The Denton County Transportation Authority (DCTA) announced its GoZone on-demand rideshare service has now surpassed 1 million completed rides in approximately 18 months of service.

DCTA and Via, GoZone’s TransitTech provider, celebrated the milestone by holding a ceremonial one-millionth ride and by honoring GoZone drivers at the Downtown Denton Transit Center, according to the agency's news release.

“GoZone’s one-millionth completed ride is a truly remarkable achievement, and it represents an incredible amount of work our teams have accomplished in only 18 months,” said Paul A. Cristina, CEO of DCTA. “The strong success of GoZone has placed DCTA among the top 25 transit agencies in the U.S. supplying demand-response microtransit service, meaning DCTA is truly a national leader in this arena.”

GoZone launched in September of 2021 with a fleet of dedicated minivans providing transportation options to residents in Denton, Lewisville, and Highland Village through a mobile app-based service. More than 640,000 rides were completed in GoZone’s first year. Since then, GoZone set a record with more than 71,000 rides completed in one month (January 2023).

“Even more gratifying for us is that GoZone is providing outstanding service to our customers, with more than 98% of riders giving us a five-star rating in the app,” said Cristina. “That really shows how much GoZone drivers care about providing good service, and how much our customers appreciate it.”

According to a survey from spring 2022, more than a third of GoZone riders report using the service to connect with DCTA's other public transit modes. 

GoZone has achieved notable data points that indicate success toward that goal, including:

• 80% of GoZone trips are to-and-from essential destinations such as grocery stores, healthcare, schools, workplaces, social services, or other transit hubs.

• 42% of GoZone customers report their annual income as less than $25,000.

• 44% of GoZone customers identify as people of color.

• 71% of GoZone customers do not own a personal car.