When the Portage Area Regional Transit Authority conducted a Workforce Mobility Transit Feasibility Study to work on its Transit Development Plan, it identified gaps in its service, including within the cities of Streetsboro and Aurora.
“We actually started looking into these microtransits, probably almost two and a half, three years ago, and what [a microtransit] is you create a polygon, which is a geofence or it’s an area that you can operate within,” said Brian Trautman, chief operations officer at PARTA.
Combining the idea of a microtransit service and filling those gaps, PARTA created POGO Transit aiming to provide employees of Aurora’s industrial park, which borders Streetsboro, a new mode of transportation and testing the waters for further collaboration with the cities.
POGO Transit’s creation
In 2021, Aurora Mayor Ann Womer Benjamin and her staff noticed a need to help the estimated 4,000 industrial park employees commute to and from work easier.
“Between Aurora and Streetsboro, we have the largest concentration of companies and employees in all of Portage County,” Womer Benjamin said. “So that really, to me, is a driver for getting transportation into our communities to service our industrial areas.”
This prompted the city’s economic development director, Holly Harris Bane, to begin reaching out to PARTA and the city of Streetsboro.
It took Harris Bane five years before she received a response from PARTA, but Womer Benjamin appreciated her persistent determination to initiate a collaboration between the city and transit service.
Streetsboro Mayor Glenn Broska said his administration had also repeatedly contacted PARTA to create an extended bus route through the city, and it wasn’t until six months ago that PARTA approached the city about POGO.
“We felt that giving people the ability to have a bus route up here would probably help some of them get jobs, as well,” Broska said. “They weren't able to accommodate us and they came up with the idea of POGO, and it definitely does serve a purpose.”
After realizing the industrial park was in need of transportation assistance, PARTA created the 9-mile microtransit service to function similarly to Uber, where customers download the POGO Transit app and request a ride. PARTA has traditionally only offered fixed bus routes or the Dial-A-Ride program, which must be scheduled in advance.
“The microtransit or the POGO system allows you to be standing at Giant Eagle or at Walmart or any place inside that polygon, bring up the app and say, ‘I’d like to go to the town hall right now,” Trautman said. “And then you put your times in that you’re interested in going there and it will book the ride, bill the ride and schedule the ride instantly within 15 seconds.”
Operating within a 9-mile radius allows POGO to have shorter ride times ranging from two to 10 minutes, permitting customers to schedule rides within seconds.
“You’re able to do more for people in that area quickly. You’re not getting on a bus in Brimfield and taking a trip to Freedom, which really ties that bus up for one person for 45 minutes a day,” Trautman said. “This is working within a mile or two — as the crow flies — corridor up in the Streetsboro area with a microtransit."
Because POGO launched the week of Aug. 17, there is only one bus operating. However, if demand increases, a second bus will be added to its rotation, as it has the capability to have four buses operating simultaneously.
Trautman explained PARTA wanted to launch the app for POGO earlier but had to delay it because of the Apple Store’s privacy rules.
After resolving that issue, iPhone, Google and Android phone users can download the app.
“We’re trying to provide the same type of service that people seem to be attracted to with that instant ‘get a ride when I need a ride’ kind of thing,” Trautman said. “So, it took us a little bit to get those things squared up and released, but it’s out there now, and now, we’re working the bugs out.”
To figure out those bugs, PARTA has been meeting with a software company to remedy those errors. In the event of a technical glitch, the rider won’t be charged extra for it.
“We’re just kind of eating that and letting that go until we can figure out what happened on that particular ride or whatever that might be,” Trautman said. “We’re approaching it with a very optimistic outlook.”
To alert customers about the microtransit service, PARTA sent mailers to about 6,500 Streetsboro and Aurora residents, as well as sent out posters to businesses the week of Aug. 28.
Is the price right?
Keeping in mind that POGO is a premium service requiring drivers to pass a background test and equipping its buses with security cameras to offer a safe ride, PARTA decided to charge customers $10 per ride.
“We just tried to find something in the middle there that we thought was fair and reasonable,” Trautman said. “Again, something we can adjust as we go if we need, but we felt that number was reasonable and fit the market pretty well for us.”
Broska agreed that the cost was reasonable, explaining that if PARTA charged more, the service would not be beneficial.
“Ten dollars for many of them is a steep price to pay, but it’s something they have to do,” he said.
POGO riders felt otherwise as industrial park human resource directors have already reached out to PARTA to voice employees’ concerns about the price, according to Womer Benjamin.
“The price, they feel, is a little high for their employees. The price is $10 per ride and then an additional $1 for each added passenger,” she said. “That means if you live in Streetsboro and work in Aurora’s industrial park and need a ride each day, that’s $20 a day.”
Womer Benjamin pointed out that the microtransit’s limited radius of Streetsboro and southern Aurora doesn’t make all employees’ commutes easier.
“One of the hurdles is employees who live elsewhere outside of Streetsboro, for instance, and Aurora need to find a way to get to Streetsboro to then use this new transportation service to the Aurora industrial park,” she said.
Looking ahead
Although industrial park employees continue to adapt to the service and have expressed their worries, Womer Benjamin remains hopeful this initial collaboration can lead to others.
“I think the fact that we have arrived at a solution says a lot for the relationship,” she said. “I think I've always been pleased that we have PARTA in Portage County. I’ve been disappointed that it didn’t service Aurora more and that it didn’t have certain options, but this is a great first step.”
Broksa also remains hopeful that PARTA will want to continue to work with Streetsboro.
“I would love to have a partnership with them, especially for them to get a bus route up through here,” he said. “I think that would be a great addition and we’d be happy to partner with them on that.”
PARTA’s General Manager Kelly Jurisch has already begun meeting with others in Portage County to determine how the transportation provider can better serve the county.
“We feel that if we can provide more transportation and more convenient transportation to people, then we’re definitely going to look at doing this [microtransit services] in other areas of the county,” Trautman said.
Before developing other plans, PARTA will focus on improving POGO.
“The big thing right now is to work out the kinks and the problems that come about by this initial implementation and then take what we learn from this and then begin to apply it to other areas,” he said. “We definitely believe that this is going to be something that’s going to get some legs about it.”