IL: Decatur approves $14 million contract for 'a rideshare program that anybody can use'

Decatur moved one step closer to the rollout of a new microtransit system that Economic and Community Development Director Lacie Elzy hailed as "an Uber or a rideshare program that anybody can use."

The Decatur City Council on Monday unanimously approved a three-year, $14 million contract with Dallas-based MV Transportation, Inc. to manage and operate the service, which is scheduled to launch on July 1.

The contract will be funded with a combination of state and federal transportation operating grants and a congressional appropriation secured by Sen. Dick Durbin, according to city officials.

In simple terms, microtransit is a "first mile, last mile solution" that utilizes smaller branded vehicles to take riders from a designated stop near their homes to either stops near their final destinations or to fixed-route buses that could be used to complete their trips.

"Microtransit is an efficient, cost-effective, data-driven opportunity that is going to allow us to serve areas that necessarily don't make sense to operate fixed routes in," Elzy said.

It is also viewed as a solution to gaps in coverage in existing rideshare service from companies like Uber and Lyft. Similar to those services, riders will be able to set up microtransit trips via an app on their smartphone. There also will be a designated number people can call to arrange a ride.

While MV did not submit the lowest bid, city officials said the company submitted the "most responsive and complete proposal."

And since the company has managed and operated the city's fixed route and paratransit bus systems since 2014, the transition should be "seamless."

Microtransit is piece of a larger transformation of the city's public transportation system that aims to improve connectivity within the region.

Earlier this year, the city extended the hours fixed route buses operate to 8:15 p.m. daily. It also expanded Sunday bus service — brought back on a limited basis in 2022 after a 60-year hiatus — to include all routes.

Transit officials have also explored truncating and streamlining bus routes to focus on the city center and connections to the city's major commercial centers. Though this would reduce the reach of the city's buses, it would free up resources for more frequent service on the routes that remain while the fleet of about two-dozen microtransit vehicles would fill in the gaps.

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In February, the city also inked intergovernmental agreements with Forsyth and Mount Zion to take over public transit operations in those cities while also agreeing to take over transit services in rural parts of Macon County. Service to both Decatur suburbs and rural Macon County is expected to lean heavily on microtransit.

In other action, the council approved a $149,500 grant agreement with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to cover part of the costs of a preliminary engineering services for a possible pipeline from the DeWitt wellfields to a site eyed for economic development on the city's northeast side.

The city earlier this year received a $3 million grant from DCEO to help cover the costs of planning and constructing a 1.1-mile water main extension from Brush College Road north to Cundiff Road. The main would service land north of Interstate 72 that is viewed as prime for economic development.

However, Public Works director Matt Newell said Monday that "some of the development opportunities we're looking at that site needed more water than what the city could provide."

Purchased by the city in 1988, the DeWitt wellfields serve as a secondary water source that the city can draw upon during times of drought.

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