Endless New Rider Amenities, Are Exchange Zones Next?

Introduction

Do modern conveniences promote laziness? 

Some people believe that ease creates stagnancy. This argument doesn’t hold much water when it comes to the public transit arena. How can the process of promoting easier mobility cause greater laziness?

Public transit exists so that people can safely live active lives, connect with others, and explore their communities. Creating a sense of ease in transit, then, facilitates community intimacy. It’s meaningful to promote pleasant rider experiences because appreciating the journey to this intimacy is just as important as reaching its destination.

Rider Amenities

Public transit has become less of a procedure and more of an experience thanks to the integration of useful rider amenities and resources. Innovation never sleeps for public transit in an effort to keep up with new technologies people rely on. Nevertheless, who can really keep up with Apple’s everchanging charger ports?

Without these resources, people might feel lost. The new customer amenities listed below establish a feeling of normalcy and integration rather than isolation and detachment for transit riders as they commute or travel.

Wifi

Now that many transit stations and vehicles now offer riders Wifi, workaholics and scrolling addicts no longer have to part from their daily dependencies while traveling from one place to another. People can listen to music and podcasts they haven’t downloaded, access social media, and exercise curiosity through their mobile search engines without depleting their data.

With Wifi on public transit (coupled with charger ports to keep healthy battery percentages), riders remain connected to the outside world, maximize productivity, and exercise peace of mind when travel schedules are interrupted. Things change all the time for public transit. Riders are better able to navigate adversity when they have access to the web and can contact others. 

Shopping at Stations

Whether it’s for practicality or for leisure, public transit stations offer riders an opportunity to shop before and after their journey. With this rider amenity, people are able to answer their bouts of “it feels like I’m forgetting something.” 

Transit is timely. People don’t have time to go home, retrieve a necessity, and come back to a station in time to make their original time schedules. Shops at stations ease the panic that comes from forgetting a necessity.

Mobile Applications

In an age where people can access any information in the blink of an eye, there’s nothing people hate more than waiting. This is especially true for timely pursuits like the use of transit. 

Most forms of public transit now offer applications that allow riders to purchase their tickets online without having to wait in a line or speak with an official (an issue for last-minute arrivers). This makes the ticket acquisition process smoother and frees authority officials from tedious tasks so they can maintain availability in case riders have questions about their journeys (they always do).

Almost as much as they hate waiting, people hate confusion and the unknown. Fortunately, people can access transit schedules for the future and track vehicles in real time with their mobile applications. The ability to access this information, and all in their own hands, creates clarity for the rider experience and a more positive understanding of public transit.

Contactless Payment

In a digitized world, people lose track of small cards and tickets. The world of public transit used to rely on physical emblems like this. For instance, if you were living in New York City, you were sure to have a metrocard to navigate the subway. If you didn’t already own one, you were required to buy one from a kiosk, which would take up extra time before the ride. 

Now, many public transit turnstiles offer contactless payment. There’s even a feature in Settings in Apple phones that allows people to simply hold their phone near a contactless turnstile to pay for passage without so much as unlocking the phone in the first place.

Contactless payments have made it acceptable to travel in a rush. You’ve surely had more than one instance where you found yourself head to head with a clock to arrive on time. There’s no shame in using the shortcuts provided in these head to head competitions to triumph over your ticking and tocking enemy. 

You Care About People, People Care About Stuff

You’ve implemented these conveniences because you want people to enjoy themselves and the systems they use to travel. By taking a look at the newest rider amenities within public transportation, it’s clear that there’s a focus on the people. Their sense of ease. Their connections to each other. Their peace of mind.

However, while honing in on the way people feel when they interact with public transit, you may have forgotten to turn on your materialistic brain. While generating new customer amenities, you narrowed in on the intangible. Let’s talk about the tangible.

Whether they’re carrying a duffel bag, a backpack, a fanny pack, or just a case of airpods, people care about their stuff. By the transitive property, if you care about the people, you need to care about their belongings, too. Pun intended. 

Innovation has no ceiling. Building upon amenities is a never ending process that goes hand in hand with technological capabilities and gaps in functionality that remain unanswered. People don’t yet have access to a location where they can safely store and retrieve their items on their own time. Exchange Zones answer this need.

Quick Storage with Exchange Zones

Exchange Zones are secure, convenient locations that allow people to drop off and pick up items asynchronously. They allow for the on-demand luggage storage people need to travel smarter.

In a world of consumption, people are rarely empty-handed. Because of this, people experience a sense of liberation in the few times they are able to enjoy hands-free experiences. People tire of lugging their roller suitcases up the stairs and then tripping on them as they navigate busy sidewalks. People tire of readjusting their backpack straps or shifting their messenger bags from arm to arm, hoping to relieve themselves of the weight.

People aren’t going to part with their bags without a safe place to do so. Consequently, they’ve accepted the nuisances that come with their bags as a necessary evil. Exchange Zones grant people permission to free themselves of a burden they thought inescapable.

How People Can Use Exchange Zones

To use Exchange Zones, people are instructed to adhere to the following steps:

1. Download a Relai App on a mobile device

2. Select a block of time between dropping off and picking up

3. Follow the in-app prompts to drop off and pick up the item

It’s simple. All people need is something they already have in their pocket. Something they already use for public transit endeavors thanks to other new rider amenities. Exchange Zones offer riders opportunities to interact with their environments more comprehensively while ensuring riders’ belongings exist in a safe, secure location only they can access.

Conclusion

There are millions of ways to engage in consumption. But there are limited ways to take care of the things people buy. People travel with necessities they care about, so it’s just as important to take care of the people as it is the belongings they take with them on transit journeys.

Exchange Zones are the next best way to show people you care.

Explore our website for more information about the way you can take your public transit facilities to the next level.