MetroRiderLA

Clever Commute, a peer-to-peer tool intended to help train commuters, is the creation of New Jersey based IT-guy Joshua Crandall, a man with whom I had the opportunity to chat with about his efforts to bring CC to Los Angeles over a french dip sandwich at Philippe’s a couple of weeks ago. At lunch Josh told me about how he created Clever Commute in 2006 as a way for he and his commuting buddies to inform each other of any delays down the line. He set up a simple email list, and if any one on the list experienced a delay or noticed a problem, they’d simply whip out their trusty Blackberry (a prerequisite for commuters) and send a short message to the list describing the problem. Every member of the list would then get that warning and viola, plans could be adjusted accordingly.

Clever Commute has grown like wildfire since its humble beginnings. Once word of mouth caught on in New York, everyone wanted a piece of the action. Crandall set up his official website, clevercommute.com, so people could sign up to become a member of a list for their particular line. In New York there are now over 20 commuter rail lines, 5 commuter bus lines, 4 light rail lines, and 2 ferry lines that have active lists of Clever Commuters informing each other of delays and setbacks. Thousands of New Yorkers rely on Clever Commute daily to keep them informed of the transit situation. According to Crandall, after the New York Times caught wind of the phenomenon and wrote a story about it, things really blew up. Suddenly other cities were interested in the technology. Boston was the first on board and now has 10 commuter rail lines covered. Chicago, San Francisco, Portland, and DC are all experimenting with the technology.

And now Josh is bringing it to LA.

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