inhabitants, it is one of the most populated cities in the world. Two volunteers in particular stand out for their contributions, Chirag and Shashank, who for the past few months have been busy mapping the transit systems in Mumbai, making it the first ever Community-contributed launch for a city in India.
Chirag responded to a call from the Community Team to assist with the city. He far surpassed any request for help and even proceeded to map the 48 trip variations of the inner-city railway routes. Chirag grasps the Community mission, “I wish and hope to have this app in the hands of those millions of people who travel to work and back, spending 2-3 hours of their day just in transit.” He told us with enthusiasm. Thankfully Chirag is not alone in his views, shortly after him a new member, Shashank, joined the Mumbaikar Community and used his local knowledge to edit and perfect the transit data of the city.
In October of last year Moovit launched its first Indian city on the app, Bangalore, and it was not long before the Community began to contribute to perfect the information. Arjun, a first year Technology student at the P.E.S University, was quick to begin bestowing his local wisdom on the line database and passing on his insightful local information to others. Arjun told us a bit about his experience in the Community, “I heard about Moovit from a friend and since I knew a lot about BMTC (the main transit agency in Bangalore)… and I love how Moovit is using the city’s data in an innovative way, I saw this as the right platform to help others.” Arjun continues to add and edit information about the city’s public transit and encourages others to join his crusade, he selflessly stated, “Anyone in the Community can approach me for help.”
In the megacities of India, millions of public transit users face long waiting periods and uncertainty in travel time and difficult conditions. We hope that with the help of such altruistic people like Chirag, Shashank and Arjun, we will be able to bring the app’s service to many other cities across India and benefit everyone.
In February 2015, the Moovit Team were able to gather enough information to launch a service for the 6th most populous city in the European Union, Bucharest. The city’s data was made accessible for the city’s app users to govern and they responded enthusiastically. They utilized their familiarity with the local transport routes to perfect the information. Within a month of Bucharest’s launch, Community member Cosmin mapped his home city of Arad, followed by Darius who added Cluj-Napoca and the cities continued to flow. Community Ambassador Mihaela, from Bucharest, who has also been indispensable in the creation of new Romanian cities on the app, also contributed to the Community’s greatness. Thanks to the collective efforts of the group in the 14 months since the Romanian Community’s inception, an average of one new city has been added each month.
The crusade to bring better public transport information to the country has been spearheaded by a group of determined leaders, namely the country’s Ambassadors; Mihalea, Dee and Bogdan, who are never deterred by any challenge. Together, with some of the country’s other wonderful top contributors, they decide together which city is next on their radar and then mobilize in mapping it. They are adding the capital cities of the 41 counties first, and then working on expanding coverage across the country. Each individual member has a variety of his or her own reasons for becoming such an integral part of the Romanian Community, but they are all aligned on the altruistic aspect of their volunteering as voiced by Mihaela, “I am happy to help people.”
The group promotes information transparency across the national public transport sector and have a presence across online forums and groups. The communal spirit in the country is not limited to mapping; the Community benefits from its own official volunteer translator, Razvan, a student from Bucharest who dedicates himself to localizing important written messaging from the Community team. Thanks to their efforts, the Community has so far created better transport information for 4.9 million of the country’s total population and that number is constantly growing. This is something worth celebrating!
As we celebrate the landmark of 100th Moovit Community city, it is only fitting that we tell the story of this special project. Over the summer, Moovit initiated pioneering this Community project together with the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey in Puebla, Mexico. Over 40 student volunteers enrolled in the Rebuilding Citizenship course at the University which integrated the Mapping Program of Puebla’s transit system into the curriculum and aimed to increase citizen participation in the local community. The students triumphed in mapping Puebla’s transit system in just two short months.
The University was particularly enthusiastic about incorporating the mapping project into the Rebuilding Citizenship course because there is no official open transit data available to the public in Mexico and therefore understood that by participating, the university volunteers would provide public transit riders with access to valuable transit information.
The Program gave the students the choice of several roles, such as project leaders, project managers or general contributors. The position of project leader was taken on by Brenda Plata, who studies Industrial Design. She took an extremely keen interest in the Program as she had previously wanted to devise a way of displaying public transit information for specific cultural routes in Puebla. She expressed her passion amazingly, “For years I’ve been interested in mobility. There is an obvious lack of access to information in our city. Now that this route information is available, it will benefit Puebla inhabitants, visiting tourists and foreign students.” Brenda was responsible for overseeing the entire project, managing the other participants, and was the student contact with the Moovit team.
The project managers – Cristian Alcorhas, Rubirena Vásques, Joseline Jimenez and Victor Cuateco – also played key roles in the Program. To begin the Program, the students first had to obtain the official information from the government, which was no small feat. They went on to map all of the city lines, both the official and non-official routes. Each participant mapped an average of four lines, and together the team has added nearly 250 routes for the city. One student, Daury, elaborated on his experience, “I enjoyed the Program because I learned some of the routes and locations of many amazing places in the city, and more importantly now I know how to get there.”
The Moovit Team was extremely impressed by all of the students’ dedication to the Program. Brenda even noted, “It was impressive to see many students excited and trying to improve mobility across the city.” Thanks to the success in Puebla, the Community team is exploring the idea of reproducing this Program across more cities in Mexico.
If you have an idea for a collaboration project similar to the Puebla project above, we would love to hear from you. Send us a short email at community@moovitapp.com
Sinisa is a Computer Engineer from outside charming Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. Sinisa spent a few days in Israel for work in December last year where he first used Moovit to navigate his way around. When he returned to Croatia he was eager to see how the app compares in Zagreb, but unfortunately the service wasn’t yet available. Sinisa took it upon himself, as a source of national pride, to add the transport lines of the city to the app. He elaborates on his experience, “It was fun, I learned a lot and saw it as an opportunity to help other Croats help themselves!”
Sinisa talked at length about the Community Editor platform, “The interface is intuitive and improvements are made often; which makes everything simpler when entering data.” When adding Zagreb’s tram routes, Sinisa notes how he found particular use for the automatic shape feature. However, the simplicity of the tools Sinisa used to create the transport data should in no way take away from his exceptional personal achievements! Sinisa single-handedly mapped his city’s 409 routes with incredible zeal. At the height of his undertaking he created 16 full routes in one day. Zagreb’s public transport hero touched upon an unforeseen benefit of mapping his city: “the chance to get to know parts of the city you haven’t visited yet.” Sinisa expanded on this by telling us about one of his favorite things in the city, a to-scale installation of the solar system with the planets spread across Zagreb. “It can be a lot of fun to find them all.”
Sinisa checks that the app is up-to-date and notes that when he was living in the heart of the city for 12 years, “Moovit would have helped a lot!” Thanks to Sinisa’s incredible efforts, the city of Zagreb was launched in the app in late February of this year and the city’s 790,000 inhabitants can now all potentially benefit from the service. He knows that as more and more people begin using the app, the city’s information can even be perfected by the insight of the crowd on the local routes. Since Zagreb’s launch, Community Ambassador Sinisa has been busy trying to gather vital public transport information for Split on the beautiful Dalmatia coast, the second largest city in Croatia, and even now Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital Sarajevo. To Sinisa we say thank you, for taking this mission to heart and helping many users across the region.
Riccardo studies business at the University of Bergamo, not far from his home city of Milan in Northern Italy. Riccardo is keen on economics but reveals, “Public transport has always been my great passion; plus I love to help people if I can.” It was this view on life that first drew Riccardo to Moovit. “I found Moovit in 2013 because it was the only app for public transportation in my area. I began using the app every day, but only discovered the Community when I met Giacomo, who informed me about the Editor.” (Giacomo is Moovit’s Operational and Community manager in Italy) Riccardo became interested and began immediately to add lines that didn’t yet exist on the app. He elaborated on his experiences, “I find it much fun being part of this community! I think the Editor is a must have tool to accompany the app. Everyone, with their own experiences and on their own time can contribute. I continue to help in the community because I know I’m doing something useful for myself and for the other people who use public transport in Italy every day.”
