City of Decatur approves micro-transit service

DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) - Monday night, Decatur City Council approved bringing micro-transit to the city.

While Uber is active in the city, there are not many drivers, leaving many times throughout the day with gaps in service to areas without buses running normally.

The new transit will work like a rideshare app.

"People can use an app or they can call into the transit center and a vehicle will pick them up, curb to curb," said Lacie Elzy, the Economic and Community Development Director for the City of Decatur. "It can connect them either to their end destination or to a fixed route, whichever makes the most sense and is the most efficient."

For many, they can't get to bus lines or they don't run near where they need to go.

Elzy said, "It would make it a lot easier to get around Decatur because it would provide transportation to a lot of places that don't have it and also faster service."

Now that it's been approved, the service will roll out in phases starting next month.

"Service would start sometime in July as a soft launch," Elzy says. "We would have to get people trained and hired, with a larger launch date to come in the Fall."

The plan is to start with hours from 5:15 a.m. to 8:15 p.m. Monday through Sunday. Elzy says depending on need, those hours could be expanded.