A Proposal for Microtransit in Lexington
In February 6th’s Environmental Quality and Public Works (EQPW) Committee, At-Large Councilmember Chuck Ellinger will presented a proposal for a new microtransit service in Lexington.
Microtransit is a broad term used to describe public transportation that typically provides door-to-door or curb-to-curb service using smaller vehicles like cars or vans. Microtransit has come up as a talking point in Lexington over the past year, largely due to advocacy from BUILD, a coalition of Lexington churches that advocates for various policies. BUILD believes a microtransit service could fill existing transit gaps for people who live too far away from a bus stop who cannot afford private microtransit services like Uber or Lyft, and for whom Lextran’s paratransit Wheels service is too unreliable.
Based on information in the Committee packet, a microtransit service in Lexington could operate in certain zones exclusively.
Vehicles would roam their zone during operating hours, and users could book a ride through an app at a price point similar to existing public transit rates (Lextran’s fixed-route rates are $1 per trip).
Rides booked must begin and end within the user’s zone. Some rides could provide door-to-door service, but most rides would pick up a user from a “virtual stop” — a location on the app’s map that is a dedicated pick-up/drop-off point for the service. Wait times for rides would be 30 minutes or less.
Below is a map of potential microtransit zones identified by Lextran in their 2022 Comprehensive Operations Analysis.
Most of the information in the presentation covers similar microtransit services in cities operated by Via, a transportation company that provides various transit services to communities. If this project were pursued, Lextran would put out a Request for Proposals (RFP) to select a service contractor — Via is not the prefered vendor for a microtransit service at the moment.
Councilmember Ellinger proposed that Council set aside $400,000 from the recently created Capital Project Fund, with the hope of securing a matching grant from a federal program that the $400,000 would supplement. This potential grant would fund a pilot program for microtransit in either thes outh zones or north zones in Lexington. The pilot program, and its eventual permanent version, would be operated by Lextran with financial support from LFUCG.
Councilmembers wanted additional details about the proposal, and potential additional federal funding opportunities. Chris Evelia, Transportation Planning Manager for LFUCG, said that while several Federal grant opportunities could potentially fund a microtransit service, many of them are incredibly competitive and are not offered on a regular schedule for applicants.
There were also questions about starting a new service, rather than enhancing existing Lextran services. Much of the discussion around microtransit has been presenting it as a better alternative to Lextran’s Wheels service, which provides door-to-door service for disabled residents who can’t ride the bus. Last week, the Lexington-Herald Leader reported on challenges with the Wheels service. Some Councilmembers expressed interest in finding ways to improve Wheels before creating a new transit service.
