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Find a Ride’s Trip Planner Helps Set New Data Standard

April 24, 2024

We Help You Get Where You Need To Go

Hopelink’s Mobility Management team empowers people by increasing access to resources and community participation through transportation. This is addressed through providing travel education and resources to existing transportation options; supporting the coordination of specialized transportation by collaborating across sectors and gathering data and needs assessment to both recommend and implement improved services. Collaborations include building coalitions across cities, transportation providers, human services agencies, advocates, riders, healthcare providers, and mobility managers.

Since 2018, Hopelink has been enacting the vision of King County Mobility Coalition, and many regional partners, through a One-Call/One-Click system.

The project expanded our Find a Ride transportation service discovery site to include a ground-breaking trip planner. This is a critical step forward for our multi-phase roadmap to increase mobility access across Pierce, King, and Snohomish Counties. Our new trip planner focuses on services essential for older adults, people with disabilities, and rural transit riders. Another important project focus is ensuring accessibility for blind and low-vision travelers.

Throughout 2023, the trip planner went through two accessibility audits and several rounds of community testing. Our community testing outreach and engagement benefited from materials developed as part of a grant for the Every Ride Counts pilot project of the National Aging and Disability Transportation Center. The trip planner became available for the public in March 2024. Hopelink Mobility Management’s commitment to inclusive planning is matched by the strong participation of people with disabilities in the Coalition’s advisory committee.

Recently, the Hopelink-based project helped make history. Throughout the last two years, Hopelink staff helped the Washington State Department of Transportation create almost two dozen new data feeds. Our work helped set a new data standard called GTFS-Flex. “Flex” is an extension project for GTFS (General Transit Feed Specification). The new data standard can tell the story of volunteer transportation, Non-Emergency Medical Transportation (NEMT), Dial-A-Ride, Door-to-Door, and other critical services.

Here’s what community partners are saying about this innovative work:

Justin Deno, Sound Transit Program Manager - Passenger Facing Technology at Sound Transit

“Hopelink’s work on GTFS Flex in our region means that critical data feeds developed for Find a Ride will now be available to all trip planning tools. This aids in the discoverability of those services and allows riders to make sense of all the transit options available to them. This work could not have been accomplished without the tireless effort from the team at Hopelink and WSDOT. What started off as a local initiative to better tell the story (through data) about human services transportation has influenced the GTFS-Flex standard which will have a global impact on how trip planners make sense of non-fixed route services.”

Dr. Anat Caspi, Director of the Taskar Center for Accessible Technology

“Bringing GTFS-Flex into transit feed mainstreams allows transit agencies to elevate and broadcast their focus and priority on mobility equity. The acceptance of a standard schema is a great impetus and gateway for agencies to get their data aligned with industry standards, and their services aligned with travelers who need their services most.”

Thomas Craig, Data Analyst, WSDOT

"Hopelink’s work has been instrumental in moving forward to a new stage in a community development process more than a decade in the making. Human services transportation needs to be more visible to riders and partners, and there’s more work yet to be done, but Find a Ride has set a new bar for demand responsive transportation technology.”

Sara Sisco, Senior Manager, Education & Outreach, Hopelink Mobility

“The work that Hopelink has done to help establish the GTFS-Flex feeds will forever shape the landscape of how resilient communities access transit. The work that is being done will make it simpler for Hopelink clients to gain transportation resources and better engage with the community.”

Other projects around the country have also celebrated this historic moment. Elliot McFadden of Greater Minnesota Shared Mobility Program Coordinator at Minnesota Department of Transportation wrote: "Sometimes you have moments when you really get to see the impact of your work. As part of the MnDOT Mobility-as-a-Service project that I lead, we have implemented GTFS-Flex as a data spec to allow trip planning for flexible services like demand response, deviated route, and ADA paratransit to show up in trip planners, like our partner Transit app. GTFS-Flex has been a provisional spec until now, only used on demonstration projects and not widely adopted. As a result of our project as a demonstration of GTFS-Flex, MobilityData, the steward of GTFS, moved forward on calling a vote to adopt GTFS-Flex as an official part of the spec. Today that motion passed.” He continued “This is a big deal for the public transit industry and for rural public transit and ADA paratransit providers, giving them a pathway to finally be presented alongside fixed route transit in trip planners”.

A list of transportation services in our system across three counties.

Find a Ride's trip planner is now available to the public for our soft launch, Phase 1a. This phase focuses on educating assistor communities and organizations in King County about our new mobility tool. We encourage you to arrange a demonstration and presentation of Find a Ride for your organization. Please contact Laura Loe (she/her), Program Manager, by email or call 425-943-6760 and press 3.

Hopelink’s Mobility Management’s focus over the coming months is engaging with organizations supporting King County travelers in their mobility planning decisions. Community members are encouraged to try the new trip planner and provide feedback to support continuous improvements.

Find a Ride's service discovery website and trip planner contain transportation services across Pierce, King, and Snohomish counties. We are not currently able to book rides for travelers.

We are grateful for the companies supporting our complex software project: Trillium - An Optibus Company, Arcadis | IBI Group, Cambridge Systematics, Anthro-Tech, and Full Path Transit Technology. We are grateful for the funding support from Hopelink, Sound Transit, King County Metro, WSDOT, and the Climate Commitment Act. We appreciate the commitment to excellence and inclusive planning from our Advisory Committee Members.

Visit www.FindARide.org for more information.

Screenshot of landing page for Find a Ride's new trip planner.

Learn about Find a Ride's multi-phase roadmap and project updates.

