Photo: The Moover about the mico-transit pilot happening in the Town of Windsor. Courtesy photo.
In an area without public transportation, the on-demand service may fill in gaps
by Olga Peters, Vermont Business Magazine Win Brown, interim CEO of Mount Ascutney Hospital and Health Center watches the MicroMOO from his office window. All day, the cow-print van ferries patients to and from the hospital.
“I can look out at the front drive, and it drops and drops and drops all day,” he said. “It’s really a great thing.”
The all-wheel van, decorated with a cow-print pattern, is part of a three-year pilot testing an on-demand public transportation service. Like a private car service, riders within the town limits can schedule a pick-up through a phone call or app, and within 30 minutes, the MicroMOO arrives.
The service is free, and riders can use it for any reason, from a doctor’s appointment to meeting a friend for coffee. The MOOver's other on-demand services provide rides only for specific types of appointments, such as medical.
In January, the program marked year one of a three-year pilot funded through the state Agency of Transportation (AOT). During its first year, the MicroMOO completed 6,276 trips for 198 different riders.
Most trips averaged two miles. Riders used the service for:
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Personal: 38 percent
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Shopping: 28 percent
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Medical: 19 percent
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To get to work: 11 percent
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To travel to school: four percent
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An average of 25 to 30 people a day utilize the service. Friday is the most popular travel day.
Randy Schoonmaker hopes to increase daily ridership to at least 40.
Photo: The Moover about the mico-transit pilot happening in the Town of Windsor. Courtesy photo.
Schoonmaker is CEO of Southeast Vermont Transit (SEVT) which operates the MOOver. He said Windsor was an ideal community to test the on-demand service. The community lacked public transit and had multiple “trip generators” — or reasons people would want to travel — such as the hospital, high school, senior housing complexes, and places of work.
Transportation, or the lack thereof, is a barrier for many in Windsor County to access work, appointments, or grocery shopping.
The MOOver started 28 years ago as the Deerfield Valley Transit Association. In 2015, it acquired Connecticut River Transit (The Current) in Rockingham and changed its name to Southeast Vermont Transit. SEVT serves Windham and southern Windsor Counties.
According to Schoonmaker, in 2022, AOT announced funding for 12 micro-transit pilots. SEVT submitted three applications: Brattleboro, Springfield, and Windsor.
The organization ultimately chose Windsor because it lacked any form of public transport, and an on-demand program could reach parts of the community that a fixed-route program could not.
The nonprofit purchased a small all-wheel drive van capable of transporting seven passengers and three wheelchairs for the pilot.
So far, he is pleased with the micro-transit program.
“The reality is, it’s everything we hoped for,” he said. “I just hope we can get more rides and sustain it long-term.”
The program is fully funded - as long as the pilot is running. To keep it going, however, SEVT needs sustainable funding.
Schoonmaker said on-demand bus programs cost more than fixed-route programs. For the right situation, however, they can be ideal. For example, Brattleboro’s fixed-route program is booming, and Schoonmaker feels an on-demand program would not increase daytime ridership. But, adding a nighttime on-demand option might enhance the program, he said.
Windsor’s micro-transit pilot is one of several the AOT has funded, including Barre, Montpelier, Middlebury, Morrisville, and Manchester.
Schoonmaker said a core of eight people helped design the Windsor service. He credits Amanda Jordan Smith with conducting the bulk of the public outreach.
Jordan Smith is the program lead for Volunteers in Action (ViA) at Mount Ascutney Hospital. According to Schoonmaker, she brought more than 30 human services agencies and organizations into the initial planning process.
“We really got deep-down grassroots input, and I never could have gotten that without Amanda’s help,” he said.
“I think that’s what helped launch the service so successfully is we gave people what they wanted because we did our homework,” he added.
As the ViA lead for the hospital, Jordan Smith focuses on helping community members access healthcare, increase food security, and reduce rural isolation. She works to connect community members in seven towns with volunteers who help with tasks such as driving people to medical appointments.
“This pilot has worked in tandem with our volunteer services to meet the needs of our community, and we look forward to further collaboration,” she wrote in an email.
Jordan Smith advocated expanding the SEVT service by connecting the MicroMOO with existing public transportation in neighboring communities. Her efforts paid off. The MicroMOO now connects to a bi-monthly bus service with stops in Claremont, NH.
“Because you know what is even better than free public transportation routes? Free public transportation routes that connect to each other!” She wrote.
In her opinion, the MicroMOO and public transport services like it “provide people with a safe, dignified, and fun way to meet their needs, age in place, and maintain agency and choice regardless of income.”
So far, the service has received positive feedback from riders.
Schoonmaker realizes people might feel intimidated by the program because it is new and requires they to reserve a pick-up time. Still, he expects once people try it, they’ll find a use for it.
“There’s no strings attached,” he said.
Jordan Smith said the hospital will continue to support the program.
“I believe both in the mission of this project and its sustainability,” she wrote. “In the next few months, we plan to continue to advertise and encourage ridership, improving our outreach materials and thinking creatively about how to continue to foster excitement surrounding this incredible resource.”
She added, “I must also applaud the staff who operate the MicroMOO, as they provide a welcoming, destigmatizing, and relaxing experience for riders — and I share this not only as an anecdote but also as a rider of the MicroMOO myself.”
To learn more about the program visit www.moover.com/windsor-microtransit
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