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Introducing a better way to plan microtransit: Spare Realize

Spare, the world’s leading provider of on-demand mobility software, is proud to share the newest release of Spare Realize, its intuitive,data-driven simulation tool for microtransit.


Jerome Mayaud

September 08, 2021 (Vancouver, Canada) — Spare, the world’s leading provider of on-demand mobility software, is proud to share the newest release of Spare Realize, its intuitive,data-driven simulation tool for microtransit. With this release, transit agencies and other mobility providers can take charge of their microtransit planning and make informed, confident decisions about the future of their networks.

Transit planners configure their microtransit service directly in Spare Realize and then run scenarios to test their hypotheses. There is no limit to the number of these scenarios.

The tool can be used to improve transit equity, enable multi-modal transit and replace fixed-route buses with microtransit. For instance, planners can simulate an afternoon rush hour microtransit service that connects residents in a suburb to the commuter train or express bus.

Using the data models built into Spare Realize, planners can tweak their service zones, hours of operation and vehicle supply. In just a few clicks, they can simulate demand and gauge the impact of using a dedicated microtransit fleet to run this service versus brokering it out or opting for a mixed-model. Once launched, they can continue to make tweaks and optimize the service in Spare Realize to meet their goals.

Spare Realize is novel because it takes the guesswork out of transit planning, which has traditionally relied on limited and time-consuming pilots or studies. By opting for a low-cost, low-risk approach, mobility providers can explore which scenarios are primed for success without ever deploying a driver or vehicle.

While Spare has made its simulation tool available to transit agencies in the past, Spare’s team usually performed the simulations. By empowering mobility providers to use Realize themselves, the experience of Spare’s operational platform is extended to the virtual environment.

“Transit planners are the real experts in their regions. They understand local ridership dynamics as well as their organization’s goals. Spare Realize lets them test out their various hypotheses in a quick, efficient and highly visual way, which ultimately helps them better communicate their findings to other stakeholders and speeds up the buy-in process,” says Jerome Mayaud, Spare’s Lead Data Scientist.

Like all of Spare’s products, Spare Realize is 100 per cent cloud-based, which means transit planners can begin to use it immediately. The datasets and models are constantly updated, meaning planners can be confident they are designing the best transit service for their community.


To see a demo of Spare Realize or to test it out for yourself, get in touch at hello@sparelabs.com