A new program in West Hollywood will soon let anyone book a ride anywhere in the city during business hours for $1.
City Council on Monday will receive an update on the city’s transition from Dial-A-Ride, a traditional demand-response program, to Cityline Flex, an on-demand ride-share MicroTransit pilot program that prioritizes older adults and people living with disabilities while serving the general public.
MicroTransit is a relatively new concept that falls between individual private transportation like Uber and public transit, using algorithms to route and schedule trips in real-time.
| Who | West Hollywood residents over 62 or living with a disability of any age | Anyone in the service area |
| Cost | Free | $1.00 per trip |
| Hours | Monday-Friday, 8:00 am-5:00 pm Saturday, 9:00 am-5:00 pm | Monday-Friday, 8:00 am-5:00 pm Saturday, 9:00 am-5:00 pm |
| Where | West Hollywood and Beverly Hills a 2-mile buffer. Shuttle service to medical facilities within 5 miles of the City’s border is available to residents over the age of 62 or with a disability. | West Hollywood + a 1-mile buffer. Trips must start or end in West Hollywood. |
| Type of Ride | Curb-to-Curb service where user is picked up and dropped off at the exact address they provide. | Corner-to-Corner service where the user walks no more than a 1/4 mile to be picked up at a nearby bus stop or intersection. |
| How To Request | Phone, Computer, and Smartphone App | Computer and Smartphone App |
Passengers will be able to book a trip through a smartphone application, a web portal, or by calling the program’s call center. Riders can request trips on-demand for travel within minutes of requesting a ride or in advance for travel at a future date or time, and riders can sign up for subscription rides. Passengers who use a smartphone or web portal to book a ride can track their vehicle in real-time, similar to what individuals experience when using a rideshare service like Uber or Lyft.
Once fully implemented, this pilot program will transform the city’s underperforming Dial-A-Ride program into a MicroTransit service that continues to provide curb-to-curb transportation to West Hollywood’s older adults or community members living with a disability and offers corner-to-corner service for the public. This means that an older adult or community member living with a disability would continue to be picked up and dropped off at the exact address they provide as long as the address is in the program’s service area. The public would need to walk no more than a quarter mile to be picked up at a nearby bus stop or intersection.
Efficiency achieved through Cityline Flex’s dynamic routing and scheduling would allow the City to offer the new program using resources that were allocated to Dial-A-Ride. Dial-A-Ride provided 60 trips per day at its peak, translating to about one trip per vehicle service hour. Staff projects that Cityline Flex could increase the program’s capacity to 170 trips per day, or three trips per vehicle service hour. This capacity could be achieved using the fleet that was used to run the Dial-A-Ride program, which consists of four minivans and one cutaway bus. Should demand exceed 170 trips per day, replacing the minivans with larger 12-passenger transit vans could increase the program’s capacity to 340 trips per day, or six trips per vehicle hour of service.
Staff is implementing the Cityline Flex pilot program in two phases. Phase one of the transition is complete, and staff anticipates completing the program’s second phase by the start of the new fiscal year in July. In the first phase of the program’s implementation, staff worked with MV Transportation, a transit services contractor, to acquire MicroTransit scheduling technology from RideCo, an on-demand transit technology and services company. Staff worked with MV Transportation and RideCo to set up the paratransit component of the program, and to train all MV Transportation dispatch and operations staff to use the new scheduling system. As part of the training, RideCo scheduled one-on-one training with drivers assigned to the program to ensure they understood how to use the driver-facing application. This phase of the program’s implementation started in August 2022 and ended in November 2022.
As part of phase one of the transition, the City introduced the Cityline Flex app. Cityline Flex is the name of the app and also the name of the new pilot program. Cityline Flex joins Cityline Local and Cityline Commuter as the third program under the “Cityline” umbrella of services to respond to the transportation needs of West Hollywood community members. Staff is now working with a designer to evolve the Cityline brand for Cityline Flex.
In phase two of the Cityline Flex implementation, staff will work with MV Transportation and RideCo to set up the program technology to serve the general public. Staff will also wrap up the Cityline Flex branding process and work with MV Transit to increase the active fleet for the program as demand builds. The program currently operates with two to three vehicles, depending on the number of ride requests, and has the budget to run with a maximum of five.l
The program is expected to serve the general public by July 2023.
The program is expected to serve the general public by July 2023.????? Why on earth would tt take APR MAY JUN JUL and no telling how long it has been “talked” about for many month. Light a fire 60 days MOST
Thank you WeHo!
A good step forward in showing love and respect for seniors. Thank you, Weho City Council
JULY!!!!! HELLO!!!! “slow boat to China” LOL
You don’t even want to know the nightmare of using Dial-A-Ride in Riverside County (where I now reside). WeHo residents are very fortunate to have REAL transportation for seniors and challenged people!
Please tell us more. I’ve always had good service from WeHo/BH Dial-a-Ride but I quit using Access Paratransit after they made me late to my DMV appointment. I hope the changes in WeHo’s transportation programs for the over 65/disabled will improve rather than getting worse.
Would be great if this ran to Hollywood/Highland metro. When the city line van does or doesn’t go there is confusing.
This is a great idea, we need more like it. Now we just need to get all the internal combustion drive automobiles off the streets, replaced by electric scooters and we will really be doing well❗😎
These buses running around our village (NOT A CITY) are empty. So wide, driving down a street, you need to move over as they are not very courteous drivers. Just loop around and around. Where is the green outrage?? A group of drivers and city hall employees/administrators, AKA government employees securing pensions and benefits. What garbage to make us look progressive. Sooooo many contradictions and costs. This service should be the same as a ride share. Pick folks up when needed.
WTF?
That’s what they do. Please read the directive.
I use the daily commuter shuttle and the weekend trolley, lol.
Finally!! Some GOOD IDEAS in this City.
Great for the senior population, now let’s go to the next step & get rid of those damn scooters so that pedestrians of ALL ages can be safe without fear of being run down by a lunatic scooter driver that probably has a suspended drivers license due to so many infractions by NOT following the law! Scooters=NO accountability whatsoever…just disgusting!
Have you tried riding a bike/scooter on Santa Monica? Riding in the street, where they’re “supposed” to, is a death wish.
Getting rid of the scooters is treating the symptom, not the problem. If we had a proper, safe, separated biking infrastructure, the scooters/bikes/e-bikes/whatever wouldn’t be a problem for pedestrians on the sidewalk. Not only that, but people would use those methods more and help with vehicle traffic. I dream of one day biking to work, but I won’t do it until it’s safe. I can tell you form experience, cars hurt.
Scooters hurt too! One of my dogs is still limping from being hit by a lunatic scooter driver that I feel deliberately ran into her. The littering of them sprawled anywhere is another issue that is disgusting in this city.We don’t have the room for bike lanes everywhere! Even bikers give me a headache when I am driving by their bold & brazen attitude on the street. Not everyone is like you that probably has your head screwed on right. There is a lot of very dysfunctional people living here with their full focus on me, myself, and I!
Sounds more like the senior/disabled population will have to pay for what they had been getting for free.
The left side of the graphic above says it’s FREE for people over 62 and disabled of any age
Greatest idea and benefit to the community.
Great service from the city.