City of Marietta Transportation Pilot Program

In 2022, The City of Marietta, in Washington County, Ohio, put out a Request for Proposals for a program to address a growing complaint from residents about the state of public transportation within the city. Marietta operated a fixed route bus system that had remained largely unchanged for decades, and residents of outlying city districts were unhappy with long route times and limited service hours.

Greencab responded with a tailored three part proposal consisting of an after-hours taxi program that would compliment the bus service by operating during the hours it did not cover, a comprehensive accounting of the trips provided to generate data for the city's future transportation program planning, and an offer to city officials to consult on Greencab's extensive 10 year history providing transportation in other cities and counties in the region.

Greencab's proposal was accepted, and though initially pitched as a six month trial program, ran for the duration of 2023. The taxi service component of the program consisted of two vehicles, Greencab's signature Toyota Prius cab and a wheelchair accessible van. Service was available from 4PM until after Midnight every weekday and Saturday, with Sunday service from 8 AM to 2 PM. Greencab operated the program as a public-private partnership, providing rides for a fare of just $3, with the city having contributed over $100,000 in funds to subsidize its operation.

Greencab leveraged its extensive technology stack to both facilitate the program and provide the accountability and guidance the city was seeking. Grencab's call dispatching system was able to pair incoming calls directly to drivers in the field, eliminating intermediary dispatchers and speeding up the ride request process. Many riders were able to be picked up less than 15 minutes after requesting a trip as a result.

Greencab was also able to track what times trips were occurring, from which city districts they were originating and terminating, and what the apparent purpose of trips were, such as shopping, dining, tourism from hotels, or interacting with other city services. Density of riders was also accounted for, that is, whether or not trips were individual riders or groups of two, three, or four people, and whether or not passengers were utilizing the wheelchair van service. These statistics were compiled and presented monthly to city officials to use for their future transportation planning efforts.

Greencab was able to partner with local health recovery and addiction services centers, providing trips through the program while helping them track outcomes of their workforce reintegration programs. Ultimately Greencab facilitated over 200 trips for these programs.

In aggregate, the program served over 10,000 passengers over 8,000 individual trips. More than 200 Wheelchair accessible transport were performed, and eleven full month data reports plus a final cumulative analysis were presented to the city.