Regional Transportation Agencies Deploy Innovative Tech to Improve Customer Experience, Climate Resilience and Curb Management
Populus is proud to announce the launch of our pilot project with New York City to improve curb management as part of the Transit Tech Lab.
NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 10, 2025 — The Transit Tech Lab (TTL) is excited to announce that 13 companies that were selected to participate in last year’s program will continue to work with our regional transportation agency partners in larger-scale pilots to demonstrate how their technology can improve transportation and deliver essential services more effectively. These companies were initially chosen from 150 global applicants to conduct a minimally viable proof of concept (POC) that addressed a top priority for one or more of the agency partners (see results from the POCs here).
The 13 companies below set out to use their technology — ranging from artificial intelligence, robotics, and LiDAR — to address the 2024 TTL challenges: improving customer experience by better communicating services changes, reducing delays, and augmenting safety and cleanliness initiatives; building a more resilient and adaptive transit system; and, maximizing the city’s curb space to serve the multiple and varied needs of New Yorkers. During the pilot, these 13 companies will demonstrate how their technologies can scale with our agency partners, which include the MTA, NJ TRANSIT, NYC DOT and the Port Authority of NY and NJ.
The Transit Tech Lab, one of three challenge-based public sector innovation programs run by the Partnership Fund for New York City, gives public agencies exposure to innovative technology and new ways of working on an expedited basis. Entrepreneurs gain exposure to New York City’s public agencies, mentors and investors – and an opportunity to demonstrate their solutions at scale.
See below for more information on Populus’s project, which will further demonstrate the value of our technology via a larger-scale pilot.
NYCDOT’s Curb Activity Challenge
Populus (San Francisco, CA) – Provides a digital curb management software enabling municipalities to better understand curb demand, inventory and manage curb regulations, and actively manage new curb use cases with hardware-free smart zones. Populus integrates data from parking meters, sensors, cameras, and mobile pay, along with curb regulation inventories into a robust platform to improve curbside safety and efficiency in cities. Populus conducted a thorough review of NYC's existing systems and processes by evaluating 12 curb-related datasets, interviewing key stakeholders and users of current curb data systems, and touring the Upper West Side Smart Curbs Pilot zone.
Partner Agency: NYC DOT
About Transit Tech Lab
The Transit Tech Lab is a public-private initiative created by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and the Partnership Fund for New York City to accelerate innovation in public transportation. Since its inception, the Lab has facilitated collaborations between technology companies and transit agencies to address key challenges in customer experience, system resiliency, and curb management.
About Populus
Populus helps cities and private mobility providers deliver safe, efficient, and equitable streets. The Populus platform is the only comprehensive digital solution that empowers cities with actionable insights to more effectively manage their streets and curbs—with access to mobility data from shared bike, scooter, moped and carsharing operators, and delivery services. The Populus platform serves over 100 cities around the world, ingesting data from more than 40 operators and over 350 million rides to date.