WI: City works to increase public transit usage with limited free rides during month of September

The city is working to boost public transit usage—both its bus system and its new micro-transit system—by encouraging people to try public transit for free during the month of September.

“For the month of September, anyone who downloads or has downloaded the Northern Lite app will be given two free rides for micro-transit as a way of trying out the system,” said Eau Claire Transit Manager Katrina Running. “We’re [also] planning on sending out free passes to people in the mail to try out the bus system.”

The rides are usually $1.75.

“We just wanted to provide free rides to let people try out the new type of service,” Running said.

The Northern Lite micro-transit service was launched July 22, and offers rides in a limited portion of the city that can connect riders to where they’re going or to the wider bus routes.

“To date, there’s been around 150 rides,” Running said. “That’s comparable to other city’s micro-transit launches, [and] we continue to grow each week, [but] we haven’t reached what we’ve expected to reach yet. For weekly boarding, we expect to hit 280 rides.”

Running said soon the city will be reaching a critical period of deciding whether the micro-transit pilot program will be funded and continued beyond July of 2026.

“Later this fall, there will be a decision of whether or not to continue the pilot program after funding for the program is used up,” she said. “We know the pilot runs until July of next year, but we’ll have to decide very soon.”

The hope had been that micro-transit would broaden availability and thus usage of the overall public transit system.

“We’re hoping with more community engagement and marketing that our numbers will continue to rise to where we expected them to be,” she said. “We knew that we weren’t going to jump up to our goal immediately, so I’d say it’s a slow start, but we continue to see the number rise week by week with new users trying out the app.”

Northern Lite Driver Wael Tawy said those who have been utilizing the service have been appreciating it for its low cost, convenience and safety.

“Everybody says we need to tell everybody,” Tawy said. “We don’t want to end it someday. Everyone wants to make it busier and to be able to expand it to the wider area. The only concern about it is that we work in just a specific area. It’s a very small area.”

Prior to taking on the position, Tawy had been driving for Uber. He said it was different because it doesn’t involve driving and cleaning your own vehicle. He also expressed that he feels Northern Lite is both safer for the passengers and the driver.

“We have a camera in the car,” he said.

Running said that the benefit of the system is that it gives riders more flexibility to use the public transit system.

“Our bus service is pretty limited with time frames of when the buses come because the north side of Eau Claire is so spread out that bus service is hard to make frequent,” she said. “On-demand service in the area really helps people to get to where they need to be faster.”

In addition to the limited free rides, the city is also promoting the student MAX pass for $50 a semester, reminding residents that both DeLong and North are served by special express buses and that students aged 13 or older can ride micro-transit from points in the zone to North High School or Northstar Middle School. The micro-transit zone also includes Northwoods Elementary School, though younger students would need to ride with a parent or guardian.

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