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Enhance Regional Mobility

Goal 1: Explore Creative, Alternative Transportation Opportunities
Objective 1: Promote Regional Connectivity
Project Performance Measure(s) City Service Team (Department)
ERM RAPID On‐Demand Trips completed Shared Services (Office of Strategic
1.1.2 Autonomous Vehicle Pilot Initiatives)
Summary:
Milestone Estimated Actual
This item supports the Council's "Enhancing Regional Completion Completion
Mobility" priority by improving access within Arlington Project Kickoff Mar. 2020 Mar. 2020
while complementing the Via On‐Demand Rideshare AV Route Mapping Oct. 2020 Oct. 2020
service. The City of Arlington was awarded a $1.7M grant Service Testing Feb. 2021 Feb. 2021
from the FTA for this project (60% federal, 40% local Begin Rideshare Operations Mar. 2021 Mar. 2021
match including in‐kind participation). Project Completion Aug. 2022

The Arlington RAPID project will combine the City’s
expertise with on‐demand rideshare and AV testing to
demonstrate the integration of a shared, dynamically
routed Level 4 AV fleet into an existing public rideshare
transit system. Via will continue to provide the rideshare
service and May Mobility will provide the AV technology
and fleet. Both the rideshare fleet and the AV fleet will
include a wheelchair accessible vehicle, making this
service more widely accessible. In partnership with the
University of Texas at Arlington, the service will operate
in coordination with UTA’s fare payment system, allowing
students to ride for free. This project will create a one‐
stop‐shop for mobility needs in the service area
concentrated around UTA’s campus and Downtown,
providing a seamless trip planning, booking, and payment
experience across modes.

The project will span two and a half years, with the first
year dedicated to programming, route mapping, testing,
and customer education. The second year will include a
12‐month deployment of the integrated services, along
with continued customer education, data sharing and

analysis, ridership surveys, and service evaluation. The
final six months of the project will wrap up evaluation and
focus on final reporting and widely sharing lessons
learned.

Update: Autonomous operations and integration with Via’s service
Since launch on March 23, 2021, the service is in full are performing smoothly. UTA is conducting ridership
operation and ridership has increased significantly in the surveys and the entire team is monitoring the service and
th
4 quarter. Growing from an average daily ridership of 36
performance data very closely.
in April, the service averaged over 150 rides per day in
September. A total of 10,517 rides were given from
launch to the end of the Fiscal Year.

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