Mitch Karren bought himself an iPhone for his 23rd birthday in September 2008, and by last month had built and launched a Metro Light Rail schedule and trip-planning application.
Karren, who graduated from ASU with a degree in housing and community development in May 2008, created Phoenix Light Rail App in his spare time, after taking an online course on iPhone applications.
As of Sunday, the application had reached more than 1,000 downloads since its Dec. 8 launch.
After graduating, Karren went into real estate where he recognized a need for an application for public transportation, he said.
“I saw that the application store had X amount of applications, and there was none for the Phoenix light rail. I view that as a problem,” he said.
After the 6-month online class, it took Karren about two-and-a-half months to create the application, which was denied by Apple upon first submission. After revising it, he submitted it again in October and it was approved Dec. 8.
“Every night I would come home from work and work on the application,” Karren said.
The app is currently free, and Karren said commitment isn’t high enough to charge, but plans to continue improving it through free updates.
The first update will feature information about the local businesses surrounding each station, which Karren said he hopes to submit for approval by the end of February.
In the future, he hopes to build an update, which he will charge for, to feature bus routes and live updates on time and schedule changes.
Once Valley Metro connects to Google Transit, a Google Maps feature that allows users to plan trips on their local transportation systems, he will start building the application.
Hillary Foose, spokeswoman for Metro Light Rail, said Valley Metro wants to connect with Google Transit in the future to provide live-time updates to schedules and changes, but doesn’t have a timeline.
“We are working towards that,” Foose said. “It would be all of the region’s transit information, Light Rail being a part of that.”
Karren intends to continue building iPhone applications and is planning one focused on Valley events and nightlife.
Awarded most outstanding student in his major when he graduated, Karren said though he didn’t have the best grades, he had the most passion for his studies at ASU.
Because Karren developed the application in his spare time, he was able to keep start-up costs to a minimum.
“I always thought that software creation was … sitting in your basement all day, which is kind of true to some extent … but I was so happy the day that it got approved — it was one of the most amazing days of 2009.”
Reach the reporter at anatwood@asu.edu
