If you’re reading this, you have likely used GoGo or have thought about utilizing our service. Did you know that GoGo is more than a phone number to request rides through? We have certain features geared directly towards our caller’s needs that put us above going through any app to get a ride. Read below to learn more about what we do, why we do it, and things about GoGo you may not have known about!
Our GoGoGuardians
Anytime you request a ride through GoGo, our system will filter through a checklist of things to ensure your ride goes smoothly. For example, if we think you’re requesting a ride from a place with multiple entrances that a driver could potentially be waiting at, we’ll work with you to ensure the driver goes to the right entrance. The team that works with you and our drivers is called our GoGoGuardians. These GoGoGuardians monitor rides, ensure pickup notes are communicated to drivers, as well as facilitate proper pickups.
Driver & Car Screening
We auto-filter drivers based on your needs. Don’t like hopping into larger cars? Need extra room for your walker? We can detect which cars don’t meet your requirements and match you with a more suitable ride. And as always, we only match our GoGo’ers with 4.5 star-rated and above (out of5)
Customer Advocacy
If you ever need to dispute a charge, write feedback about a driver, or send a general support message to the rideshare company, we’ll handle that for you. Just let us know so we can advocate on your behalf and make sure to keep you updated on any response you receive. We know disputing a cancellation fee is troublesome, let us go through that process for you.
Keep Loved Ones In The Loop
Not only will we be monitoring your rides, but you can also have a trusted friend or family member receive text message updates on the driver/cardetails, your trip status, and any updates you may receive along the way.
And just in case you haven’t yet…
Click Here To Register For GoGoGrandparent
Know someone that would be perfect for GoGoGrandparent?
Become A GoGoGrambassador
GoGo Gift Cards
Give the gift of independence with a GoGo Gift Card. You can add gift credit to existing accounts or start new ones. Purchase it for someone who doesn’t have their own credit card on file or make it a great gift!
Sign up for GoGoGold
Ask us to ask your drivers to ring the doorbell, walk you to your car, and/or make extra stops. You can get transferred directly to an operator, get one cancellation fee forgiven per month, and get free credits on your birthday!
Sign up to be a Gold Client now, and get the first month free!
The Administration for Community Living invites businesses to expand inclusion of people with disabilities in their workforce.
Community-based organizations serving people with disabilities are encouraged to partner with local businesses to develop innovative models that can be replicated to help businesses across the country reach a wider talent pool and to create more opportunities for employment for people with disabilities.
- Read the announcement
- Submit a proposal
- Deadline: 11:59 p.m. Eastern on February 14, 2020
The Grand Prize is $100,000. All winners will receive travel to Washington, D.C., mentorship from experts in the field, and promotion of their business innovation models. Participating businesses will receive feedback on their proposals and permission to use the “Administration for Community Living Inclusive Talent Pipeline Partner” logo.
Total Prize Pool = $380,000.
Qualified applicants living with disabilities are encouraged to apply. Please feel free to share the information below with your network(s).
- Accessibility Inspections Specialist: https://denver.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/CCD-denver-denvergov-CSC_Jobs-Civil_service_jobs-Police_Jobs-Fire_Jobs/job/Downtown-Denver/Accessibility-Data—Inspections-Specialist—Denver-Division-of-Disability-Rights_R0024942
- ADA Project Manager II: https://denver.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/CCD-denver-denvergov-CSC_Jobs-Civil_service_jobs-Police_Jobs-Fire_Jobs/job/Downtown-Denver/ADA-Project-Manager-II—Division-of-Disability-Rights_R0026056
- ADA Architectural Access Manager: https://denver.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/CCD-denver-denvergov-CSC_Jobs-Civil_service_jobs-Police_Jobs-Fire_Jobs/job/Downtown-Denver/ADA-Architectural-Access-Manager—Division-of-Disability-Rights_R0026055
At the Boulder County Jail, incarceration means an immediate mental health evaluation, and it begins at the booking desk.
That’s because Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle has been a long-time proponent of providing mental health treatment as a way to keep people with mental illness from returning to jail.
Sheriff Joe Pelle in an interview with Insight’s John Ferrugia
“You have to decide,” he said, “what your philosophy is going to be. And if it’s warehousing (people) and security, this problem’s never going to get solved.”
