Why, when I’m driving to work, do I’ have support in my $30,000 vehicle that my million-dollar bus doesn’t have? Stop Requested.
This is Stop Requested. by ETA. I’m Christian. And I’m Levi. These are real conversations with the innovators, operators, and advocates driving improvements in public transportation.
For this episode, we’re taking you back to APTA Expo 2026, where we sat down with three CEOs bringing new ideas and technologies to public transportation.
Joining us are Walter Jenkins, CEO of TransitChat, Lizzy Speed, CEO of GreenLight Robotics, and Anthony Tresati, CEO of Entre Mobility. We talk about improving communication and accountability within transit agencies, using AI to explore new service planning possibilities, and bringing collision avoidance technology to transit vehicles.
We also hear what drew each of our guests into public transportation, the challenges they’re working to solve, and where they see the industry heading. Here’s our conversation with Walter
Jenkins, Lizzy Speed, and Anthony Tresati. Welcome back to Stop Requested. We’re joined by some very special guests today.
Uh, Walter Jenkins, who’s already been on the podcast once, gonna be on it again. Just thank- The second-timer … thanks for having me back. CEO of TransitChat. Uh, we also have Lizzy Speed, who is the CEO of GreenLight Robotics, and we have Anthony Tresati, who is also a second-timer on the podcast, the CEO of Entre Mobility.
Welcome. Hey. Yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you. Yeah. This is gonna be exciting podcast that we have here at the 2026 APTA Expo. Uh, first, I just wanna go kind of around the, the table here, so to speak, and get your impression on the APTA Expo. What have you learned? Anything exciting?
Um, I should bring more comfortable shoes. There’s, there’s a lot- Yeah … of walking involved. Um, and, uh, you know, it’s just been great to meet a lot of people and see what’s been going on, and, uh, yeah, I’m excited about ETA’s
Transit GPT. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. All right. Love it. More comfortable shoes. That’s my takeaway. Um, I’ve met a few really badass women
CEOs of transit agencies- Yeah … which has been awesome, and, uh, yesterday, when I was trying to find my way, I was basically just following. I was like, “Where are the older guys? And I’ll just follow them, and I’ll, you know, find where I need to be.”
Mm. So it’s been really refreshing and fun to meet some really cool women in this industry. Um, and they’re really open to talking, and I think awesome leaders.
Excellent. Love it. Well, yeah, for, for me, I think I’ve been really impressed with the collaborative energy that I’ve seen from agencies, partners, and, and fellow founders. Uh, it’s been really great, and definitely hearing a lot of AI use cases, uh, coming through.
Y- yeah, I think that part is very exciting. Um, so, you know, you’re all younger CEOs of your companies.
Thank you. Yeah. Thank you for saying young. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, there’s some, some older folks here, and some younger folks, too, but- Yeah … uh, we probably sit somewhere in the middle. So, uh, y- you know, from, from that perspective, what, what drew you into public transportation? Why public transportation.
as a career field? And then introduce something innovative. I grew up in New York City, um, so from a really early age, understood that transit was access. It brought people to school and work, um, and ultimately opportunity, and I’ve spent almost my full career in transit. I worked at the MTA in New
York. I also worked at Via Transportation. on paratransit, microtransit. Um, and through those experiences, I became very aware of the discrepancy between the technology that was being built for private transportation versus public, and so that is where, um, we’ve focused on bringing some of that innovation to public transit agencies.
Yeah. Love that. Walter, Anthony? Yeah. In terms of transit, like helping people get where they wanna go, I feel like is the biggest motivator for me.
Um, when I was doing my first internship, having my mom drop me off at, the train station, and, like, thinking about people that might not have that first last mile connection, and, and how do you improve that for everyone?
Yeah. Right. 100%. Yeah. I, I definitely came at it from, like, a different, uh, point of view. Um, you know, I started off as a planner, and I was getting a degree in, uh, renewable technology. Mm. And I was very obsessed with, um, you know, energy efficiency in tr- in transportation, and, you know, I was constantly curious as to why public transportation just wasn’t more successful.
Uh, and I think, kinda like touching on what you said, it’s like there’s so much advancement and so much convenience that’s put into, uh, private vehicles.
But the convenience of public transit has just been something that I’ve been obsessed with, and, you know, how to improve it through operations.
