Bloomberg recently covered the role microtransit solutions like on-demand van programs in bringing riders back to public transportation despite their frequent dismissal as being too costly or inefficient. The Denver Connector is one such example of on-demand mobility services offered in partnership with public transit agencies across the country.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) defines microtransit as “a privately owned and operated shared transportation system that can offer fixed routes and schedules, as well as flexible routes and on-demand scheduling. The vehicles generally include vans and buses.”

Once hailed as an innovative urban mobility solution, these days microtransit critics often decry the concept as too expensive or too difficult to scale—claiming that these typically publicly offered on-demand flexible route service provided through vehicles smaller than a bus (think: van) will eventually need to look more like fixed-route transit or limit trips. Even when transportation pundits concede that microtransit makes sense in certain parts of some cities, those critics typically argue that those cities are sprawling places where transit shouldn’t be heavily subsidized anyway.

The arguments aren't new, and many seem to be constructed to take down microtransit rather than assist transit agencies in figuring out solutions to boost ridership numbers that have been falling for decades on a per capita basis. Today, as transit agencies across the US continue working hard to recover from the pandemic, these criticisms now raise important questions for public transportation with implications beyond microtransit alone.

As part of the innovation team at Los Angeles Metro, InfraStrategies (the article's authors) has participated in developing the agency’s recent microtransit pilot programs—Mobility on Demand and Metro Micro—and they now work with transit agencies around the country that are thinking strategically about adding forms of on-demand service. They are "advocates for the idea that microtransit can help agencies adapt to the new travel patterns of the post-pandemic era."

In this Bloomberg article, the writers review:

• How many in the industry perceive fixed-route bus and microtransit as two distinct modes to be compared to one another—a distinction that risks throwing the baby out with the bathwater, especially with microtransit technology still relatively new.
• How microtransit can make traditional buses better—i.e., dynamic routing, operators with real-time information, etc.
• The problems with one of biggest concerns from critics about cost re: microtransit (which so far has proven to be more expensive on a per-person basis than traditional transit) and assumes a fixed budget for public transit where any investment in microtransit takes away from buses.

Source: Bloomberg

Related News:

Uprouted: Exploring Microtransit in the United States from the Eno Center for Transportation

Microtransit: Right-sizing transportation to improve community mobility from Local Government Corporation