Pelle has seen the need for mental health services grow exponentially since 2002.
“When I became sheriff, 13% of the inmates in our jail had an access one mental health diagnosis,” he said. “They had been diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar issues.”
Now, on some days, up to 60% of the jail population is receiving mental health services.
“We will see everything from a unique situational depression all the way up to the most severe where someone is actively psychotic or has suicidal attempts,” said Melanie Dreiling, a registered nurse and the jail’s health service administrator.
Her job is to help stabilize inmates so they can enter ongoing programs to help them normalize their lives and activities.
Inside the Boulder County Jail
“A lot of our clients that come in here, this is the first time they will get treatment. This is the first time they might even get diagnosed,” said Boulder Sheriff Commander Tim Oliveira who heads the jail’s programs and support services.
“Once somebody is stabilized from an acute illness… they can progress through the jail,” Oliveira said.
Inmates can receive ongoing medications if they need them, along with one-on-one counselling as well as therapeutic support groups. These are services Oliveira said are now essential in the Boulder County facility.
“Jails are becoming these mental health institutions,” he said. “Because people don’t have anywhere else to go.”
Melanie Dreiling is the jail’s health services administrator
“The longer they are with us, the better they thrive,” explained Melanie Dreiling. “We really see people go from being actively psychotic to being a healthy, normal stable person when they leave our jail.”
And just as important, and essential, in the Boulder model is the Partnership for Active Community Engagement (PACE) program for those who don’t go on to prison, but are allowed back into the community on probation.
“We’ve put the probation officer, mental health provider, community health, public health provider, a and a case manager all under one roof,” said Sheriff Joe Pelle. “So that they’re not just leaving our jail without access to medication or without access to support.”
The goal of this program is to coordinate with prosecutors, judges, and the parole system to stop recycling the same people through the criminal justice system without any hope of success.
One example is Joe Dankowski, who suffers from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. He had been in and out of the Boulder jail for years. He said without the help he received while incarcerated and the ongoing services he gets through the pace program, he would be dead.
Joe Dankowski meets with PACE program manager Matt Jaekel
“I know what I need to do to have a clear mind, to get back on track,” said Dankowski. “I have a big support. I have a huge support system.”
Matt Jaekel, manager of the Boulder County PACE program, said Joe Dankowski is one of about 100 clients served annually.
“We provide people structure,” he said. “Our entire team knows who you are. You see them daily. We build relationships, but you also have the probation element that’s here to around accountability for attendance and participation.”
Joe Dankowski said he was out of control: fighting, using drugs, not taking proper medication for his condition, and being charged with felonies. He kept cycling in and out of jail. But not anymore. He said he now understands his illness, and his treatment.
“It’s remarkable,” said Jaekel. “He’s the same personality, absolutely, and he’s a person who believes in himself.”
While Jaekel acknowledges the upfront costs for the PACE program are expensive, he argues that treatment for patients like Dankowski, versus putting them in jail, is a bargain for taxpayers
“It costs more to put a person in jail and keep them there per day than it does to utilize our services,” he said.
Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle agrees and said he has real numbers to illustrate how the overall program benefits taxpayers. He said Boulder County tracks a target group of inmates who were continually in and out of jail before getting needed mental health services and entering the pace program.
“We’ve had a savings of about 10,000 jail bed days a year with a group of 50 or 60 people participating in that program,” he said. “It’s a lot of money.”
If you need mental health services, contact Colorado Crisis Services for confidential support: 844-493-TALK (8255) or text “TALK” to 38255.
More than a half-dozen world-class ski resorts are less than 100 miles west of Denver. The trouble is that they’re also some of the most popular — and there’s really only one road to get to them: the dreaded Interstate 70.
“In the beginning, I could leave at 6:30 [a.m.] or 7 [a.m.] and get here in one hour,” said Midhun Mohan, who has skied at Loveland Ski Area for the last eight years.
“But now, I probably have to leave at 5:30 [a.m.] on a day like this,” he said on a recent Saturday morning.
Travel time to this ski area just 60 miles west of Denver has increased by an average of 15 minutes since 2014, according to state data. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend in 2019, more than 175,000 vehicles traveled this section of I-70. Travel time to Denver can reach three hours — or longer.
