Why Choose Modal?

How we stand out from the rest.

Multimodal, not Microtransit

Microtransit is, well, micro. While microtransit focuses on direct on-demand service in small areas, it falls apart (and gets really expensive) at scale.

On the other hand, while fixed route transit is cheaper and highly efficient, it's nowhere near as convenient. You have to get to and from the fixed routes yourself - which is a major barrier to use.

Multimodal combines the best of on-demand flexibility with fixed route efficiency by integrating on-demand transit and fixed route transit (buses, rail, and more) into the same network.

Multimodal

On-demand vehicles service the first

Microtransit

Direct shuttle trips

Multimodal transportation integrates multiple forms of transit - buses, trains, ride-sharing, bikes, and more - into a seamless network. Unlike microtransit, which focuses solely on small-vehicle on-demand service, multimodal solutions provide riders with comprehensive journey planning that combines the best of fixed route reliability with on-demand flexibility. This approach maximizes coverage, minimizes costs, and provides riders with more options to get where they need to go.

See the Research 🡒

🧮 Superior Optimization (No, Really)

As a research spinout from Georgia Tech, University of Michigan, and the NSF AI4OPT Institute, our optimization algorithms are peer-reviewed and published in top academic journals. We're not just claiming to be better—our competitors cite our research in their own papers. Our routing engine is built on years of academic research and validated through real-world deployments, giving you provably superior performance.

See How Spare Cites Our Research 🡒

🔧 All in One

Unlike competitors who piece together separate products, Modal offers everything as a single, integrated platform. This means consistent software updates, unified user experience, and no integration headaches. Your riders, drivers, and dispatchers all work within a cohesive ecosystem designed to work together seamlessly. This integration isn't just convenient—it fundamentally improves service quality and operational efficiency.

Learn Why Wilson, NC Switched from Via 🡒

Transit agencies deserve a partner who shows up—every day, every hour, for every rider. At Modal, “Agencies First” isn’t a slogan; it’s how we operate. We run true 24/7 support, with an engineer on-call at all times who can jump in, diagnose issues, and deploy fixes in real time. No ticket queues. No two-week delays. Just humans who care about your service as much as you do. We're not a vendor that disappears after kickoff. We know agencies run lean, so we do too. We’re scrappier than legacy vendors—faster to respond, faster to iterate, and fully aligned with your success. With Modal, agencies get a partner who listens, adapts, and treats your riders like our riders.

🎓 World-Class Talent

We directly recruit from top research labs at Georgia Tech, University of Michigan, and the NSF AI Institute. Our team is small, specialized, and high-performance—many of us have worked together for years in academic research before founding Modal. 60% of our team holds PhDs in optimization, computer science, and transportation engineering. When you work with Modal, you're getting world-class expertise applied to your transit challenges.

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