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Funding Will Support Find a Ride’s Trip Planner Experience In June 2024, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced the award of funds for a Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) supported program. Find a Ride is a multi-phase One-Call/One-Click project under the supervision of the King County Mobility Coalition and Hopelink’s Mobility Management program. Find a Ride was awarded $519,496 through the FTA's Innovative Coordinated Access & Mobility (ICAM) Pilot Program , with the total funding for the second phase of the project close to $700,000 through regional match support. Hopelink submitted the Find a Ride grant application with matching support from WSDOT, King County Metro, Sound Transit, and Seattle Department of Transportation . With this award, the program will be able to invest in software to significantly improve the user experience for riders. Using a multi-phased approach, the Find a Ride trip planner tool will connect riders to specialized transportation services all in one centralized service, just one click or one call away from their destination. The tool is being developed through an inclusive planning process with input from regional transit providers and advocates from communities most impacted by transportation barriers, such as older adults and people with disabilities. Hopelink is very pleased to receive federal support for Find a Ride, our One-Call/One-Click project," said Susan Carter, Hopelink VP of Transportation "With the launch of our ground-breaking trip planner in March of 2024, we are excited to build on the momentum for Phase 2 of our project." The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announcement included $7.8 million for 17 projects to improve public transportation for people with disabilities, older adults, and low-income individuals. The ICAM program supports the Biden-Harris Administration's commitment to improving public health, including mental health. Find a Ride received support from the State of Washington Health Care Authority, Congresswoman Suzan K. DelBene (WA-01), Puget Sound Regional Council, Shared-Use Mobility Center, Connect Snohomish County, Snoqualmie Valley Transportation, Pierce Transit, The Taskar Center for Accessible Technology at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, Volunteer Services – King County (A Program of Catholic Community Services), Aging and Disability Services, Arcadis, Center For Independence, City of Kirkland, Crisis Connections, Homage, Sound Generations, Indian American Community Services, King County Mobility Coalition, and Pierce County Human Services . Project administrators also received letters of support from dedicated project advisors, including several individuals with disabilities participating in the inclusive design of the project. Learn more about Find a Ride’s roadmap and inclusive planning process on our project website . Learn about the software development of Find a Ride’s innovative trip planner . Since 1971, the Hopelink has provided stability-building programs for people experiencing poverty, immigrants and refugees, and people with disabilities in north and east King County. The agency’s eleven programs work in tandem to fill gaps, supporting each family or individual’s unique needs. These include housing, food assistance, financial assistance, adult education, energy assistance, financial capabilities, family development, Dial-a-Ride Transit, non-emergency medical transportation, and mobility management. *** Read the full FTA announcement for more information. The full text is provided below: Biden-Harris Administration Announces $7.8 Million in Grants to Help Connect People to Health Care and Other Critical Services Thursday, June 6, 2024 The President's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law adds significant funding to transit pilot program WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Transit Administration (FTA) today announced $7.8 million for 17 projects that will improve public transportation for people with disabilities, older adults, and low-income individuals. The grants support organizations that coordinate public transportation for underserved groups, allowing them to access healthcare, community services, education, and jobs by building partnerships among health, transportation, and human services providers. FTA's Innovative Coordinated Access & Mobility (ICAM) Pilot Program – supported by more than $24 million in funding over five years from the President's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law – increases access for Americans all over the country, with a focus on health and wellness. Today's announcement supports transportation improvements, from designing new trip scheduling technology to buying transit vans, in 15 states. "Transportation is a lifeline that connects Americans to essential services, like health care, and today we're supporting innovative projects to help more people connect to the help they need" said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg . "These transportation projects, made possible by President Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, will help people with disabilities, older adults, and low-income individuals access the health services they need." By improving the coordination of transportation to critical services for people who have been underserved in the past, the ICAM program supports the Biden-Harris Administration's commitment to improving public health, including mental health. The program provides an opportunity for older adults and people with disabilities and in low-income communities. "This program supports statewide and regional strategies to help ensure people who are especially challenged in accessing healthcare can reach those critical services,” said FTA Acting Administrator Veronica Vanterpool . "We are pleased to provide resources that help reach into the sometimes-overlooked areas of our nation to ensure no one is left behind." Some of the selected projects include: The Illinois Department of Transportation will receive $1.8 million to design and implement an integrated technology system for trip scheduling and fare collection that will facilitate non-emergency medical transportation trips and interagency passenger transfers. The program will integrate technology enhancements to improve mobility for people in 20 rural counties in southern Illinois through Shawnee Mass Transit, Rides Mass Transit, South Central Mass Transit, and Monroe Randolph Mass Transit. The Central Oklahoma Transportation and Parking Authority (EMBARK) will receive $415,900 to support the expansion of the existing coordinated transportation services through the purchase of two vehicles and associated vehicle technology systems. This project will meet the growing transportation demand for older adults, people with disabilities, low-income individuals, and transit-dependent populations with improved access to social services, education programs, workforce development programs, non-emergency medical treatment, and wellness and nutrition services throughout Oklahoma City. The West River Transit Authority (Prairie Hills Transit) in South Dakota will receive $269,280 to buy a contactless payment technology system that will enhance safety, improve reliability and the rider experience, and make transit more accessible to residents in the Black Hills region. A trip planning mobile app and website will help facilitate intercounty connections and regional service by linking riders with providers for trips across multiple service areas. The platform will improve coordination of services for veteran service organizations, education institutions, healthcare facilities, women’s and homeless shelters, home healthcare organizations, and workforce centers. In response to the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), FTA received 24 eligible proposals. Projects were selected based on criteria described in the NOFO .