Riccardo is modest about his accomplishments, but since joining the Community he has added or perfected almost 200,000 unique data points and contributes to more than 10 cities across Italy. About his tremendous experience he says, “Anyone who is interested in helping others and knows a bit about their city can participate.” Riccardo’s dedication is not limited to mapping, he often meets with Giacomo to discuss how to improve the data on the app. “It’s really nice to share my own interests with other people and I consider the friendship that I’ve made with Giacomo to be the best part of becoming a member of the Community!”
Moovit’s history in Milan has been rich and not only has Riccardo been integral to the service in the city but he benefits from it as well. He analyzes the app in his city, “My journeys are for sure better using Moovit, I’ve reduced my travel time because I’ve discovered great alternative routes I didn’t before know about.”
Meet Nicolas, a 28-year-old architect living just outside of Saint-Étienne, a large city 50 KM southwest of Lyon, France. Nicolas, who has been a local councilor for his commune for the past 2 years, describes his approach to life as “spending most of my free time trying to improve the living environment of people and imagining living in a more connected world.” Prior to Nicolas establishing Moovit’s service in his city, he complained of the annoyance of using one application for local buses, another for bikes and another site for information on the local trains. Rather than continue to complain about the lack of complete intermodal information, Nicolas decided to take action and began entering all the information for Saint-Étienne.
Nicolas downloaded the app and as there was not yet a service there, he understood that he should map his city’s public transport routes himself. His commitment paid off and since he joined the Community in December last year, he has added more than 530 trips and launched Moovit in his city, which he described as being, “worth doing and being proud to contribute to.” Nicolas explained what kept him motivated and focused in this challenge as he said, “the most important thing for me was that there is always someone from the Moovit Team there to answer my messages.”
Not satisfied with completing only his city, Nicolas requested to map more of the department (county/region) of Loire, in which Saint-Étienne is situated, and he currently is engrossed with mapping the town of Roanne. When he spoke of his expansion plans, Nicolas stated, “I’m actually working to expand the service to cover more of my district.”
It is with great pleasure that we congratulate and commend Nicolas for the powerful actualization of his philosophy of improving his local environment. Due to him, up to half a million people in the metropolitan area can travel smoothly on any mode of public transport they like.
Meet two extremely special Community members in Greece. Konstantinos is a University student in the city of Ioannina, one of the largest cities in Greece, and Akis is a passionate contributor for Athens. When we asked Konstantinos how he became involved in the Community he told us, “I saw that Moovit offered very good public transit information in other places and it was something my city really needed, I saw the call to help bring Moovit to my city and so I started mapping.” Akis joined the Moovit Community for different, but nonetheless valid, reasons, “I wanted to talk to other app users and discuss improvements of the data, so I joined,” he told us.
Konstantinos and Akis have become extremely active contributors, both sign in to add and edit information on the Moovit Community Editor daily. When asked what inspires Akis to contribute so avidly, he recounted, “I connect with the Moovit Team on most of the changes I want to make, I even speak with the Greek Community Manager daily and I especially like that I have the opportunity to correct timetables.” Konstantinos has a unique and effective approach to the editing Community, “If I ever spot a problem on the app, whenever I’m traveling in the city on public transport, I note it down and then at the first opportunity I enter the Moovit Community Editor and correct it.”
Akis and Konstantinos come from differing ends of Greece, but both men’s comprehension of the Community mission is profound. When asked about why he participates in the Community, Konstantinos explained, “It is important to collaborate, to keep in mind that we are doing this for the benefit of our city. You’re not just helping yourself, but benefitting those around you.” Akis highlighted another aspect of the Community, when he described his communication with other Community members and the Team, “Everyone has such positive energy when we are discussing improvements, which is important for me to continue contributing.”
