Dallas integrates Uber into its public transportation app
While many cities across the world are pushing back against ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft, the city of Dallas, Texas, has decided to take a different approach. This week, the city’s public transportation agency, Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), announced that it will be integrating Uber support into its own app to help solve the “first mile-last mile” problem.
Over the past decade or so, Dallas has continued expanding its light rail system to service the city. The Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex is the fourth most-populous metropolitan center in the U.S., and its population has continued to grow at one of the fastest rates in the country.
At the same time, the metroplex is also one of the most spread out, with a size roughly equivalent to Connecticut and Rhode Island combined. Because of this and the fact that many Dallas suburbs refuse DART service for tax and other reasons, there are many residents who must drive for several miles before reaching a DART station.
That is where the new partnership with Uber comes in.
DART uses its own route-planning app called GoPass, which allows users to buy public transit tickets, view train and bus schedules, see popular destinations serviced by DART, and so on. Instead of having to hold on to a paper ticket, users simply hold up their phone with their electronic GoPass ticket.
The new partnership with Uber means that users will also be able to use the ridesharing service from within the GoPass app, seamlessly connecting the two services.
“We’ve got their information on our app now,” DART spokesman Mark Ball told The Dallas Morning News. “It’s a true partnership. What we’re finding is many area commuters resist getting out of their cars.”
He added, “When you talk about transit, DART’s a transit agency. It’s a large system with many moving parts. All those parts should provide solutions for all our customers. That ‘first mile-last mile’ was something we did not offer solutions to in the past, and the public tells us they want and support these types of solutions. So what you’ve seen over the years is something as simple as allowing bicycles onboard trains to partnering with Zipcar at Mockingbird Station to, now, Uber.”
Photo Credit: Uber Drivers Network NYC via Facebook
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