As METRO increases investment in microtransit, Houston City Council member expresses skepticism – Houston Public Media

A month after Harris County’s METRO transit authority approved up to $1.05 million for a microtransit shuttle service, Houston City Council member Letitia Plummer is asking about the city’s plans to also increase its spending on the service.

The city’s nonprofit Evolve Houston first partnered with the for-profit Ryde shuttle service last summer. to provide free rides to Second Ward and Third Ward residentsIn June, transit authority METRO increased its spending commitment to fund the partnership through January.

The Houston City Council was poised to follow suit, with Wednesday’s council meeting agenda increasing its spending authority with Evolve from $281,000 to $1,331,000. But Plummer plans to postpone the vote. She stressed METRO’s recent decision to shelve a high-speed bus line known as the University Corridorwhich would have lasted 25 miles.

“METRO just eliminated the University Line, and I’m against that,” Plummer said. “(Microtransit) doesn’t contribute to the larger mobility footprint that the city of Houston needs, so I’m going to look at that a little bit more closely… Can we use the money in a different way to serve more people?”

Elizabeth Gonzalez Brock is the new chair of the Harris County METRO Transit Authority. METRO recently reduced high-level bus service linesand Brock is interested in expanding microtransit.

“Right now, people are struggling to find their way to the first and last mile,” Brock says. “How do they get from home, especially if they have to walk 10 blocks in the heat or rain? It’s very difficult to access transit, so microtransit can help supplement that path.”

Brock’s vision for microtransit is to operate like an Uber or Lyft ride-sharing service.

“For example, a person can use an app or a phone call to be picked up curbside and taken within a three- to five-mile radius to the library, the grocery store or some other form of transportation,” Brock said. “The service picks up multiple people along the way and drops them off along the way. So it’s a form of ridesharing, and it’s not just putting more cars on the road. But we will look at putting out requests for proposals and getting proposals on what that would look like.”

Former METRO board member Lex Frieden is skeptical “because if you take Uber and Lyft as an example, they are not disability-friendly.”

“I think it’s an experiment,” Frieden said. “Microtransit is a theory. It hasn’t been tested effectively… It’s a hypothetical question: Will it work or not? I don’t mind experimenting with it, but I’m a little cautious.”

While city funding for Evolve remains on the agenda for this week, Plummer is likely to postpone it until next Wednesday.