On Demand Transit and Microtransit: Where and Why Who has implemented microtransit Services

Based on a literature review and an interview with one agency, noteworthy practices were identified among the ten transit agencies and organized into key themes. In designing and deploying microtransit service, transit agencies implemented practices or addressed issues related to service area, fare and payment, funding, trip reservation, ADA accessibility, contracting, outreach and marketing, and data collection described in this section.

The service area of a microtransit service should be identified by considering many factors, including the transit agencies’ service goals. Microtransit service may be designed to be an extension of a regional transit network, replace an existing fixed-route or demand-response service, or fill a geographical gap in the existing transit service. Service area typologies include:

• City-Wide or Entire Service Area: Wilson is a small urban area located 40 miles east of Raleigh, North Carolina. The City of Wilson’s RIDE service was designed to replace fixed-route service, so the zone covers the full city of 31 square miles.
• Multiple Distinct Zones within the Service Area: Montgomery County Transit Service’ Ride On Flex has two service zones. Riders can travel within a zone but not between zones. This service model can be used for achieving first and last-mile connections and extending a regional transit network.
• Multiple Connected Zones within the Service Area: FRTA’s service area is divided into four service zones, expanded from two at the beginning of the pilot project. The zones do not encompass the full-service area because FRTA serves 41 counties. Fares differ for travel within and between zones.[2]
• Trips Outside the Service Area: BRATS offers daily trips from Baldwin County to Mobile, Alabama. Prospective riders can reserve a space in the vehicle using their smartphone app. There is also an option to select a recurring ride, a useful feature for commuters.

Beyond individual transit agencies’ service areas, some small urban and rural transit agencies have developed inter-jurisdictional coordination to provide microtransit service at a regional level. For example, in 2021, four transit agencies (Cimarron Transit, JAMM Transit, the KI BOIS Area Transit System, and Pelivan Transit), serving 21 counties in central and eastern Oklahoma, shown in Figure 5, partnered with the Grand Gateway Economic Development Association to launch a microtransit pilot. The pilot, which is currently underway, functions as an off-peak point-to-point microtransit service that allows riders to book shared-ride trips through the Uber app by selecting ‘PICK Transportation’ as the vehicle type. The transportation service also supplements transit services for tribal communities, including the Cherokee Nation, Miami, and Shawnee.

Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC5: The 21 Counties in Central and Eastern Oklahoma Served by PICK Transportation

Source: Shared-Use Mobility Center

Unlike fixed-route transit systems, in which routes, stop locations, and schedules are planned in advance, microtransit planning requires data on where and when one wishes to travel. This data-driven approach to providing transportation encourages agencies to track metrics beyond passenger trips, vehicle hours, and vehicle miles. Also, as an app-based platform, microtransit automatically generates data and may track a set of metrics, including passenger trip origin/destination location and time, wait times, trip length, number of unique riders, customer satisfaction, etc. Developing performance metrics related to ridership and customer experience, for example, is a best practice demonstrated by UTA. During its pilot program, the agency reported monthly performance data regarding:[2]

• Average weekday ridership
• Utilization (average riders per hour per vehicle)
• Average wait time
• Average customer rating
• Cost per rider.

Additionally, agencies have found it useful to track data related to trip requests.

• During the Ride On Flex pilot program, Montgomery County Transit Services collected information regarding request categories. Trips were categorized as completed, canceled, no-showed, not accepted, other errors, out of the zone, and seat unavailable. Over the pilot period, the number of completed trips increased and the number of ‘other errors’ decreased.
• BRATS tracks the number of passengers who use the smartphone app to request trips. Since dispatcher staff time is required to manage call-in booking, collecting data on app usage enables an agency to assess whether its efforts to get more people to use the app (since it is less resource-intensive) are working. Managing the amount of staff time required to manage call-in bookings can be particularly important for small agencies with limited staff.

Transit agencies operating microtransit services have relied on diverse funding structures, including agency and private sector partnerships, federal, state, and local funds. Small urban and rural agencies typically use FTA Sections 5307 and 5311 funding to fund public transit, but additional FTA grant programs have played an important role in deploying microtransit service and pilot programs. Competitive FTA grants that have been used to transition and pilot microtransit service include:

• FTA’s MOD Sandbox Program Grant
  •  Awarded to Pierce County Public Transportation Benefit Area Authority $205,299 to pilot a program that helps people travel to and from transit with the use of on-demand rides through app-based technology.
• FTA’s Integrated Mobility Innovation (IMI) Grant
  • Awarded the Baldwin County Commission $260,800 to “create a mobility-on-demand platform to automate routing, scheduling, and dispatching technology.”
• FTA’s AIM Grant
  • Awarded The City of Wilson $250,000 to replace its existing fixed-route bus service with on-demand, rural microtransit.

