March 30, 2023 (DALLAS, TX) — The GoZone on-demand rideshare service from Denton County Transportation Authority (DCTA) has now surpassed one million completed rides in approximately 18 months of service. Today, DCTA and Via, the TransitTech provider for GoZone, celebrated the milestone by holding a ceremonial one-millionth ride and by honoring ‘superstar’ GoZone drivers at the Downtown Denton Transit Center.
“The one-millionth completed ride for GoZone is a truly remarkable achievement, and it represents an incredible amount of work our teams have accomplished in only 18 months,” said Paul A. Cristina, Chief Executive Officer of DCTA. “The strong success of GoZone has placed DCTA among the top 25 transit agencies in the United States supplying demand-response microtransit service, meaning DCTA is truly a national leader in this arena.”
GoZone launched in September of 2021 with a fleet of dedicated minivans providing safe, economical and efficient transportation options to residents in Denton, Lewisville and Highland Village through a mobile app-based service. The results were immediate, with more than 640,000 rides completed in its first year. Since then, demand has steadily increased as GoZone set a record with more than 71,000 rides completed in one month (January 2023), making it one of the most popular on-demand public transit services in the nation.
“Even more gratifying for us is that GoZone is providing outstanding service to our customers, with more than 98-percent of riders giving us a five-star rating in the app,” said Mr. Cristina. “That really shows how much GoZone drivers care about providing good service, and how much our customers appreciate it.”
GoZone has also proven to be a great way to connect to other modes of transit. According to a survey from spring 2022, more than a third of GoZone riders report using the service to connect with DCTA's other public transit modes.
GoZone launched with the goal of expanding the community’s access to equitable public transportation in the most cost-effective way possible, by deploying easy-to-use technology.
GoZone has achieved notable data points that indicate success toward that goal, including:
- 80-percent of GoZone trips are to-and-from essential destinations such as grocery stores, healthcare, schools, workplaces, social services or other transit hubs
- 42-percent of GoZone customers report their annual income as less than $25,000
- 44-percent of GoZone customers identify as people of color
- 71-percent of GoZone customers do not own a personal car
GoZone has also made consistent improvements in operational quality in recent months, with great gains in the rate of rides completed, in numbers of people moved per hour, and in on-time performance, according to Javier Trilla, DCTA Assistant Vice President for IT and Innovation. “We’ve been working on improving GoZone performance benchmarks since launch, and we’ve seen positive gains in every category.”
Honored as two of the top-rated drivers at GoZone, Duncan Engler and Lakeatha Rhoden received certificates of appreciation for outstanding customer service and for contributing toward the achievement of the one millionth completed ride.
GoZone drivers will be handing out GoZone themed packages of M&Ms to about 450 customers today as part of the celebration.
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About Via:
Founded in 2012, Via pioneered the TransitTech category by using new technologies to develop public mobility systems — optimizing networks of buses, shuttles, wheelchair accessible vehicles, school buses, autonomous vehicles, and electric vehicles around the globe. Building the world’s most efficient, equitable, and sustainable transportation network for all riders — including those with limited mobility, those without smartphones, and unbanked populations — Via works with its partners to lower the costs of public transit while providing transportation options that rival the convenience of a personal car while reducing the environmental impact. At the intersection of transportation and technology, Via is a visionary market leader that combines software innovation with sophisticated service design and operational expertise to fundamentally improve the way the world moves, providing technology in 600 communities and more than 35 countries and counting.
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