INDIANAPOLIS — IndyGo is adding another tool to the toolbox with Wednesday’s launch of the IndyGo Connect service.
IndyGo has partnered with Via, a transit tech company, to offer Uber/Lyft style rides at bus transit prices. Services like Uber and Lyft offer doorstep to doorstep service, but IndyGo Connect offers “virtual stop to virtual stop” service, all programmed through Via’s algorithm.
“We encourage people to think of it very much like the bus system, but with the benefits of having that on-demand feature and in a smaller vehicle,” says Carrie Black, IndyGo Director of Communications. She tells WIBC News IndyGo Connect covers southeast Indianapolis, charging only $1.75 or $0.85 discounted rate, per trip. Black says you just download the IndyGo Connect app, book a ride, and walk to the nearest virtual stop.
“So you leave your home, you walk maybe a block or two to your virtual bus stop,” says Black, “and that’s where you get into the car. And then it will take you to another virtual stop, where you will then get out and walk a block or two to your destination.”
Today, IndyGo Connect begins a six-month pilot program. It’s not a replacement for IndyGo’s bus service by any means. Black says Connect is just another tool, and at the end of the pilot program, IndyGo will review how it went.
Black says IndyGo will ask itself some basic questions during the review, “did people adopt it, did anyone use it? What was their experience with it? It’s really going to be an opportunity to sit down and look at the data.”
And if you’re visiting the Indianapolis/Marion County area for the Indianapolis 500, Indy Pop Con, or any other event, you can also use IndyGo Connect.
Check out the full interview with Carrie Black, IndyGo’s Director of Communications:
