Bowen Island On-demand Transit

Between July 15th and September 15th 2019, the first on-demand bus pilot became available to all residents on Bowen Island, British Columbia. For two months throughout the Summer, residents of the small island of the coast of Vancouver had colourfully clad, chauffeured buses at their disposal as part of Translink’s TapRide Pilot.

movmi was a collaborator on this project from its inception. As liaison between the different stakeholders: TransLink, First Transit, Bowen Island Community and TappRide, movmi’s role concentrated on project management, with a particular focus on technology and operations: we were in charge of technical feasibility/requirements gathering, the operational setup, training of drivers and community engagement.

This pilot had two “on-demand concepts.” On weekday evenings users could book a ride, only from the cove to another location, so all rides had to start in the cove (one-to-many). On the weekends, users could request rides from anywhere to anywhere within the designated service area.