A switch to a microtransit system will cut down on riders’ travel times and help them get to important places faster, say city leaders.
“We’re changing all of our performance metrics for public transit,” said Dan Hoffman, city manager of Winchester, Va., a small town in the Shenandoah Valley. He meant that they would be paying less attention to metrics like the number of riders or the time between buses.
Winchester is a small city with only 30,000 people spread out over 9.3 square miles. It is getting rid of its fixed-route transit network in favor of an on-demand system with smaller cars. A transit technology platform called Via will provide the technology that will connect vehicles with people who want to take them.
“We will begin to measure it by how much it costs to get to food.” How much does it take to get to school? How much does it cost to get a job?” Hoffman used to be the chief innovation officer for Montgomery County, Maryland. He said this on a panel at the Smart Cities Connect Conference and Expo on November 29.
One of the best things about the change is that it will cut down on riders’ wait and travel times. People have to wait about 70 minutes between cars these days. That wait time is cut down to about 10 minutes with a new on-demand network. These days, it takes 84 minutes to get from the middle of town to the store’s site on the edge of town. With the new method, this trip will only take sixteen minutes. “All of a sudden, a rider of choice… this becomes a much better choice,” Hoffman said.
Moving to a citywide dynamic microtransit system will make transit a better way to get around for the 650 households that don’t have a car and for about a third of the households that only have one car. This means that about 30 percent of the population has “the potential need for transit,” according to Hoffman.
It’s the kind of change that helps the economy grow by making it more realistic for people to get to work and gives people more shops and fresh food options. Heather Arnold, senior manager for Economic Development for Physical Stores at Amazon, said on the panel, “Opening grocery stores in any way possible basically brings in more customers.” “What if there were better ways to get people to come in?”
“All of a sudden, a rider of choice… this becomes a much better choice,” Hoffman said.
Moving to a citywide dynamic microtransit system will make transit a better way to get around for the 650 households that don’t have a car and for about a third of the households that only have one car. This means that about 30 percent of the population has “the potential need for transit,” according to Hoffman.
It’s the kind of change that helps the economy grow by making it more realistic for people to get to work and gives people more shops and fresh food options. Heather Arnold, senior manager for Economic Development for Physical Stores at Amazon, said on the panel, “Opening grocery stores in any way possible basically brings in more customers.” “What if there were better ways to get people to come in?”
Arnold said that the market forces that are needed to open a food store don’t always exist in many neighborhoods because of how much it costs to open and how much money it needs to make. So, “food deserts” might not be as bad if places can figure out ways to make it easier for people to get to the stores they already have.
“You can’t take a chance and fail.” As Arnold said about the idea of opening a new store, “You just can’t,” because grocery shops don’t make a lot of money. This spring, Winchester’s new public transportation system will start running. At first, rides will be free. After that, they will cost about $1 each.
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