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Seamless Rides

A Practitioner’s Guide to DRT Data Standards and What They Mean for Your Agency

National Capital Trail Network

The greater Washington, DC region is renowned for the quality and extent of its shared-use paths and several notable long-distance bicycle routes that pass through the region. Michael J. Farrell, Senior Transportation Planner for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG) in Washington, DC, spearheads a unique shared-use path project that spans across Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia.

National Capital Trail Network

National Capital Trail Network

The greater Washington, DC region is renowned for the quality and extent of its shared-use paths and several notable long-distance bicycle routes that pass through the region. Michael J. Farrell, Senior Transportation Planner for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG) in Washington, DC, spearheads a unique shared-use path project that spans across Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia.  The groundwork for the Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan for the National Capital Region began about twenty years ago through the work of the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board (TPB). 

The groundwork for the Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan for the National Capital Region began about twenty years ago through the work of the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board (TPB). The Bicycle and Pedestrian Subcommittee of the TPB Technical Committee advises the TPB and its Technical Committee and other committees on bicycle and pedestrian considerations in overall regional transportation planning. It meets six times per year and each agency involved sends their bicycle and pedestrian planners.  While the TPB is collaborative, the project works so well because the various agencies involved have different needs and roles and can customize their plans based on those; for example, setting speed limits for their area’s shared-use paths.  Each jurisdiction has different challenges, and each can plan at its own speed.

Met Branch

TPB members include large agencies like the National Park Service (NPS) and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), as well as small, rural transit agencies in the region. The TPB convenes an annual shared micromobility workshop for all its members and administers working groups where agency representatives report on their progress and share best practices. TPB also provides technical assistance to its agencies and provides grant funding.  If agencies want funding, they must produce and report on projects such as shared-use paths or long-distance trails.  Since the TPB started planning, the region has built a network of approximately 800 miles of shared-use paths consisting of paved or packed crushed stone surface that are suitable for pedestrians, road bikes, e-bikes, and e-scooters.  Walking and bicycling account for 11% of all trips in the region.  92% of bike/walk commuters reported being satisfied with their commutes, the highest of any commuter mode, according to a recent survey.

TPB members include large agencies like the National Park Service (NPS) and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), as well as small, rural transit agencies in the region. The TPB convenes an annual shared micromobility workshop for all its members and administers working groups where agency representatives report on their progress and share best practices.

Met Branch

TPB also provides technical assistance to its agencies and provides grant funding.  If agencies want funding, they must produce and report on projects such as shared-use paths or long-distance trails.  Since the TPB started planning, the region has built a network of approximately 800 miles of shared-use paths consisting of paved or packed crushed stone surface that are suitable for pedestrians, road bikes, e-bikes, and e-scooters.  Walking and bicycling account for 11% of all trips in the region.  92% of bike/walk commuters reported being satisfied with their commutes, the highest of any commuter mode, according to a recent survey.  The regional bike sharing program, Capital Bikeshare, includes about 5,000 bicycles at over 600 stations in seven jurisdictions.  The project hopes to have over 1,700 miles of shared-use paths by the year 2045. 

Your dispatcher takes a call from a rider who needs transportation to dialysis three times a week. She’s Medicaid-eligible and already in your system. She’s a regular. But when she moves to a new county and calls the transit agency there, she starts from scratch: new paperwork, new eligibility verification, new everything. Her history doesn’t follow her.



Or consider this: a rider searches for transportation on a smartphone app, but your service doesn’t appear, even though you serve that exact area. So he calls a cab instead, or skips the appointment.


Or this: you and the transit agency one county over could easily share trips and save money for both of you. But handing off a trip means a phone call, a re-entry into their system, and a hope that nothing gets lost. So you mostly just don’t bother to coordinate.


None of these are failures of your agency. They are symptoms of a much larger issue: the systems that are used to run demand-response transportation (DRT) were built at different times, by different companies, for different purposes, and they were never designed to talk to each other. Many rural agencies have general public DRT.  A rider’s eligibility, trip history, and service options can’t move freely between systems the way they should to efficiently provide necessary transportation services.


A community of researchers, State DOTs, transit agencies, and national organizations including National RTAP is working to fix that. They are writing or supporting shared rulebooks, known as data standards, that define a common language to exchange digitized information. This article explains where that work stands, what it means for rural and small-urban agencies, and what practical steps you can take right now.

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About the Authors:

Santosh Mishra

Santosh is the President & CEO of Flexlynqs, a mobility innovation firm he has founded. For the last 2 decades, he has worked closely with hundreds of public sector agencies in digital transformation at the intersection of planning, policy, technology, and data. In addition, Santosh has led R&D of several next generation USDOT-funded transportation concepts, particularly focused on regional integration and coordination. He chairs the Transportation Research Board (TRB) research panels on AI in Transit operations and Transit Innovation (IDEA), and is a member of the panel on Fare Collection Policy and Technology. He also co-chairs USDOT/ITE MAT-RSD Subcommittee developing standards for flexible transportation. Further, Santosh is an internationally recognized leader in intelligent transport and serves as the ANSI-designated US delegate to ISO Technical Committee on Intelligent Transport: TC 204 where he is leading the development of multiple international standards, and has been appointed Convenor for Working Group on Public Transport and Emergency ITS (WG8). 


Al Benedict

Al Benedict joined the National Rural Transit Assistance Program (National RTAP) team as the Technology Tools Lead and the Community Rides Grant Manager in 2025. As the Technology Tools Lead, Al works to understand the transit and technology needs for rural and Tribal agencies to help identify right size solutions and implementation frameworks. This work centers on National RTAP's technology tools and identifying and developing new resources to support rural and Tribal transit. Al also oversees the Community Rides Grant program, which is aimed at building and strengthening local transportation partnerships and the capacity of rural transit programs, increasing access to critical needs like employment, healthcare, education, healthy food, social services, or recreation.