CityX
From practice

What can I get at my age? Passes, discounts and deadlines for the young, in one place

A birthday or a new school year changes what a young person can get, and most never find out. Here is how the city's app tells them what applies at their age, and until when.

Tomislav Krnic

Founder of the smart city project CityX · 3 min read

A girl turns nineteen. Until yesterday she rode the city's buses and trams for free; from today she needs a pass. Next autumn her brother starts university and goes there by train. At twenty-six the youth discount on the train ends for both of them, whether they used it or not.

None of this is secret. But it is scattered: every offer has its own terms, its own age limit and its own date, each in a different place, and a young person has no reason to go looking until the moment has passed.

What applies to me, here, now

The Youth travel service in the CityX app starts from the city a person lives in. It shows what applies in the city first, then across the country, then across Europe. Each row says what the offer is, what it costs and who it is for.

Age is chosen with one tap: under 18, 18 to 25, 26 to 30, or pupils. The list then shows only what that person can use.

When something has a deadline, the home screen says so before anything else. Right now it is a European travel programme for eighteen-year-olds, and the tile counts the days until applications close.

On the home screen, the days left to apply for a European travel programme. Inside, offers by age, the city's first: a free pass up to 18, a yearly pass for 18 to 24, a youth card valid across Europe.
On the home screen, the days left to apply for a European travel programme. Inside, offers by age, the city's first: a free pass up to 18, a yearly pass for 18 to 24, a youth card valid across Europe.
On the home screen, the days left to apply for a European travel programme. Inside, offers by age, the city's first: a free pass up to 18, a yearly pass for 18 to 24, a youth card valid across Europe.

Until when, and where to go next

One tap opens an offer, and the page answers the three things a young person decides: do I qualify, how do I get it, and by when. The youth discount on the train, for instance, needs no card and no sign-up: under 26, a ticket bought as usual is 40 % cheaper by itself.

Further down, what applies across the country. An offer says who qualifies and how to get it; the travel programme gives the closing day and hour, and a button to apply.
Further down, what applies across the country. An offer says who qualifies and how to get it; the travel programme gives the closing day and hour, and a button to apply.
Further down, what applies across the country. An offer says who qualifies and how to get it; the travel programme gives the closing day and hour, and a button to apply.
Further down, what applies across the country. An offer says who qualifies and how to get it; the travel programme gives the closing day and hour, and a button to apply.

Three days before a deadline, whoever follows the service gets a reminder. The last step is always a button to the place where the young person buys the pass or applies.

What it takes

The offers that apply to young people in the city, and the city's decision on which of its own belong at the top: a free pass for its pupils, a lower fare on its buses, a discount at its swimming pool. From the first day, every young person in the city has one place to look.

A young person who saves a few hundred euros a year because of a tip on the home screen remembers where the tip came from.

A young person does not look for offers. They have one question: what can I get at my age, and until when? The city that answers it is the city they remember.