When a small city abruptly parked all its buses to launch a publicly subsidized van service offering $1.50 trips anywhere in town, only one of its bus drivers — a big-city transplant — went along for the ride. Milton Barnes used to oversee packed subway stations in Washington, D.C., a…
This photo provided by the city of Wilson, N.C., shows a RiDE van parked on the city street in Wilson, N.C. The city of Wilson, North Carolina, ended its bus service in September 2020 to offer on-demand van trips anywhere in town for less than $3 a ride. Even during the pandemic, which sent public transit ridership plummeting, it surged 300% in Wilson.
Driver Milton Barnes poses for a photo with customer David Bunn in front of his RIDE van in Wilson, N.C. on Aug. 24, 2023. The city of Wilson, North Carolina, ended its bus service in September 2020 to offer on-demand van trips anywhere in town for less than $3 a ride. Even during the pandemic, which sent public transit ridership plummeting, it surged 300% in Wilson.
Other communities in North Carolina and elsewhere took notice and have tapped into available public funding to start programs of their own, heightening Wilson’s competition for continuing grant money. More than half the rides are for residents using the vans to “maintain or get employment,” said Rodger Lentz, Wilson’s assistant city manager who pushed for the switch.
Via started operations seven years earlier with what was then a consumer service offering shared van rides in parts of Manhattan’s Upper East Side where the New York City subway didn’t go. But founder and CEO Daniel Ramot said he always considered Via a public transit company, not a private competitor to Uber, though it took a while for cities to buy in.