Traditional transit networks do not offer the flexibility required by residents for their unique transit needs. Multiple vehicle fleets are often required by agencies to meet residents’ unique trip requests, limiting rider options, and increasing agency costs.

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Take Colette, Marnie, and Joseph, for example.

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• Collette commutes from her rural home to the city’s urban center each day for work
• Marnie is a paratransit rider that uses the service for all of her mobility needs
• Joseph is a stay-at-home dad who needs to run multiple errands around town

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In a traditional transit network, three different vehicle fleets would be deployed to satisfy Colette, Marnie, and Joseph’s requests.

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• The fixed-route bus that Collette uses to commute each day only runs twice daily and does not align with her work schedule. She also notices that she is frequently the only passenger on the bus.

• The paratransit service is incredibly busy, so Marnie often needs to book an entire day in advance, limiting the flexibility of her daily schedule.
• Lastly, Joseph finds himself transferring between infrequent buses to get to each of his errands, often spending a long time waiting around or having to walk.

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The agency wants to make life easier for these three distinct passenger groups, but with limited resources, they aren’t sure how.

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How Does RideCo’s Microtransit Service Integrator Work?

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This is where RideCo comes in. With our Microtransit Service Integrator, transit agencies can offer specialized service to each group of passengers using a single fleet. This is accomplished in three basic steps:

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1. First, transit agencies must determine which use cases they would like to service. RideCo’s Microtransit Service Integrator enables a wide variety of use cases such as:

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• Travel within a zone
• Travel between zones
• Travel to or from a connection point
• Passenger type
• Time of day
• And more!

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2. Next, transit agencies can customize the type of services that passengers can receive. You can customize:

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• Doorstep service or virtual stops
• Trip frequency
• Maximum time in vehicle
• Trip pickup or drop-off times to or from a point of interest
• And more!

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3. Lastly, RideCo’s Microtransit Service Integrator combines these together to be fulfilled by a single fleet. Instead of dedicating fleets to each of these use cases or manually ensuring the above rules are followed, RideCo does the work for you. Each of the passenger groups will be served according to their specific needs with the same fleet!

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How Does RideCo’s Microtransit Service Integrator Help?

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For each group of passengers, RideCo customizes the level of service these passengers need then combines them together with the Microtransit Service Integrator.

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• For intercity commuting, we set up virtual stop service with hourly frequency.

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Collette is now able to book a ride more frequently, with service running every hour instead of twice daily. The transit agency is able to support the higher frequency because they aren’t running an empty bus to these rural communities anymore.

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• For the paratransit users, we set up doorstep service with 15-minute wait times.

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Marnie is now able to pre-book her rides or book them on-demand. Due to the efficiency of an increased fleet size, she can continue to get doorstep service to support her mobility needs while improving the flexibility she has in her daily schedule.

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• To replace the fixed route, we set up virtual stops across the city with 20-minute wait times.

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Joseph can now run errands where the bus didn’t go and without connections. Joseph’s day runs smoother and faster with his new ability to go from virtual stop to virtual stop at the click of a button!

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RideCo’s Microtransit Service Integrator doesn’t just solve residents’ challenges, though. The feature helps transit agencies too! With a single fleet accomplishing all rider requests, agencies achieve greater efficiency and flexibility, all while reducing costs. Ridership is increased and the agency is able to reduce the fleet size and increase its utilization.

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The Microtransit Service Integrator is being used across RideCo’s services to meet our transit partners’ needs.

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• In San Antonio, Texas, we are using the Service Integrator to ensure 20-minute frequency service to key transit hubs with the pickup and drop-off times aligned to the commuter bus schedule.
• In Antelope Valley, California, the Service Integrator enables us to have zone-based pricing.
• In San Bernardino County, California, we have combined doorstep service for ADA passengers with virtual stops for the general public.

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Contact us to learn more about how your transit agency can improve the convenience and efficiency of its service by consolidating fleets with RideCo’s Microtransit Service Integrator.