The Routing Company (TRC), a global on-demand vehicle routing and management platform, has been named a winner of the Colorado Smart Cities Alliance (Alliance) Connected Colorado (C²) Challenge. The Alliance announced 11 winners this week.
The C² Challenge, launched in June 2022, sought proposals for innovative smart city solutions that addressed four challenges faced by Colorado communities: housing stability, community resilience, safe streets and civic engagement. Of 87 proposals submitted, 39 finalists were selected. Nine Colorado jurisdictions involved then selected 11 winning solutions to implement.
TRC was named a winner in the community resilience category by Arapahoe Libraries. Established in 1966, Arapahoe Libraries provides public library services to all residents of Arapahoe County, Colorado, serving a diverse population and covering the rural areas of Byers and Deer Trail, the cities of Bow Mar, Centennial, Cherry Hills Village, Columbine, Glendale, Greenwood Village and Sheridan and the unincorporated areas of Arapahoe County.
“Using our Pingo platform, TRC looks forward to implementing an on-demand mobility pilot that expands access to mobility, brings patrons to the library, and supports greater equity in using library services,” said James Cox, CEO of TRC. “This pilot enables more than just transit: it will connect the community with the ability to learn and read, and directly support Arapahoe Libraries’ goal of increasing literacy in the county. Access to mobility is a direct means of building equity, engagement, and community connection – and we are proud to provide it.”
TRC and Arapahoe Libraries will now collaborate to design and deploy a mobility service to address challenges identified in the challenge. The pilot timeline and scale will be defined over coming months, with deployment expected in 2023.
Arapahoe Libraries will leverage TRC's Pingo platform, including the Pingo app, Transit Connect™, and Pingo Journey™ features, to improve community access to library media and resources. Transit Connect™ guarantees connections for riders to existing fixed route networks, while strengthening existing fixed transit networks.
Announced in October 2022, Pingo Journey™ allows riders to plan their transit journeys and book on-demand rides from within the Ride Pingo™ app. Pingo Journey™ simultaneously delivers Google Maps functionality for riders and management of on-demand dispatch for transit agencies.
“By better understanding and building our capacity to utilize technology in our daily lives and government operations, we set ourselves up to address some of the issues our region faces such as better traffic safety and transportation options, more robust citizen engagement, and more resilient communities,” said Meghan White, Manager, Alliance Senior Program. “The Connected Colorado Challenge is a unique opportunity to implement innovative solutions to these very real challenges that people face across Colorado.”
Formed in late 2017 and established as a standalone nonprofit organization in 2018, the Alliance is the United States’ first state-wide alliance of government, businesses and organizations dedicated to advancing smarter communities. For more information, visit coloradosmart.city.
