BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (WCAX) – It’s where the ride app Uber meets public transportation. A new, free, on-demand service in Brattleboro targets second- and third-shift workers.
If you live in Southern Vermont, you have likely noticed the cow-colored public transportation. Now, that ride service is on demand during the evening hours.
“It’s basically Uber with a van,” said Randy Schoonmaker of Southeast Vermont Transit.
The MOOver, as it’s known, has fixed stops all over Brattleboro. Rides on the buses can also be scheduled in advance during the day. But the free service is not always available.
“Our fixed route bus service ends around 5 p.m. or 5:30 p.m. every day. It’s very well-traveled, very well-used. But after that, people are basically stuck without transportation,” Schoonmaker said.
However, that’s changing. Now, from 5 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, riders in Brattleboro can use their phones to reserve late-night transportation.
“Half of the county’s households that don’t have access to a vehicle live here,” said Jen Stromsten of the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation.
The Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation helped secure some of the funding to get the wheels in motion for the pilot project.
“Transportation is everything for people who are trying to achieve economic mobility, who are trying to get somewhere in life,” Stromsten said.
That includes second- and third-shift jobs, which experts say are in high demand and often pay better wages.
“People want to be here, people are happy here, we have great jobs but having transportation options really helps it just pencil out, frankly,” Stromsten said.
The new microtransit program is run through Southeast Vermont Transit, one of seven public transit companies across the region. It will measure the success of the new service in a couple of different ways.
“We are shooting for 50 rides a day, which we think is very obtainable in this area, in this market. Secondly, and much more importantly, it’s the impact we are making on people’s lives,” Schoonmaker said.
The program is currently funded through the end of next February. The company is looking for additional revenue sources to keep it “MOOving” into the future.
