Greenway Public Transportation seeks local match to expand fare-free microtransit after ridership jump

Michael Bowman, executive director of Greenway Public Transportation, presented an overview of services and a funding request to the Board of Commissioners on July 21. Greenway operates demand-response, FlexRoute and a two-year-old same-day microtransit service across a four-county region including Burke County, Bowman said. “Demand response being, like a paratransitor, advanced service you can call anywhere in the county, 72 hours in advance … microtransit is our new service we started providing, and it's the same day service,” Bowman said. Bowman said most revenue comes from Federal Transit Administration and state grants that historically cover about half of operating expenses; Medicaid transportation contracts supply local match for some trips. He said the FlexRoute and microtransit operations cost about $520,000 per year and that Greenway seeks roughly 25% local contributions from counties and partner providers to support those routes and keep flex service fare-free. Bowman said a fare-free pilot for the Burke County FlexRoute doubled ridership in one month from 363 to 788 and continued rising to 1,115 by May. “Going fare free doubled our ridership for the flex route,” he said.Bowman described technology upgrades, including live automatic passenger counts and a rider-facing app, and said the data will be used to reroute services and expand hours to better capture workforce trips. He estimated microtransit trip reasons at roughly 50% medical, 20% workforce and 30% general errands and said microtransit fares are $2.50 per trip. Bowman also said Greenway contracted to provide Medicaid trips through managed-care brokers and that a recent staffing increase reduced waitlists and expanded service capacity.The board moved to accept the report as presented (motion by Commissioner Barry; vote 5–0).