WashPirgcoverA new report places Seattle in the top ten U.S. cities with innovative transportation options.

The report, released by the Washington Public Interest Research Group (WashPIRG) Foundation and Frontier Group, says that Seattle has nine of 11 “technology-enabled transportation services” that “make it easier to conveniently get around without owning a car.” That puts Seattle in a four-way tie for eighth place in the report’s Innovative Transportation Index, alongside San Diego, Minneapolis and Denver, but behind Portland (in seventh place).

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Source: WashPIRG/Frontier Group

Austin, TX was the only city out of 70 evaluated that had all 11 services available, putting it in first place.

Still, a tie for eighth gives Seattle the label of “abundant choices,” joining 18 other cities with that ranking. Among the tech-enabled services WashPIRG and Frontier tallied (and their terminology):

  • Carsharing services, such as Zipcar and peer-to-peer networks
  • Ridesharing services, to connect individual drivers
  • Ridesourcing services, such as Lyft, Uber and Sidecar
  • Taxi hailing services, for locating or hailing cabs via smartphone
  • Bikesharing systems, such as Pronto
  • Static transit data, such as online schedules and route maps
  • Real-time transit information, like One Bus Away
  • Multi-modal planning apps, combining various transit options
  • Virtual ticketing, for transit tickets
WashPirg70ciites
Source: WashPIRG/Frontier Group

“These services make it easier to conveniently get around without owning a car,” the report’s authors note. “That is increasingly what city dwellers – and Millennials especially – say they want. These services individually help travelers, but more importantly, they work together to become more than the sum of their parts.”

In case you’re wondering, the report says Seattle and Portland fall short in tech for ridesharing, Seattle in virtual ticketing through a transit authority app, and Portland in bikesharing.

The entire report can be downloaded from the WashPIRG site.

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