New program aims to fill gaps in Johnson County transit schedule

IOWA CITY — A new Johnson County transportation option will offer $2 curb-to-curb service throughout the Iowa City metro area and northern parts of the county on most evenings for anyone looking for a ride to work or school.

Trip Connect, a part of the nonprofit Horizons that has contracted with Johnson County to provide the service, is available from 5 p.m. to midnight on weekdays and Sundays.

Riders can book a ride in advance through the Trip Connect smartphone app or by calling (319) 363-1321 between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. weekdays. Trip Connect plans to initially operate two vans, one of them wheelchair accessible.

The service, which began in December, is exclusively for rides to school, work or job training with the aim of offering service when other forms of public transit are not available.

“To state the obvious, if you don't have transportation, you can't go to work, if you can’t go to work, you don't have a job, all of these dots are connected. For us, it’s how can we try and fill that need at the lowest possible cost through very creative funding to pay for all of this,” said Jim Miller, director of development at Horizons.

The pilot program, which will run until June 30, 2026, is expected to cost a little over $700,000.

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The first year of the program will be funded through a mix of contributions from Johnson County, using federal pandemic aid, ($60,000); North Liberty ($15,000); Kirkwood Community College ($10,000); a National Center for mobility management grant ($75,000); an Iowa Department of Transportation special projects grant ($175,000); and estimated passenger revenue of $14,000.

Funding for the second year of the program will come from the Iowa DOT special projects grant ($175,000), Johnson County pandemic funds ($160,000) and estimated passenger revenue ($14,000).

Johnson County Trip Connect service area

Trip Connect (marked in gray) is a transit service geared toward workers and students serving the Iowa City metro area and rural Johnson County north of I-80.

Source: Horizons

Filling the gaps

Kelly Schneider, Johnson County Mobility coordinator, said the county in 2021 began meeting with stakeholders to understand what it was like to get to work or school using public transit.

Those and subsequent conversations resulted in receiving a grant from the National Center for Mobility management and eventually contracting with Horizons to provide the Trip Connect service.

“We met with job seekers and found that the northern part of the county, specifically North Liberty, was the most troublesome area for them to get to. Our goal is to have countywide service, but to get started with the amount of funding, we had to narrow that down, and this is where we landed,” Schneider said.

In North Liberty, one Coralville Transit route goes through the city twice a day (around 7 a.m. and 6 p.m.) on weekdays.

Other public transit entities, including the University of Iowa’s free Cambus service, have limited service hours or service areas.

The majority of Iowa City Transit routes, which are fare free, run from about 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays and offer limited Saturday service. Coralville Transit offers weekday service during business hours, as well as one night route and Saturday route.

Schneider said the inclusion of Solon, Oxford, Swisher and Shueyville in the Trip Connect service area will help to measure the demand for night service in rural parts of the county.

The service area also includes Kirkwood Community College’s Coralville campus, which has Cambus service but only during the day.

Possible expansion opportunities

Schneider said depending on demand, more vehicles or expanded service hours may be added. Horizons plans to give monthly updates to the county with data on number of rides, location of rides and when rides are being requested.

“I think if they're seeing that we’re meeting a need in the community, I would expect that they'll look for ways to expand that,” said Sandy Weger, director of community transportation at Horizons.

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