Inside the new Uber-style bus service in Sacramento. Will you ditch your car?

Call it public transit’s answer to Uber.

Starting Monday, bus and rail agency Sacramento Regional Transit will launch a major expansion of an experimental service that invites residents and workers in nine local communities, including downtown, to leave their cars in the garage and instead summon a door-to-door ride-share shuttle bus called SmaRT Ride.

Transit officials are billing it as the largest “microtransit” network in the country, a 42-shuttle bus system they say could help reduce car congestion, save people the cost of parking, and help SacRT lasso new riders in the era of app-based ride sharing.

It also represents SacRT’s biggest service addition since the agency introduced light rail trains 33 years ago. The six new areas to be served by microtransit are:

• A combined service area including downtown, midtown, East Sacramento and a sliver of Land Park
• Arden area
  
  
• Carmichael
• Folsom
• North Sacramento
• Gerber-Calvine

SmaRT Ride already is up and running in three areas: Citrus Heights-Antelope-Orangevale since mid 2018, followed by service in the Franklin-South Sacramento area and in Rancho Cordova.

Microtransit remains experimental, though, and there are plenty of questions about its long-term viability.

Transportation analyst Daniel Sperling, a UC Davis professor and the California Air Resources Board member, calls microtransit a “great concept” to help legacy public transit agencies remain viable in a changing new world of customized transportation options, led by ride sharing pioneers Uber and Lyft.

“What they are doing is creating a service model that is more responsive to the public,” Sperling said. But, he said, transit companies will have to be committed, smart and adaptive to make microtransit sustainable.

“You need to provide enough of it to make it reliable,” he said. “You can’t go half(way). It will fail.”

Although microtransit is a premium service compared to traditional fixed-route bus lines and light rail, SacRT is charging its regular $2.50 fare per ride. The transit agency also is allowing groups of five or more to ride for free, as long as they all get on and off at the same place. Elementary and high school students who have free RT passes also will be allowed to ride without paying.

How do rideshare buses work?

Like Uber or Lyft, riders typically will use a smart phone to summon a shuttle bus to pick them up. They also can telephone or book the ride online via computer. The service is not quite as seamless and efficient as Uber, however. Riders will share the bus with others, and will have to wait their turn while the computer GPS system determines who to drop off first.

Each SmaRT Ride usage also has to start and stop in a single defined geographic area, such as Folsom or Carmichael. Most of those defined areas stretch up to a half-dozen miles or more. For instance, the new downtown area stretches from Old Sacramento to Sacramento State, a distance of nearly five miles. But that means you cannot call a shuttle in the downtown area and have it take you to Arden Fair Mall in the Arden zone.

SacRT has published maps of those geographic zones at www.sacrt.com/apps/smart-ride/

Riders with a Connect Card or ZipPass can pay a single $2.50 fare for a ride that includes light rail, fixed-route bus and a transfer to or from microtransit. That allows them to combine services and travel longer distances. Riders who pay in cash will be charged 25 cents for a transfer.

Also, because of tight quarters on many streets, pick ups and drop offs in the six new service areas will be made at the nearest intersection where it is feasible to stop a bus. That is different from the three existing service areas, where pick-ups and drop-offs typically are at the curb directly in front of a person’s house.

That means some central city users will have to walk one to three blocks to a “virtual bus stop.” The app will tell you which corner to go to in order to meet the shuttle. The cell phone app will allow riders to track their shuttle bus’ progress, and it alerts them when the shuttle is about to arrive at the meeting place.

Fares, grants will pay for bus service

SacRT has signed a deal with a private company called Via to provide the software program for the system. Via currently runs a similar service in West Sacramento, where city officials say it has been popular.

The service is paid for in part by riders, and also with $12 million grant from Sacramento County Measure A transportation sales tax funds.

“If we can show that this works, then we can look for additional funds to keep the service (permanently) and expand it to other communities,” SacRT spokeswoman Jessica Gonzalez said.

UC Davis researcher Sperling said microtransit, like all transit, will need extra grants or subsidies. Typically, rider fare payments cover only 20 to 25 percent of the cost of public transit.

If SacRT can show that its microtransit service reduces the number of cars on freeways and streets, more people will be willing to subsidize it with transportation tax revenues, said Sperling, who recently authored a book on the future of transportation: “Three Revolutions: Steering Automated, Shared and Electric Vehicles to a Better Future.”

Incoming SacRT board chairman Steve Hansen said the expansion of the SmaRT Ride represents another step in a several-year modernization process undertaken by SacRT. Previously, the agency had been losing passengers for nearly a decade and had resorted to tapping emergency reserves to balance its budget.

“Riders are seeing the fruits of our rebirth,” Hansen said. “SacRT is fulfilling its mission and serving Sacramento in a more relevant way than it ever has. We are showing the public what meaningful transit can do for them.”

For more information, go to SacRT’s SmaRT Ride web page at SacRT.com/smartride