“Last year, when our family went skiing in Vail, it took six hours to get back on a Sunday night,” said Gov. Jared Polis.
So the Colorado Department of Transportation has partnered with three ski resorts, including Loveland Ski Area, to run round-trip buses on weekends. Because buses are more efficient than cars at moving large numbers of people on a tight, winding two-lane highway, state officials hope they’ll take enough cars off the road to alleviate some congestion.
“It was great. I think it’s the future,” said Mohan, a first-time bus rider.
But Colorado’s bus fleet, with a capacity of about 500 passengers in a weekend, isn’t big enough to have a noticeable effect on traffic just yet. And since launching in December of last year, they’re running less than half full. Bob Wilson, spokesman for the Colorado Department of Transportation, said it takes time to build up ridership.
i70-traffic7
Nathaniel Minor/CPR News
A woman steps off the Colorado Department of Transportation’s Snowstang bus at Loveland Ski Area. The department has partnered with three ski resorts to run round-trip buses on weekends.
“What we’re hoping for is for the program to expand,” Wilson said. “And the more cars, more vehicles, we can get off the roadway, the better it’s going to be. Even if it’s a small dent, it’s a dent nonetheless.”
Fares start at $25 round trip and are subsidized by resorts to keep them low.
“We’re trying to be part of the solution,” said John Sellers, marketing director at Loveland Ski Area. “Every person that gets on that bus essentially reduces a vehicle on I-70 and opens up another spot in our parking lot.”
But that price was not quite low enough for Kyle Helm of Denver.
“We did a little bit of calculation as far as like how much money we spend on gas to get up here,” he said. “And we have a dog that we take. If it weren’t for the dog, we’d probably take it.”
There is more than just gas prices to consider. Using the Internal Revenue Service’s mileage rate, which factors in things such as wear and tear, it costs about $70 to drive to Loveland and back.
But driving is deeply ingrained here, from the flexibility that cars give to the party atmosphere in resorts’ parking lots. Even at 9 a.m. on a Saturday, scores of skiers and snowboarders were sipping craft beers and smoking marijuana.
“Buses aren’t usually for me,” said Clay Briar of Golden, Colo., because cars give him space for “extracurricular activities.”
“Sitting in a bus in traffic with smelly strangers, I’m not for it,” added Emily Maynard, who was sipping a canned vodka cocktail with her friend Lauren Feathers in the back of a Subaru.
Colorado is not alone in dealing with ski traffic. The canyons outside Salt Lake City can jam up on weekends and powder days as well. One resort there began charging parking fees this season to incentivize using public transit. A resort outside Boulder, Colo., pulled back on a similar plan in 2018 after intense public pushback.
Briar and other skiers said they’d love to take a train to the mountains — those wouldn’t get stuck in bad weather and would operate outside traffic completely, they argue. But there are no active plans to build a passenger train service of any sort along I-70. One previous study of different types of trains from Denver to the Vail area estimated it could cost $10 billion to $32 billion.
So for now, skiers will have to be content to wait — either in their cars or on buses.
“I guess it’s just the price you pay to ski,” Feathers said.
At the end of last year, Kansas City, Missouri’s City Council voted unanimously to make the city’s bus system fare-free. The plan was meant to increase transportation equity in the region and was a priority of the city’s recently elected Mayor, Quinton Lucas and newly elected council member, Eric Bunch. Several cities in the U.S., including Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, and Denver have considered implementing free-transit systems, but each area has had its own internal debate about how to best offer a free service, limiting their ability to put forth formalized proposals.
The initiative in Kansas City has since sparked discussion among city officials and transit leaders across the nation around whether free transit is the solution they’ve been seeking to make public transportation a more accessible — and preferred — mode of transit. At a time when competition from ride-hailing services, bikes and scooters, and, of course, personal vehicles is increasingly threatening public transportation ridership, Kansas City’s willingness to experiment with new ideas to revamp transit service is intriguing — but will it work?
