Transit leaders today are facing intense pressure: expand access, improve reliability, and meet rising rider expectations—all with tight budgets and limited staff.

The challenge? Most agencies are still running paratransit, microtransit, and fixed-route as separate systems. Separate platforms. Separate fleets. Separate teams.

But riders don’t experience transit in silos—they just need to get where they’re going.

Across North America, agencies are finding smarter ways to bring their services together. They’re improving rider experience, streamlining operations, and doing more with the resources they already have.

In our new guide, Unify your transit services, we share how they’re doing it—and how your agency can too.

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The benefits of integrating paratransit, microtransit, and fixed-route services

Running services in isolation creates friction at every level:

• 📱 Riders face multiple booking tools, fares, and eligibility processes.
• 🚍 Operations teams spend hours managing separate systems and manual workarounds.
• 📊 Agency leaders struggle to show consolidated performance data to boards and funding bodies.

By integrating services into a single platform, agencies can:
✅ Offer riders seamless trip planning, booking, and payments
✅ Optimize fleets in real time to reduce deadhead and increase capacity
✅ Improve system visibility and performance reporting

In practice, this means shorter wait times, higher rider satisfaction, and stronger cases for funding. Agencies featured in the guide are proving it’s possible—with growth in ridership, app adoption, and on-time performance—all without expanding their fleets.

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How to build a modern multimodal transit system

So how are agencies making this shift? In the guide, we outline four practical steps they’re using to integrate transit services:

1️⃣ Start with rider demand – Understand where your community needs transit most by mapping travel patterns, identifying underserved areas, and analyzing paratransit eligibility trends.

2️⃣ Align your service vision – Break down internal silos by aligning fixed-route, microtransit, and paratransit planners around one shared rider-first system.

3️⃣ Modernize your tech foundation – Adopt tools that support dynamic trip brokering, real-time dispatch, and multiple booking options (app, web, phone).

4️⃣ Collaborate with community partners – Work with nonprofits, healthcare systems, and workforce agencies to extend your reach and streamline access for vulnerable populations.

Each step comes with its own challenges—and in the guide, we show how agencies of all sizes are overcoming them with data-driven planning and flexible technology.

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📘 Want the full framework? Download the guide to see how agencies are putting these steps into action.

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Real-world examples of multimodal transit integration

“The flexibility of the product was a surprise to me—I didn’t realize how much we could do with it. Spare is constantly upgrading and we’re here to grow with them.”— Renae Jording, Transit Director, Cheyenne Transit Program

In the guide, we highlight real-world examples from agencies across North America:

• A small urban agency that grew ridership by over 140% after integrating paratransit and microtransit.
  
• A regional network that connected microtransit, fixed-route, and even Uber into a single app experience.
  
• A large county that boosted app adoption by 192% while improving on-time performance.

Each story offers practical insights for transit teams navigating the same challenges.

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Download the multimodal transit guide for full results

You don’t need to reinvent your operations to deliver better service. 2025 is the year of doing more with what you’ve got, and by integrating existing systems, you can give riders more flexibility, improve efficiency, and strengthen your agency’s strategic position.

📥Get the guide: Unify your transit services into one rider-first system