Microtransit

September 29, 2023

Milton Barnes via AP

Earlier this week I came across an AP article in the Business Section of my local newspaper about an innovative way to operate public transit.  The small town of Wilson, North Carolina (less than 50,000) had seen its transit riders plummet when the pandemic hit in 2020.  The city decided to switch from fixed-route buses to on-demand vans powered by a smartphone app that offered service anywhere in town for US$1.50.  Wilson obtained federal and state grants to support the ride that usually arrived within 15 minutes.  While the grants are gone, riders still only pay US$2.50 for the door-to-door service.  Wilson’s transition to vans came out of necessity as in some parts of the city as many as 3 in 10 residents lacked access to a car to get to work.  Now more than half of riders use the vans to maintain or get employment.  This smaller-scale, tech-based solution to public transport is known as microtransit and has become the great equalizer to the trains, subway, and buses of denser urban areas.

When I looked online, I found microtransit is a form of bus demand responsive transport vehicle for hire.  This transit service offers a highly flexible routing and/or highly flexible scheduling of minibus vehicles shared with other passengers.  Microtransit providers build routes ad-hoc exclusively to match only each demand (trip) and supply (driven vehicle) and to extend the efficiency and accessibility of the transit service.  Possible pick-up/drop-off stops are generally restricted (usually within a geofenced area like the city of Wilson), and transit can be provided as a stop-to-stop service or a curb-to-curb service.  It is said microtransit conceptually fits somewhere between private individual transportation (cars, taxicabs, or ridesharing) and public mass transit (bus).  Microtransit can be privately or publicly operated and mainly targets children, teens, and customers looking to connect residential areas and downtown.

When I worked in downtown Salt Lake City, I lived in a suburb 8 miles (12.8 km) away.  We only had one car, and while microtransit did not exist in our area, one of the main bus lines ran just outside our housing complex so I decided to ride the bus to work.  I would walk the quarter mile to the stop, wait for the bus that arrived two times an hour, and then walk the half mile from the last stop to my office.  While this was not inconvenient, it did take over an hour to complete the trip, which I would do again on my way home.  I was on a fitness kick at the time and decided to ride my bike rather than the bus.  I found that I could get to work faster on my bike, including a quick shower on arrival, than by riding the bus.  I was lucky I was on the main line and did not have to wait for a transfer as I had done when I attended the university or if would have been a longer wait.  Inclement weather still forced me to ride the bus on occasion, but most days I would race the bus on my way to and from work.  I rarely lost.

Thoughts:  Autonomous electric vehicles are much more cost effective and efficient for microtransit than other vehicle types, mainly from the elimination of a driver.  A study in Singapore said microtransit services using autonomous electric vehicles can reduce the total cost of ownership by 70% compared to other microtransit vehicles and by 80% compared to buses.  These vehicles also offer less noise and carbon emission pollution than a normal bus.  Effective solutions are rarely one-size-fits-all.  Rather than seeking a perfect fix we need to be willing to being open to innovative solutions involving a collage of approaches.  That will reduce pollution and get people where they need to go, and on time.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.