Whatever Happened to Microtransit?

While public transit ridership has increased every year from 2021 onward — most notably by 29 percent from 2021 to 2022, as the pandemic waned — it still has not reached pre-pandemic levels by a wide margin. Since peaking at a total ridership of nearly 10.6 billion in 2008, 2023 saw 7.16 billion rides, a decrease of 32 percent.

Microtransit is a type of “demand-response” transportation, which the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) defines as “any non-fixed route system of transporting individuals that requires advanced scheduling by the customer, including services provided by public entities, nonprofits, and private providers.”¹ Demand-response transit peaked in 2014, with 2.33 million rides, and has still not reached pre-pandemic levels. The decline began in 2015 and continued until 2021. By 2023, there were only 7.16 million microtransit rides, a decrease of 50 percent from its 2014 peak.

Microtransit has made up only 2 percent of public transit ridership from 2008 to 2024, with no increase during the pandemic. However, one bright spot is that ridership of microtransit only decreased by 19 percent from 2008 to 2023, whereas across all public transportation, that decrease is larger, at 32 percent.²

While it’s unclear if microtransit will ever reach pre-pandemic levels or will ever grow to more than about 2 percent of the total public transportation ridership, ridership has increased since its low of 1.11 million rides in 2021. We’ll continue to watch this space to see if this microtransit trend has staying power.

Accessibility

In theory, microtransit can offer public transportation for places that have traditionally lacked it, such as rural areas. For example, the city of Arlington, Texas, started a pilot program with VIA in 2017 to serve its population of around 400,000. As of August 14, 2023, the service now operates under the name “Arlington On-Demand,” as it transitioned from a pilot program to an established city service in 2022.³

Efficiency

Certain groups do not believe in microtransit as a viable public transportation option. The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), which represents transit and allied workers in the U.S. and Canada, released a report in April 2024 report titled “The False Promise of Microtransit” that argues that microtransit cannot scale to meet demand. Fewer vehicles mean less efficient routes compared to public buses with fixed routes, which leads to more expenses. Per passenger, microtransit can cost two to three times more than a fixed-route bus.⁴

For example, Los Angeles’s microtransit pilot program cost nearly eight times as much as the lowest-performing fixed routes in 2023, with a $1 ride costing the Metro $43.⁵ Even with cost-cutting, it was still three times as expensive as these low-performing fixed routes.