Rural microtransit is a lifeline. Massachusetts should help it reach more people.

IN PARTS OF rural Massachusetts, buying a gallon of milk can require a nine-mile trip. A doctor’s appointment or workplace may be much farther away, with no direct bus route to get there. For someone who cannot drive or does not have access to a car, going about daily life can depend on whether a ride is available. Too often, it isn’t.

These residents often depend on rural microtransit, flexible, on-demand public transportation services, which use vans or other small vehicles to fill in transportation needs in rural areas where fixed-route bus service is sparse or non-existent.

To understand both the human and economic impact of rural microtransit, Transportation for Massachusetts commissioned three reports from the UMass Amherst Donahue Institute. The reports focus on three community-based microtransit programs: the South County Connector in the Berkshires, Hilltown Community Development Corporation’s transportation services in Western Massachusetts, and Helping Our Women on the Outer Cape.

The Donahue Institute looked at how each service operates, the trips it provides, and the communities it serves, and spoke with local providers and partners. Across the three programs, they found $24.6 million in economic benefits from service provided between 2022 and 2025. Depending on the program, every dollar invested produced between $8 and $23 in benefits for state and local economies.

In 2025 alone, the three programs provided 26,887 one-way trips, connecting people to health care, jobs, groceries, senior services, and other essential destinations.

For Grace, a Helping Our Women client, microtransit meant being able to travel from Truro to Hyannis every day for four weeks during cancer treatment. The service made sure she could get to the lifesaving care she needed.

Grace’s experience reflects a broader challenge in communities where distances are long and transportation choices are few. On the Outer Cape, a round trip by bus from Provincetown to Hyannis for medical care can take as long as six hours. In the Hilltowns, even a trip to the grocery store can take 45 minutes.

When people think about public transportation in Massachusetts, they often think first of the MBTA. But outside its service area, many residents rely on regional transit authorities serving large, spread-out regions. Fixed-route buses may run infrequently, travel only along major roads or require several connections.

Microtransit is one way to fill those gaps. For its grant programs, Massachusetts follows the federal definition of microtransit as a technology-enabled service that uses multi-passenger vehicles to provide on-demand trips with routes generated in response to riders’ needs. Trips can be scheduled by phone, online, or through an app.

These programs are not a replacement for fixed-route buses, rail, or paratransit. They work alongside them, reaching people and places a traditional route cannot.

Each program shows what these services make possible in different parts of rural Massachusetts.

The South County Connector provided 21,924 trips in 2025, including more than 6,000 trips to work, and generated approximately $16.5 million in economic benefits. Hilltown CDC provided nearly 14,000 trips between 2022 and 2025, with nearly three-quarters of its 2025 trips going to medical appointments, and generated nearly $4 million in benefits. Helping Our Women provided more than 3,600 trips for women with chronic or serious health conditions and generated approximately $4.2 million in benefits.

We are seeing similar results in other parts of rural Massachusetts. A 2025 Donahue Institute analysis found that the Quaboag Connector, which serves 10 towns in Worcester, Hampshire, and Hampden counties, generated nearly $45 million in economic benefits, or almost $11 for every dollar invested.

For people with few other ways to get around, these services are lifelines. They are also essential public infrastructure, helping residents stay healthy, keep working, manage daily life and remain independent. The benefits do not stop with riders. Local employers, health care providers and communities benefit too.

Yet many programs are struggling to meet the need that already exists. Providers in all three regions reported shortages of drivers and vehicles, limited scheduling availability and more requests than they could accommodate. On the Outer Cape, limited volunteer capacity can make urgent rides difficult to arrange. In the Hilltowns, eligibility rules prevent some younger residents from using services even when they have no other way to reach work.

The challenge is no longer proving that microtransit has value. It is giving successful programs the stability and capacity to serve the people already asking for rides.

Massachusetts is beginning to respond. The state has committed $15 million through two supplemental budgets to the Microtransit and Last-Mile Transit Grant Program, supporting services operated by regional transit authorities, municipalities and community organizations.

That is real progress, but someone who depends on a ride for dialysis, cancer treatment, work, or groceries needs to know the service will still be there next year. Providers need reliable, multiyear funding to keep drivers, maintain vehicles, expand hours and meet growing demand.

The state should provide that funding, particularly where transportation gaps are greatest. It should help providers add drivers, vehicles, and service hours while strengthening connections among community-based services, regional transit authorities, health care organizations, and existing transportation networks.

As microtransit grows, Massachusetts also needs a clearer picture of where services exist, where gaps remain and how successful programs can be funded over the long term.

State Reps. Tricia Farley-Bouvier and Todd Smola, along with Sens. Julian Cyr and Jo Comerford, have proposed creating a statewide commission to study existing and emerging microtransit services and their funding. Such a commission could improve coordination and help develop a statewide strategy that still allows communities to design services around local needs.

We also need to change how we judge whether transportation is working. Ridership matters, but it cannot be the only measure. A rural service covering hundreds of square miles will never carry the same number of people as a subway line or urban bus route. Its value should also be measured by whether it helps people reach health care and work, lowers household transportation costs, serves communities with few alternatives, and provides trips that otherwise would not happen.

Rural residents and providers already know what a reliable ride makes possible. Now state leaders have the numbers to match their experience. Massachusetts should build on what is working and give these services the support they need to reach more people.

Reggie Ramos is executive director of Transportation for Massachusetts. Gwynne Guzzeau is the executive director of Helping Our Women.