Yeah. Love that. It- it’s really great. And, and I, I wanna ask you, you know, a little bit more about those innovations, right? We’re here at, uh, APTA Expo, and here is all about innovation. You walk around, and you find new products, you find new services, and, um, we wanna know from e- each one of your companies, like what is that innovative proposal?
If you could just tell us a little bit more about your company, and why transit agencies, might wanna, you know, learn about it, and, and, you know, just, just, uh, for them, what should they be interested in, in your offering? So we could go around the table. Yeah, sure. Um, you know, transit agencies who have trouble communicating and trouble planning projects should probably talk to me. Um,
I really am focusing on helping transit agencies respond today, plan for tomorrow. And report next week.
Uh, and we really wanna be able to help transit agencies surface, uh, who’s supposed to be doing what and who’s not doing what, so that riders can feel like they’re being more listened to, and CEOs feel like they’re actually getting stuff done.
Yeah. I mean, in our conversations, Walter, it, it sounds like, you know, it boils down to accountability. Like, who, who owns a project.
You, you know, who is communicating with whom and about what. Yeah. You know, um, that is the big word that, uh, my pilot agency, KCATA, has been really honing in on. Uh, accountability through operations, um, and being able to have that for schedule planning.
Mm-hmm. Um, but I think it’s, it’s a deeper issue because there is so much knowledge that is holed off into specific departments that’s not shared, and we wanna be able to share that, not only today, but be able to share that information that you can only get by working on the job, um, with the next generation.
Hmm. Yeah. That, that’s important. I mean, the knowledge tran- transfer, we saw that at Palm Tran, Christian, where someone leaves. You know, they were working at the agency for a decade, you know, two decades, more, and they’re gone, a- and all that knowledge goes with them.
Yeah. Yeah, it’s true. In a lot of cases, there’s only one person that- Yeah … that, that, that- Right … uh, handles a specific responsibility or role. So some agencies might have, like, this one grant coordinator that knows how to apply for the grants, you know, submit all the compliance documentation, and then for whatever reason, that person leaves, and then the next person comes in is like, “So how do we s- report this to the FDA?” Yeah. And then now you have to go through that learning pain, that learning curve- Yeah … and, you know, you start dropping the ball a lot of the times because you don’t know. Like, that, that knowledge escaped the agency. Well, and, and I think, um, you know, transit is moving in a bunch of different directions right now, and one of the things that a lot of our panelists are, like, concerned with, that I’m interested in hearing about, is repeating how, uh, you can keep doing analysis for some of these micro pr- transit projects.
Because I think we’re seeing a lot of pilots, and we’re seeing a lot of changes, but over time, they’re gonna have to redo these kinds of analyses over and over again. So Anthony, I’m really interested to hear what, what you’ve got to say about that. Yeah, yeah. Thanks for, uh, throwing the ball over. Mm-hmm.
Uh, we are looking … No, no. No, that was, that was … Sorry, that was, that was a, a Thank you. That was a great pass. Uh, yeah, one of the things that we definitely hear is similar, like, right on that line is, like, sometimes there’s the one scheduler, or the, the one planner at, at the smaller agencies.
And, and the way we think about it is trying to encode some of their knowledge into the, uh, optimization models, and in, in, into the pieces that we’re working on. So what we’re trying to help agencies decide is what services should they run with their existing resources, especially looking at on-demand service, looking at fixed route. Where’s the right balance there? And what our tool does is generate, uh, hundreds and thousands of potential bus routes, generate potential on-demand zones, and look at what’s the right mix to improve your KPIs. What are your objectives? Ridership, productivity, efficiency, convenience, equity. And trying to figure out how to balance those objectives, and, and look at if you tilt one way or the other, what, what does that change look like? And, and being able to also model different financial scenarios of if you have 10% more budget, what can you do with that? And then take that, go to your stakeholders, and argue for that more budget. Uh, so that’s the things that we’re thinking about and trying to help, uh, agencies bake into that, bake in some of that expertise in terms of what constraints they are working with, where stops should go, where stops shouldn’t go, and baking some of that into their planning environment that they can reuse over time.