Among the cases reviewed in this chapter, examples of state grants that have been used to fund microtransit include:

• Massachusetts Department of Transportation has a Regional Transit Agency Discretionary Grant Program that has used state funds to support microtransit pilots in the Commonwealth. This program funded FRTA’s Access pilot program.
• Kansas Department of Transportation’s Innovation and Technology Grant awarded KCATA $59,000 to integrate microtransit into RideKC’s official app.

Regional Fare Integration
Regional fare integration is important in areas where customers may transfer between services. One of the strengths of the ‘Ride On Flex’ pilot is the payment integration into the regional fare system in the Washington, D.C. area. Seventy percent of customers used their SmarTrip® cards to pay their microtransit fare, and 46 percent of the trips were linked to the regional transit network. Regional fare integration may benefit other services such as PT Runner, on-demand public transportation that serves Pierce County, Washington. Today, riders can show their ORCA card (the smart card used for public transportation in the Puget Sound region of Washington) as a flash pass when boarding microtransit vehicles, but no fare is collected since vehicles are not equipped with ORCA card-reader technology. It is anticipated that next-generation ORCA cards will have the capacity for integration.

Pricing Structure
Some transit agencies that operate fixed-route bus and microtransit services have set a premium microtransit fare, charging up to two times the fixed-route bus fare for microtransit services. This microtransit pricing structure is meant to incentivize riders to use fixed-route service for trips within the fixed-route coverage area. One such example is FRTA which fixed-route bus is free of charge through June 2022, while microtransit trips cost $3 or $4, depending on if the trip is within a designated zone or between zones.

Microtransit fares can also be impacted by zone size, as some agencies use distance-based pricing instead of fixed fares per trip. For example, Baldwin County’s BRATS microtransit service uses a distance-based approach, charging riders $2 for rides up to five miles and an additional 50 cents for each additional five miles.

Unbanked Populations
Unbanked individuals do not use banks or financial institutions and thus may not have access to credit or bank debit cards. If cash is not accepted on board microtransit vehicles, transit providers accommodate unbanked individuals with vouchers and prepaid debit cards. Examples of such accommodations include:

• WeGo does not allow funds to be transferred on board. Riders can come into the office and purchase vouchers. Vouchers have a 10-digit code that can be entered into the phone.
• BRATS allows riders to purchase ride credits by sending payments in the form of cash or check to the BRATS office. The agency also allows customers to purchase prepaid debit cards using cash at local retail stores that they can use to log into the system.

Microtransit providers who receive federal funding must comply with federal requirements regarding civil rights and nondiscrimination. More information is available on the FTA website.

Microtransit service requires scheduling software, vehicles, drivers, operations management, maintenance, and insurance. Transit agencies typically contract with technology companies that provide scheduling software that enables trips to be booked with a mobile app, as well as internal vehicle routing and dispatch functions. There are many ways agencies have configured their services, shown in Table 4. As discussed in Chapter 1: Service Delivery Models, agencies may opt to use their own vehicles and drivers or contract out service to the technology company or an alternate third party. They can also bring in non-dedicated service providers. Reasons transit agencies might consider contracting include:

• Where state law or local decision-makers require contracting for all or a portion of their services.
• Where state or local law allows pilot projects to be undertaken without a need to seek competitive bids.
• When there are clear cost savings (due primarily to lower labor costs).
• When the contractors have substantial experience in providing demand–response service.
• When a private contractor provides greater ability to modify service on short notice than what would be possible under the transit agency’s collective bargaining agreement.
• When a private contractor already provides ADA demand–response service for the transit agency.
• When a transit agency has insufficient space to accommodate the vehicles for the microtransit service.

Table 4: Example Transit Agency Contract Configurations

Outreach and marketing are required to spread awareness about a new microtransit service. “Transit agencies have found that considerable effort is required to properly market and promote general public demand response transit service.” Teaching the public how to use a new service, particularly the mobile app-based booking that is a key feature of microtransit, can be a challenge.

Educational outreach should involve coordination with community-based organizations (social services agencies, senior centers, etc.) and existing riders. Precise marketing strategies are dependent on the local context and project type. For the Ride On Flex pilot program, the initial marketing effort “aimed to spread information about the service concept and create some ‘buzz’ for the pilot.” While the transit provider made a significant marketing effort, the feedback they received led them to attribute the success of the pilot to word-of-mouth.