When Konstantinos completed mapping his city he told us about his proudest moment, it was “…when I saw the phrase We are excited to introduce Moovit in Ioannina on the Play Store.” We would like to congratulate Konstantinos for his valiant efforts in adding his city to the app; he mapped over 120 trips and thanks to him, more than 100,000 people now have access to the service. Since Akis joined the Community he has updated more than two-thirds of the city’s routes, ensuring that the app users in Athens can travel with peace of mind. Both editors should feel extremely proud of their dedication, not only to the Community but moreover, to Greek society.
Meet our amazing Community member, Joe from Knoxville, Tennessee. He impressively in less than two months mapped all of his city. Joe may be retired, but it does not stop him from staying busy! In addition to his time spent mapping all of Knoxville’s public transportation to help bring Moovit to his city, Joe is an avid reader and online chess player, and likes to explore his city and learn about people by visiting different estate and yard sales.
Joe rides the bus everyday, and after a long search for an app that could provide him with the information needed to improve his journeys, he discovered Moovit and the Community. The Moovit Community Editor afforded Joe the opportunity to add his city’s public transport information to the app for not only his own use, but also equally as important to him, the rest of Knoxville’s residents and visitors as well. Joe stayed motivated by the knowledge that his contributions would help so many others.
Joe was very pleased by the mapping platform and not shy when it came to speaking with the Moovit Community Team. He explained to us about his time in the MCE, “It is really a great program and all my questions were answered really quickly.”* He enjoyed the mapping process so much, he spent sometimes more than 5 and a half hours in a day mapping his city. Now that’s dedication!
Even after Knoxville’s addition to the app, Joe continues to make regular updates, especially to ensure the weekly bus schedule changes for football season are always correct. He stays in continual contact with the Community Team, guaranteeing that the best information is always available on the app for all the users of public transit.
We’re proud to have Joe as part of the global Moovit Community and thank him for all his contributions and commitment to helping his community.
Meet Bojan from Serbia, a graduate student with a major in Biotech. Bojan saw a chance to improve the information of his city. Since then, he has risen through the ranks of the Community at a rapid pace. “From my initial involvement I was hooked on mapping and since then I have contributed much more. My ideas are always being implemented, actually a lot more than I could have expected.”
Bojan joined the Community with the desire to add information for Belgrade, he added, “I simply wanted the railway network to be present. From that point on, I’ve continued to improve different things; since Belgrade has a public transit system that is still in a state of development – there is a constant need to update information on the app.” In addition to being one of the Guardians of Belgrade, Bojan mapped Valjevo, his hometown. “I think it’s natural to be a local-patriot, to use opportunities to contribute and do something not just for you but for everyone living in your area.” Growing up in Valjevo gave Bojan all of the information he needed to map this town. “I was able to do something super useful for my local community; because even though the public transit system is simple, getting informed about it was far from that. There was no single source for information. Now, it’s possible to easily access everything you need.”
Bojan is wonderfully proactive and is happy to take charge of his entire country’s Community. He tells us how he particularly enjoyed cooperating with other Community members, for example, the tenacious Lazar in Nis, “we discussed various issues vividly, and ultimately developed a program that saves much time while entering large timetable datasets. It has already been successfully used elsewhere. It is something we are especially proud of.”
Bojan communicates with many people in the Serbian Community and he notes that, “the interactions between the members make it an excellent experience. It drives everyone to feel like collaborating.” In addition to Lazar in Nis, Bojan has built a strong connection with many members of the Belgradian Community, including Bogdan, whom he plans to go for a drink with soon. Bojan and other members of the Belgradian Community, such as Nikola, together decided to create a Community Facebook group to exchange ideas, socialize and spread information. They plan for the group to become a nationwide group, making the Serbian Community overall even stronger.
Bojan says that he considers himself a citizen of the world, having already traveled and studied in many different countries. This quality beams out to us daily, just now Bojan has finished translating the Community Editor tool into Serbian for his entire country. He states that, “I’ve learned that helping others is the best one can do, and there’s a lot of small things you get in return that will make your general everyday life beautiful.” Bojan radiates this positive energy and to him, we say thank you very much for playing such an active role in inspiring and advising all of us.