Yeah. Like s- like the ultimate assistant right there, you know? It’s like, I wonder what it would look like, look like in 10,000 different scenarios, and then you’re just like, oh, these are the three that it recommended. Great. You know? Yeah, yeah. And if you don’t like one of them, then you can give that feedback, and, uh, we’re, we’re trying to … One of the pieces that we were launching, uh, yesterday during my presentation is the agentic piece of helping provide these optimization models, uh, a l- layer above that. So you can ask the planning question, and it can turn that into the scenario, the optimization inputs of what’s your objective, and, and help you explore those different opti- options with the tools that we developed, you know, using our, our PhD knowledge in optimization and operations research. Today’s episode is brought to you by ETA.
Transit agencies rely on dozens of systems to keep service moving, but the information inside them often remains disconnected. Transit OS connects operational technology, enterprise software, and public data so agencies can bring more of their information into a shared operational context.
Transit GPT gives transit professionals a practical way to use that connected data, asking questions in plain language and getting answers grounded in agency information. Together, they help agencies see service clearly, respond faster, and deliver more reliable trips for riders.
Learn more at ETATransit.com. Yeah.
I’m sure that comes in handy when you’re dealing with, uh, that much data and d- you know, the, the complexity of the transit systems and the technology as well. That sound- that sounds very interesting because, you know, Liv and I, we work, um- As transportation, planners, uh, uh, you know, at some point in our career, and, um, today a lot of trans systems and, and planning departments, there’s only so much they’ can really analyze. Like, they take a look at, you know, what are we gonna do the, the next service changes? You’re always planning for the next service change. You’re also trying to align it with your, you know, transportation development plan, and, you know, some of the, the other activities that are happening on the agency. But in between service changes, you have that window of opportunity to do like the, you know, the, the, the analysis and, and take a look at the data and find those opportunities for improvement.
And I think as a planner today in a lot of agencies, you only get to evaluate a couple things. You know, like maybe you make your assumptions, you come up with, you know, this, uh, kinda like idea, well, maybe we could change this and that. And then you’re trying to quickly analyze those and get to what your service change is going to be. So I think, you know, that’s very innovative, the, what you’re bringing to the industry, which is analyzing, you know, thousands of scenarios at once.
Um, yeah, I’m curious to ask, and I don’t know how many agencies you’re working with today, but, uh, what’s some of the feedback you, you… the feedback you gotten from people using it? Like, have they found anything they never considered? Like, you know, sometimes your vision is very narrow about what you could do, and then maybe something like this will be like, “How about that?” And you’re like, “Oh.”
You know, ha- has that happened? Have you seen some of that? Yeah. It’s, it’s definitely a mix of, like, things that they’ve always thought about, and they’re like, “Oh, we’ve been thinking of this as a ver- a potential solution,” and then we show it to them, and they’re like, “Yes, that’s exactly what I thought.” Or, or, and but there’s also some of those cases that it’s like, “Oh, like, that route’s not performing as well as I thought. Like, moving it over here makes sense.” And, and, and so both the discovery, but also being able to validate some of their opinions, uh, when it comes to how they’re operating the service and what makes sense. Beautiful. I love it, man.
Oh, that’s excellent. A- and last but not least, Lizzie, wanna give you an opportunity here to tell us about GreenLight Robotics and, and what you’re doing. Yeah. GreenLight Robotics builds a AI collision avoidance system to support operators see what they can’t, and ultimately to reduce collisions.
Um, the thing that we hear from agencies over and over, which may resonate with some of your listeners, is, “Why, when I’m driving to work, do I have support in my $30,000 vehicle that my million-dollar bus doesn’t have?” And that is that gap that we are, um, kind of addressing, and ultimately, of course, safety’s always number one. But also, the financial situation is a very close second for most agencies, and they’re seeing huge increases in maintenance costs given how expensive buses are, in liabilities, being sued, and insurance costs, and so that’s kind of exactly that bucket that we’re, um, targeting along with the safety. Wow. That, that, that’s incredible, and, you know, because collision avoidance it… and you talk about the safety and, and you… the comparison you used just that, you know, your personal vehicles have all these technologies, and then the buses don’t have it. And also, uh, buses have a lot of blind spots.
And, you know, you talk about also fatalities, and, and also when, uh, a vehicle gets into a collision, then now the number of vehicles you have available for revenue service goes down because it could be weeks before it is repaired and, and brought back into service.
