These models offer flexible, on-demand transportation options
byJen Healy and Rachel Scott
It’s no secret that western Massachusetts has fewer public transportation options than Greater Boston, and the further into the Commonwealth’s 170 rural towns you go, the more the options dwindle.
It’s also no secret that a lack of transportation options can create or worsen serious challenges for residents. When people don’t have access to transportation, getting to medical appointments or the grocery store can become close to, or truly, impossible. Lack of transportation limits residents’ employment opportunities and housing options. These challenges are exacerbated in rural areas, where increased distance between destinations and lack of sidewalks and streetlights make non-car travel more difficult and dangerous.
What may be less well known are some of the creative ways communities are responding to meet the transportation needs of their residents. The Quaboag Connector is one of these creative solutions. It was developed as a public-private partnership with the town of Ware and the Quaboag Valley Community Development Corporation, and has now expanded to include other partnerships as well.
Through a five-year grant from the Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts and other partnerships, the Quaboag Connector has expanded its general public service and launched programs to provide dedicated senior transportation, free rides for veterans, discounted transportation for employment, and free, non-emergency medical transportation through a partnership with Baystate Wing Hospital. On average, more than 1,000 rides are completed monthly in the 10-town service area.
The Quaboag Connector is meeting an important need in the community, connecting hundreds of seniors, people with disabilities, and the general public to medical appointments, employment opportunities, and visits with family and friends.
The Quaboag Connector is a type of “micro-transit” service. Micro-transit models are smaller, more flexible, on-demand transportation options that are often found in places that are not served, or are underserved, by regular bus service. Micro-transit options are being implemented in more places than the Quaboag Valley.
There are at least two other similar models in western Massachusetts — the Tri-Town Connector in Great Barrington and the Franklin Regional Transit Authority’s Access Program in Franklin County. These services provide a way for people to physically attend to many basic human needs – like doctor’s appointments, the grocery store, employment or educational opportunities, places of worship, and social activities – which is a key component of being able to live a dignified and healthy life.
Micro-transit options are lifelines for many without access to other transportation. People should be able to access the things they need in order to thrive, including safe, accessible transportation options at the times they need to go, and to the places they need to go.
Everyone deserves to be able to engage their social networks and attend to appointments and errands regardless of where they live. The proliferation of these programs across the Commonwealth makes clear that lack of access to transportation is a systemic problem, and that solutions are more effective when the lived experience and expertise of the local community is centered. The ridership levels and amount of demand for these micro-transit services demonstrate that transportation models like this work, and are meeting a real need.
Consistent funding for these types of micro-transit models should be prioritized at the state level. They are part of the fabric that connects people to places they need to go. Right now, services like the Quaboag Connector are mostly grant-funded or are public-private partnerships. The continuation of grant programs and partnership opportunities are key to implementing these transit services, but in order to expand these important services in communities that need them, funding opportunities must also be expanded.
The Regional Transit Innovation Grant program, which was funded at $15 million in the FY24 budget, received 60 applications before the application deadline in January. The grant awards were recently published including one for the Quaboag Connector. However, this grant is only for a single two-year period. The over-subscription of these grants indicates the undeniable need for these services.
State leaders should respond by ensuring the inclusion of funding in the final FY25 budget for these important, community-led solutions. We call on state leaders to include $15 million for the Regional Transit Innovation Grant program in the final FY25 budget. We urge state leaders to expand a newly proposed $10 million grant program aimed at addressing gaps in connectivity between regional transit authority service areas, to also allow micro-transit providers to apply for funding to bridge transportation gaps.
More consistent funding sources at the state level for micro-transit models would assure residents of more sustainable, reliable service – and service expansion – for the thousands of residents who rely on these micro-transit networks to get to the doctor, pharmacy, or work. The Quaboag Connector, and other micro-transit systems like it, represent a local transportation solution that improves lives. That is, by now, also no secret.
Jen Healy is the rural transit program manager at the Quaboag Valley Community Development Corporation. Rachel Lea Scott is a community engagement specialist at Transportation for Massachusetts (T4MA). This op-ed is part of T4MA’s The Money Train: A Learning Series on Transportation Funding.
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