It's a Bus! It's a Van! It's...Microtransit?

Microtransit is in vogue. Cultivating a strong understanding for what it can and can't do will help prevent you from getting rizzed up by this charismatic mode of transportation.

I’ve been trying to cover Transit Planning 101 in the past series of posts. Check out the Transit Planning 101 tab of my website if you want to revisit my past articles on this subject.

Microtransit is solidly Transit Planning 102, if not 201, not because it’s exceptionally complicated, but because successful application requires you to have a strong understanding of why you’re pursuing it as a mode in the first place.

Common Reasons for Pursuing Microtransit

If you’re using microtransit to solve the first/last mile problem¹, bike/ped improvements and allowing more dense, mixed-use development around transit² are probably more more robust, long term and cost effective solutions.

This is particularly true if you’re pursuing Microtransit in urbanized areas. Check out the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) Multimodal Streets Design Guide if you want to learn about how to make bike/ped improvements. Check out Pace suburban bus’s Transit Supportive Guidelines if you want to learn about what transit supportive land use looks like.

If you’re using microtransit to replace fixed route transit service, make sure the service you’re replacing is not super productive.

If the fixed route service carries more than 5 passengers per hour, microtransit will struggle to support this demand in a cost effective way. Check out the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) Service Standard document for guidance on transitioning fixed route service to demand response (microtransit) service.

If you’re using microtransit to increase overall ridership, stop it.

Fixed route transit achieves its productivity by making people come to it and aggregating those trips. Jarrett Walker calls this being on the way. Microtransit sacrifices this advantage to provide more individualized, direct trips to fewer people.

This bus serves several people by aggregating their trips.

If you’re using microtransit to provide coverage service where there is not enough demand to support traditional fixed route transit service, you’re on solid footing.

Microtransit is good at providing coverage service. However, whenever you’re providing coverage service, it is super important to regularly ask yourself why³. There are plenty of valid answers to this why, but none of them change the high opportunity cost of coverage service.

Opportunity Cost (n). Economics. - The value of the next best alternative that is given up when making a decision.

The Bay Area Transit Authority (BATA) in Traverse City, MI⁴ operates a the Bayline, a high frequency transit service, as well as several coverage routes. In 2019, the Bayline consumed 30% of the agency resources ($$), but provided 44% of the agency’s total ridership. In 2021, the gap had closed a bit⁵, but the Bayline still delivered more ridership than it consumed agency resources. BATA also operates a network of fixed-routes, known as Village Loops that serve the rural areas in the surrounding county. These services consume about 33% of agency resources, but provide 20-23% of the agency’s total ridership. The opportunity cost of Village Loop service is high. Every additional dollar spent on Village Loop service that serves relatively few people represents a dollar that could be spent on Bayline service that serves more people. This is not to say that Village Loop service (or coverage service) isn’t valuable; but it comes with tradeoffs that it behooves us to be open about. The best approach I’ve seen to managing this tradeoff is to decide explicitly (set an actual percentage) what share of agency resources should go to coverage service, and hold the line.

BATA Ridership per Revenue Hour

If you’re using microtransit because its cost per revenue hour is (generally) cheaper than that of fixed route service, you should check out this Youtube Video, because you may be falling victim to a Red Herring logical fallacy.

I mentioned in my article “Is the Bus Still Running” that since the pandemic, the cost of the inputs of operating transit service (diesel fuel, operator wages, electricity) have increased, while the budgets for operating transit service have not.

This increase in cost presents a valid question on how to deliver transit service cost effectively. However, replacing expensive fixed route service with the capacity to carry a lot of people with cheaper, microtransit service with the capacity to carry fewer people replaces one problem with another. What happens when you match what you were spending on fixed route transit, but you’re only carrying a fraction of the people? Are you still achieving your sustainability goals under this approach? Here’s a (messy) flowchart I developed to understand when to use demand response (microtransit) service.

Now that I’ve caveated microtransit within an inch of its life, let’s define it!

What is Microtransit?

Microtransit is the latest iteration of an old mode of transportation; Demand Response Transportation.

Demand Response Transportation (DRT) (n). Transit Planning - A mode of transportation where vehicles do not operate on a fixed route or schedule. Instead, vehicles are requested by passengers and the transit operator dispatches a vehicle to take the passenger from Point A to Point B.

Demand response transit is not a new transit mode. However, the widespread adoption of cell phones⁶ has facilitated some iteration on this mode. Instead of calling in to request a ride, people can now request a ride from their phone. Boom! Microtransit is born.

Microtransit (n) . Transit Planning - App Powered Demand Response Transit.

Under this general definition, dozens of services, operating in different contexts, with different vehicles and different operating rules have entered operation under the label “microtransit.” Here’s a rundown from the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) that speaks to the range of services that have or currently wear the microtransit label⁷.

Let’s get back to Demand Response Transit

Really. Let’s just call it demand response transit. The term “microtransit” communicates more uncertainty than information. So what do we know about demand response transit? Mainly, that it’s good at providing coverage service, and its capacity is necessarily lower than fixed route transit service⁸. I’ve developed the following graphic that helps me understand the inherent tradeoffs and limitations of DRT. I hope it can help you in your efforts to understand demand response transit the next time you encounter it!

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Final Thoughts

If you’re pursuing microtransit demand response service, you should have a strong understanding of why before doing anything else. Microtransit has rizz. It promises to make the bus as sexy and convenient as Uber, for a fraction of the cost. It accomplishes this through heavy public subsidy, particularly if your metric is cost per rider.

Mass transit’s value shouldn’t come from its ability to rizz you up⁹, it should come from its capacity to get a lot of people where they need to go in a safe, pleasant and reliable way. Good transit accomplishes this necessarily.

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If you enjoyed this post, check out the rest of my articles here!

1. First-last mile refers to the journey between the bus stop or rail station and the final destination. Bad land use makes this a challenge

2. This is all Transit Oriented Development (TOD) is. You don’t need a formal plan; you just have to change the zoning code.

3. In general, planning should ask itself “why?” a lot more than it currently does

4. Super cute place, btw. You should check it out if you get the chance

5. During the pandemic, BATA had to reduce service frequency to every 20 minutes due to a shortage of bus drivers. They have since restored service

6. And the existence of companies like Uber and Lyft

7. Not on this list is RideKC Bridj, the first attempt at microtransit service in the Kansas City Area, the first attempts at app-based microtransit service in the United States, and my first professional experience with microtransit. I interned at RideKC during this pilot and supported the training of the Microtransit drivers.

8. In 2023, the most productive fixed route bus service in the United States carried 71 passengers per hour, per the National Transit Database. In the same year, the most productive demand response service carried 15 passengers per hour. The national average: 2.4 passengers per hour.

9. This is not an excuse for the bus to be an awful experience.