GA: Cobb's On-Demand Transit Pilot Launches Next Week

A pilot program offering on-demand transit in south Cobb will begin service next Tuesday.

Cobb County’s microtransit pilot program launches Oct. 29, providing rides in a 22-square-mile zone.

An on-demand service using smaller vehicles, microtransit is sometimes described as a publicly funded version of ride-hailing apps like Uber and Lyft.

If Cobb voters approve a 30-year, 1% sales tax to fund transit on Nov. 5, the county plans to one day offer the service countywide.

How it works

The new service, CobbLinc Go, will operate Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The fare will be $2.50 per person, the same as a standard fare on a CobbLinc bus. Users’ first four rides will be free, if they use them before Nov. 29.

Riders wishing to connect to a bus route will be taken to the closest bus stop. Curb-to-curb trips within the zone will be hailed in real time using the CobbLinc app or by calling 770-429-4444.

CobbLinc Go will replace CobbLinc’s FLEX service. The FLEX service has operated in three smaller zones, also in south Cobb, in which there are no fixed bus routes.

A web page promoting the pilot notes popular destinations in the zone, including Kroger, Publix, Walmart, Wellstar Cobb Medical Center, McEachern High School and others.

Microtransit pilot

This map from Cobb County shows the zone where an on-demand microtransit pilot program will operate, with key destinations highlighted.

Users must be 13 or older to hail a ride. Wheelchair-accessible vehicles will be available. Pre-booking is not available.

CobbLinc Go’s website also advertises employment opportunities. New York-based company Via, the county’s vendor for the program, will provide drivers for the service.

“Want to drive for us? Predictable earnings, flexible schedule. Earn up to $20/hour while driving with Via,” the site reads.

For more information, visit city.ridewithvia.com/cobb-county.

Test-run

A countywide system of 14 microtransit zones is one of the main components envisioned in Cobb’s proposed 30-year, $11 billion sales tax to fund public transportation.

The tax is at the bottom of this November’s ballot.

In addition to expanding microtransit to the entire county, the tax, known officially as the Mobility Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (M-SPLOST), calls for 108 miles of rapid bus routes and half a dozen new transit centers.

The county sees microtransit as a way to provide transit access to less dense parts of Cobb, where it can’t justify the cost of building rapid bus lines.

“If BRT (bus rapid transit) is the tent post, the microtransit service is really the canvas that covers that tent,” Cobb Transportation Director Drew Raessler said earlier this year.

Roughly 18% of M-SPLOST collections — about $2 billion — would be used to fund microtransit. Cobb officials have said microtransit would be up and running in all Cobb cities within five years of the tax being approved, and across the entire county within 10 years.

The launch of the program comes a week before Election Day. As of noon Friday, 36% of Cobb’s active registered voters — about 185,000 — had already cast ballots.

Funding

County commissioners in August voted 3-2 along partisan lines, with the Republican commissioners opposed, to allocate $2.2 million for the two-year pilot program.

Of that, 40% will come from federal grants, 30% will come from state grants and 30% is funded by the county.

The county has the option to extend the pilot for a third year, at a cost of $1.1 million.

Commissioner Monique Sheffield, who represents the area, previously called the pilot program a “critical resource.”

“We’ve received numerous emails from people having challenges meeting their doctor’s appointments, dialysis appointments, and we all know how critical those appointments are,” she said.

Republican officials, meanwhile, were more skeptical, saying previous attempts at on-demand transit proved unpopular.

“We had tried this before in that area ... and nobody used it,” Commissioner Keli Gambrill previously said.

The county will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the pilot program on Oct. 31, two days after launch.