Kansas City streetcar app update arrives with roaring ridership
August 12, 2016 | Bobby Burch
Has the popularity of the Kansas City Royals found its match with the Kansas City streetcar?
No — probably not. But if you live in or around the City of Fountains, you probably know that its new downtown streetcar is quite popular.
Since opening day, the streetcar has carried a total more than 645,000 passengers along its 2.2-mile line with a daily average ridership of 6,800 people, according to the Kansas City Streetcar Authority. In early August, Slate reported on the streetcar’s success, demonstrating that it appears to be bucking a trend in the U.S. that urban rail transport is not only unpopular but also poorly designed.
Well, the local service’s popularity may be rolling to another boost as the Disruption Institute recently updated its app to offer several new nifty features. The app — which was released early June — allows users to track the real-time location of each streetcar to help the plan for arrival times at each stop. The Streetcar app — available only on iOS devices — also added a discovery tool to help users find the best routes to nearby restaurants, bars and entertainment.
The Disruption Institute founder Mike Gelphman said that the app — which enables users to select any of the 10 streetcar stops to pull up walking or driving directions to the location — already has thousands of downloads. The app was developed by Gelphman and a recent graduate of his coding school, Kevin Montanez.
“Downtown Kansas City has come alive in such a remarkable way thanks to the streetcar and we wanted to help by building something meaningful,” Gelphman said. “The pulse is so much stronger now — like that of a bigger city. People are out on the sidewalks, talking, interacting and connecting. We really wanted to build something meaningful for Kansas City and we hope this app can become something that will help connect Kansas City even more.”
Learn more about the app update with the video below.
2016 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
‘Night Without Borders’ opens coffee house doors to honor heritage through harmony
Culture transcends borders, said Danny Soriano, surrounded Friday night in a popular Crossroads coffee shop by music, dance, art, food, and drinks that all shared a common link: Latino flavor. “Whether it’s Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Argentina, we all come together as Latinos, as Hispanics, and celebrate our heritage,” said Soriano, who organized a…
GEWKC returning to familiar venue (but its new destinations might surprise ticket holders)
When Global Entrepreneurship Week pulls into the station later this fall, Kansas City participants can expect a fresh experience inside one of the region’s most iconic landmarks, said Callie England, noting an intentional effort behind the scenes should help reroute the “best of the best” events onto custom agendas. “While you’ll see a few familiar…
Wichita program drives highway of resources to more KC startups; founders tout who they met along the way
Opening its doors to Midwest companies outside Kansas for the first time, a Wichita-based program that connects startups with the tools to better engage enterprise partners offered an added benefit to Kansas City entrepreneurs: a new ecosystem of support just a few hours from home. “The program’s Wichita location inspired us to broaden our outreach…