Um, do you have any scenarios or cases that you could tell us about where, um, agencies saw a reduction of collisions? I mean, I would say if you just reduce, like, one collision, I mean, it’s a big success. It, it… when it comes to even fatalities, like, you never know, a collision could result in people dying. So
I mean, I, I very curious about your product, but do you have any stories that you could tell us? Yeah. We’re actually going live with our first agencies this winter. So- Wow … um, the… I’ll come back on the podcast- Yes … to give you those stories.
But exactly what you’re saying is, kind of what we hear from agencies, that, you know, the most common scenario is a mirror strike. A mirror strike can cost $5,000 because of, again, how expensive a bus is, the time, let alone the time out of service, and, you know, the implications on service delivery, and on-time performance, and all of that.
Um, but on the other hand, a fatality, which unfortunately does happen to most agencies every year, is millions, along with the trauma- Yeah … and the, you know, lives lost. So there is, you know, to that ROI, unfortunately, you know, to bring that, um, to, to bear in this context, it’s very clear for agencies to see that.
Well, one thing that I keep thinking about when I hear about your product is how you’re actually going to be able to reduce the amount of training and, uh, reduce the amount of, um, points that bus drivers are actually gonna have on their license.
So I, I’d be really interested to know, like, have you guys thought about that? It’s great. These questions, you’re hitting on all the things- Oh, yeah? … we, like, talk about with our customers, which is amazing. Yes. One of the biggest pain points for agencies is recruitment and retention.
Yeah. Um, I was just talking to an agency that told me that 50% of people who start driver training complete it, and then half of them make it through six months, and often that’s because they get in a collision. So there’s trauma, of course, just the decision that this isn’t the right job for them. So one, we wanna get operators more comfortable and prepared to be in those seats so that those first few months are smoother and safer. Um, but second, we want them to be able to stay operators.
And unfortunately right now, if you’re just relying on that early training, then you don’t have those continuous touchpoints except in the form of discipline. And so, and with our product, we’re- … companion to operators to help them in the day-to-day without needing something bad to happen that then triggers retraining.
Yeah. I mean, the, I often think about with TransitChat, like, the amount of things that are just unmeasurable, and the amount of work that transit agencies do that you just really can’t report to the board about.
And I imagine there’s gonna be some really great stories that you’re gonna be able to tell about being able to just have bus drivers who are less stressed, and
I’m interested, h- have you thought about how you’re gonna measure that? Or maybe not. I don’t know. I think that’ll be part of part two. Yeah. But the- You’re gonna have to c- get a sociologist. Exactly.
Um, something that’s really top of mind for us is including the operators in our rollout. Yeah. So one, of course, training, but also in tuning and calibrating the alerts to being appropriate for that specific city and streets, and also, um, you know, tuning the routes to support those particular operators in, um… and in making sure it’s not distracting, which is always a risk- Mm-hmm … um, and actually helpful.
So there’s, there’s a fine balance to be, um, struck that really is best done in collaboration with operators. I have one more question. I, I’m just curious if you could tell us a little bit more, um, about the technology. Is it, uh, sensors, cameras? Uh, is it kinda like, um, i- i- you could apply it to any vehicle type? Uh, you know, is it more, like, for a fixed route or paratransit?
You know, could, could you speak a little bit more on that? Yeah. Where we see this as the biggest pain for agencies is in the fixed route, full size,
40-foot plus bus. So those are our first agencies starting there. Um, it is a group of sensors on the outside of the bus, camera, LiDAR, radar, that takes in the environment and then will predict if there’s going to be a hazard, and then alert the operator to then make an adjustment so that they have time to avoid it.
And is it kinda AI driven? So you’re taking, uh, I would imagine milliseconds all these data from, you know, all around the vehicle, speed, all these things, and then quickly identifying and predicting what’s gonna happen, and then, uh, the, it works in a way that alerts the bus operator? Is it like a, a sound or, you know, vibration? Like, how, how does that alert comes to the driver so he knows to apply the brakes? Yeah. E- exactly how you kind of teed me up, yeah. Um, yeah, the sensors take in the surrounding environment, then the AI, and it predicts based on all those factors you mentioned, distance, speed, um, around the vehicle, if there is likely something going to happen. And again, we’re trained specifically on bus data, so we understand those really common scenarios, which is left-hand turn, right-hand turn, the back of the bus tail swinging as the bus is going out of the bus stop, the mirror collision.
