The Routing Company’s Pingo app (for on-demand transit) wins Metro Magazine’s Innovative Solutions Award for 2022

The Routing Company announced it has been named a winner of Metro Magazine’s Innovative Solutions Award for 2022. METRO announced the winners just prior to the American Public Transportation Association’s TRANSform Conference beginning in Seattle, Washington.

The Innovative Solutions Awards occur annually and acknowledges transit agencies and their technology partners who have implemented new innovations leading to improvements in efficiency, safety, operations, customer experience, ridership, or cost.

The Routing Company is a platform for on-demand vehicle routing and management. It has been founded by MIT researchers and rideshare industry veterans. Mission? Delivering “routing from multiple points of demand to one vehicle”.

TRC Ride Pingo wins METRO award

TRC was selected a winner alongside King County Metro in recognition of its Ride Pingo to Transit pilot program deployed in 2021. The program leverages TRC’s on-demand transit app, Pingo, and the app’s Transit Connect feature to provide on-demand transit service in Kent, Washington, connecting passengers to and from transit hubs at Kent Station and in the Kent Valley, a growing employment center.

Transit Connect guarantees connections for riders to existing fixed route networks, while strengthening existing fixed transit networks.

“Since launching in September 2021, monthly passenger rides using the service have consistently grown while wait times have remained under 10 minutes. As of August 2022, service ridership increased 55% while passenger rides per hour were 40% higher (when compared to April 2022 service use)”, TRC says.

The Ride Pingo to Transit pilot program, funded through December 2022, was made possible by funding from the U.S. Department of Energy working in partnership with TRC, Amazon, and Metro.

On-demand transit to complement fixed-route networks

“What makes our app different is the ability to use real-time data on vehicle positioning to guarantee transit connections for riders. No other app on the market does this, and in current deployments, Transit Connect shows a 99.5% success rate of ensuring riders make their onward fixed-route journey,” said James Cox, Chief Executive Officer, TRC. “This demonstrates our ability to expand transit options and provide better service to passengers underserved by fixed-route buses, while illustrating Pingo as an ideal complement – and not a competitor – to existing fixed-route networks.”

“Ride Pingo to Transit is more than deploying new innovation into existing transit networks: it is a direct means of building equity, accessibility, and affordability into transit for all people, which continues to be a challenge for cities around the world. We are truly helping solve multifaceted challenges through our technology, and appreciate METRO for highlighting the power of innovation in transit,” adds Cox.

Credit opening picture: Ilovekent.net