In the past couple of years, Avondale has been evolving rapidly as an urban community with new residents, industry and amenities. With a growing population, a need for more accessible transportation options also comes to mind. Valley Metro offers a neighborhood circulator in this region of the West Valley, the Avondale ZOOM. If you are a frequent rider of Valley Metro, you may already know of the transit changes that happen twice a year. Once in the spring and then again in the fall. Changes are needed to catch up with ongoing developments and continue to connect communities, residents and businesses together.
These changes include an update to the ZOOM circulator that can impact some of your most visited areas. There will be new routing south of the I-10 Freeway, and the northern section of the route will be removed. But not to worry, this community has a new traveling option to help cover the partial elimination of the ZOOM route.
Welcome to WeRIDE
WeRIDE is one of the new microtransit options coming to Arizona. It’s happening not just locally but across the country as well. Transit agencies are welcoming this new mode of transit as a more on-demand service. WeRide is very similar to Uber and Lyft, but with a few twists. Here are some of its features:
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Option to schedule a ride on your smartphone via the WeRIDE Micro app.
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Features on-demand shared rides with flexible routing and scheduling.
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Travels in specific areas of Avondale and Goodyear.
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Operates Monday – Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
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Virtual pick-up stops placed rather than a door-to-door service like Uber and Lyft.
Like all Valley Metro transit solutions, WeRIDE vehicles are ADA-friendly, and bike racks are available. They operate in smaller vehicles that can seat up to five customers. It is a free service until December 5, 2022. You can find out more information about this new service on Avondale’s website: https://www.avondaleaz.gov/government/departments/public-works/transit-services/micro-transit-services
You can learn more about microstransit from episode 6 of Storylines podcast. You can listen to Storylines on your favorite podcast app or here: https://www.valleymetro.org/news-events/storylines-podcast