Um, so and, um, with those common incidents in mind, we’re making those warnings. Um, what was your second question? No, I think that was it. Oh, the, the, you, you answered both, which is the type of vehicle that you’re- Oh, yeah …
putting that on, and then, uh, uh, oh, the, the, how does it alert the driver? Oh, yeah. Like the noise or- Yeah, yeah. So, um, you know, these things have been perfected, again, in passenger vehicles, so we can leverage a lot from that, um, advancement, which is great.
Um, so our system is a 360 bird’s-eye view of the bus, so the operator can glance, see what’s happening around the vehicle, and then if there is a hazard, then we have an audible alert and a, um, icon that’s related to those incident type that the operators get to know. So again, in a quick glance, and then they can make the adjustment. And it’s also considering all types of o- objects, meaning that it would also help, um, reduce collisions with bicycles and pedestrians, right? Yeah. Those are top of mind, uh, for all agencies.
Very exciting. One anecdote for me is just I, I grew up having the, all the sensors and the backup camera, and with my current vehicle, I, we do not have any of those, and boy, do I miss them. So I could imagine transitioning from your personal vehicle to driving a bus that doesn’t have this technology that, you know, you, you’re used to, you…
It, it’s, it definitely makes a challenge. And yeah, it’s easy to scratch up the side of your car dri- pulling in and out of parking spots and yeah. Yes. It, it makes a big difference. I, I’m curious how the operator is alerted.
Um, i- is that th- via, like, an MDT that’s already on board, or is there some other mechanism or y- you know, way to be able to alert them? Yeah. It’s a separate tablet on the- Okay … A pillar, um, which is essentially the piece of hardware in between- Yeah … the windshield and the window, which is already a significant blind spot-
Yes … for the operator. So it sits there, and then an audible alert will sound- Okay … and an icon that will then, um, inform the operator what’s going on. Okay. On that, on that tablet on the A pillar. Okay.
And I, I think that’s an interesting spot for it because I, I recall when we were at Palm Tran, we, we had a fatality, unfortunately, with a, an elderly woman who was, uh, crossing the crosswalk. The operator was unable to, to see her with, uh, the A pillar there. Just a m- a major blind spot. And, and I could see how, you know, your, your technology would help prevent those types of cases. Um, you know, I also think back to, I believe it was 2017 when I was at, uh, LeeTran.
We had a, a fatality where a, a bus operator was making a left turn turn, and the motorcycle, which was speeding- Mm … uh, hit the broad side of the bus, which, you know, w- unfortunate. Not sure how to prevent, you know, a speeding vehicle from colliding, but it would, would’ve at least warned the operator,
I think, uh, you know, had they had something like this. And it was a pretty traumatic experience, you know, when there’s a fatality involved. So, um, you know, that, the retention part, I think, is a big deal, and I’m, I’m s- I’m not surprised that you’re hearing that. So, uh, I wanted to go around and, and ask how can, uh, transit agencies, if they’re curious to learn about, uh, your offerings and your agencies, how they can find information and even get in touch with you? Yeah, for us, yeah, definitely feel t- free to reach out to me at anthony@entramobility.com, and we’re happy to chat with agencies, partners, and, and hear more about what, what challenges they’re trying to tackle from a service design perspective. Excellent.
Easiest to reach out to me at Lizzie, L-I-Z-Z-I-E, @greenlightrobotics.co, no
M. Um, and that is also our website. Oh, excellent. Walter? Yeah. Um, if transit agencies are interested in organizing all of this new data that we’ve s- found and organizing how their teams work together, you can reach out to me at walter@transit.chat,
C-H-A-T. Excellent. You know, I, I wanna say before we, we close out the episode, like I, I look at the three of you and I’m like, this, this is the future of public transportation. It, it’s absolutely amazing. Uh, because in just a few years’ time, you know, you’re g- you’re gonna have the big booths here, and you know, s- some of the other ones might be a little bit smaller, and we’d see the technology companies kinda taking over. So it’s really awesome. Pleasure speaking with, with all three of you. Really appreciate your time. Thank you. Thanks for having us. Thank you. Thanks, guys.