GEORGETOWN, Texas – The Georgetown City Council rolled out a new public transportation system this week.
It’s called rideGTX, and it’s a partnership with rideshare providers Uber and zTrip.
What is rideGTX?
The backstory:
“It gives them the ability to get where they want to go, and hopefully, folks come to downtown Georgetown,” said Georgetown City Council member Kevin Pitts. “We’re building a parking garage now. It’s very expensive. If this is something we see a demand in usage in, it could reduce the demand for parking downtown.”
Every month, the city will provide a QR code for 10 discounted rides to anywhere in the city of Georgetown. It will also include a ride to Baylor Scott and White and Ascension Seton in Round Rock.
Riders will pay for the first $4 of the ride, and the city covers the next $10. Any charge past $14 will cost the user.
“I think it would be very helpful for the citizens of Georgetown, first of all, because there’s no mass transit here,” said Ebony Freeman, an Uber driver. “We have no buses and no ways to connect different parts of the city together.”
Freeman thinks the program will benefit many of his riders.
“A lot of the riders, especially around here, are either too old to drive. You know, we do have Sun City, we have a lot of young college students with no driver’s license or just no license for whatever reason and just need to go pick up groceries,” said Freeman.
Georgetown launches new app for residents
A new service called AskGTX has officially launched for the City of Georgetown and will give people a one-stop shop to find answers, report issues, and access city services.
The program comes after the city canceled its bus services called GoGeo in 2021. It now only serves residents with disabilities.
“In my opinion, a fixed bus route system works in a dense metro area,” said Pitts. “Georgetown is not that. We need something that can get people to and from their destinations if we want to have any kind of public transportation.”
City council budgeted $192,000 for vouchers during the first year and up to $275,000 for the third year.
It’s a three-year contract with Trippp Consulting. By the end of those three years, they hope enough people will use the program that they can consider expanding it.
“As we learn more, see the utilization each year, we’ll review it,” said Pitts. “It is possible you could expand it, it is possible you could find other customizable solutions to try to increase utilization and try to help citizens get around the city.”
If riders don’t use all the funds set aside for the vouchers, the city said it won’t lose the remaining money.
The Source: Information from interviews conducted by FOX 7 Austin’s Lauren Rangel