Fare-free transit certainly has its benefits
There’s no denying the potential benefits of fare-free transit, especially when considering how it could help marginalized communities move around more freely. This is certainly the hope among Kansas City lawmakers and transportation officials. In making its bus system free, the city hopes that it will be able to increase mobility overall, and thus, support equal access to jobs while also boosting economic activity in the city’s center. This is particularly important, as that anticipated increase in activity and revenue would help the city recoup the loss of ticket sales.
Research suggests that the success of fare-free transit is dependent on the size of both the city and transit agency. Several smaller cities in the U.S., including ski centers such as Vail, Colorado, currently offer fare-free transit and have experienced strong ridership growth as a result. In Europe, many cities currently operate fare-free transit systems with even greater success. For example, when the French city of Dunkirk introduced the concept of fare-free transit in 2017, it saw bus ridership increase by more than 60 percent on weekdays and more than double on weekends, with 48 percent of riders saying they now leave their cars at home. Especially as city leaders continue to face heightened pressure to reduce carbon emissions and get people out of their cars, incentives like this are promising — but for most cities, the fix isn’t as simple as making service free.
Free fares also enable another major shift in fare collection and policing fare-evasion. There are obvious operational benefits in reducing the administrative burden of farebox maintenance, cost of revenue collection, and reduced dwell time. A moral benefit exists as well. Free-fares can replace discrimination in fare-evasion enforcement; a civil rights challenge plaguing many major transit systems. Studies across various U.S. cities have shown that fare enforcement disproportionately targets minorities, and these minorities face steep penalties when they are stopped. Providing free-fares alleviates the need for fare enforcement which in turn reduces inequality in access to public transportation.
Making public transit free doesn’t necessarily make it better
Although there are case studies to support how fare-free transit can work successfully, it’s not the ultimate solution to improving ridership or service gaps. While free transit can certainly reduce barriers to access, we can’t overlook the reality that many cities are currently operating transit systems that don’t meet the needs of their citizens. Whether it’s an issue of routes not running frequently enough, or current systems not being capable of servicing people based on real-time demand, simply reducing barriers to access isn’t enough. In fact, a recent study by TransitCenter suggests most low-income bus riders see lowering fares as less important than improving the quality of the service.
Making the bus free is a great incentive to encourage people to ride more in theory. However, for many cities the desired impact of fare-free transit — increased ridership — often fails in achieving the goals of reduced congestion and greenhouse-gas emissions because ridership increases only marginally overall. Mostly people already willing to walk or ride transit take advantage; free fares do not entice those who otherwise would drive. Free transit doesn’t fix the lagging transit infrastructure required to make transit services more desirable. This in turn actually drives a larger gap between those that depend on public transit and those that do not; again, reinforcing a stigma about public transit’s viability and effectiveness.
Either way, the decision is still significant
Regardless of whether you support fare-free transit models or not, Kansas City’s initiative is impactful. The city’s decision comes at a time when a willingness to experiment with new transit ideas is necessary. The rise of more predictable and convenient services like Uber and Lyft is not a trend that will go away any time soon. Cities and transit agencies need to be willing to challenge the status quo and experiment with new, outcome-based models if they want to improve ridership, expand access, and ultimately enhance the vibrancy of their city. More than anything, it’s Kansas City’s entrepreneurial spirit that other cities should be embracing.
Implementing a fare-free bus system isn’t the only innovative approach the city has taken to revamp transportation in the region. Take a look at RideKC microtransit. The service has been incredibly successful since launching in Johnson County. In its first three months alone, the service moved 24X the number of rides that Bridj completed in the region before it folded. In a survey of RideKC users, 31 percent of respondents said that if the service weren’t available, they would have taken an Uber/Lyft, while 12 percent wouldn’t have made the trip at all.
Delivering transit alternatives like this is a viable solution to closing gaps in service and ensuring all citizens have equal access to navigate their city. While free transit can certainly be an element within a holistic transit ecosystem, it cannot be delivered at the expense of good service overall. Cities have to maintain a focus on continually bettering transportation, and part of that requires them to think creatively about how to align service with the needs of modern riders. At the end of the day, there needs to be an emphasis on outcome-based transit planning among transit officials nationwide. If that means creating fare-free services, it also means ensuring fast, reliable, and frequent transit. Kansas City has proven to be a positive example of this type of innovative thinking.
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