Glydways and partners have been awarded a project to create a 28-mile system connecting four underserved communities in East Contra Costa County, California (ECCC).  

The rapidly growing cities of Antioch, Oakley, Brentwood, and Pittsburg offer residents a peaceful, friendly atmosphere that is on the edges of the huge San Francisco/Oakland metropolis. The proximity to nature, good schools, and more affordable homes makes this area attractive for families who are priced out of communities closer to the big cities. The area is a gem.

Except for the commute.

At the moment, residents of ECCC who make the trek to San Francisco, Oakland, and even Silicon Valley have been designated as “Super Commuters.” In a nutshell, Super Commuters are people who travel long distances, or spend extreme amounts of time getting to and from their place of employment. According to a US Census Bureau report, in 2019 9.8% of workers in the US traveled more than 60 minutes one-way to get to work. 

Compounding the challenges for ECCC, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) doesn’t extend into the cities of Brentwood and Oakley. The EBART extension, opened in 2018, extends the reach of BART into Pittsburg and Antioch. Commuters in the region looking to access those stations need to traverse the clogged SR-4 corridor just to get to one of these BART stations for a train ride to work. This congested drive adds considerable time and complexity to daily commutes, which Glydways can alleviate by more easily connecting riders to BART and Tri Delta bus services. When operational, this new capacity will take cars off of the road and ease congestion. 

In 2021, Brentwood, Antioch, Oakley and Pittsburg joined forces and conducted a Feasibility Study to explore an innovative approach to enhance access to existing transit services, promote mode-shift away from single occupancy vehicle (SOV) use, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, support economic development, and generate employment opportunities. The study found that, due to substantial fluctuations in ridership throughout the day, on-demand services capable of dynamically adjusting to service levels would have substantial benefits to the region. Ultimately, a 28-mile Glydways network was unanimously supported by the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) and Eastern Contra Costa Transit Authority (Tri Delta Transit), along with the four East County cities.

In July 2023, the public parties completed a competitive public procurement of a Public-Private Partnership (P3) team to plan and then design, build, finance, operate and maintain (DBFOM) the Project.

 The P3 team, named East County Connection Partners (ECCP) consisting of Plenary America Ltd (developer), Flatiron (construction) and Glydways, Inc (technology partner), began work to identify an initial segment of the project.

The on-demand nature of the Glydways system is especially practical in ECCC. During peak commute hours, Glydcars are available at a moment’s notice to move riders back and forth along the SR4 corridor. But when demand goes down during non-peak hours, the system doesn’t run with empty cars, which is very different from non on-demand scheduled services, both of which are required to run whether completely full or completely empty. The Glydways approach significantly reduces operating expenses while providing enhanced rider service levels, whether at peak or other times of the day or night. 

Most importantly, Glydways believes in integrated public transportation. We will not replace existing public transit options; we complement them with demand-responsive service. For example, by leveraging advancements in machine learning and AI tools, we will be able to synchronize with live schedule inputs to better predict rider demand, and ultimately, boost public transit ridership. 

We recently had the privilege of hosting the Board of the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) to our development facility in Concord, CA. Members of the Board were able to take a ride on a demonstration system and learn more about its benefits and how we will help CCTA and TriDelta achieve their goals of bringing access and connectivity to Antioch, Brentwood, Oakley and Pittsburg.

We are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the leaders in this region to bring comfortable, reliable, safe and affordable mass transit to East Contra Costa County.