UCHRA showcasing its $6 ride-sharing app, encouraging all residents to take advantage of the improved accessibility and transportation across the 14-county service area.
Mobility Manager Jacqueline Medley said the agency’s primary mission is to provide reliable and affordable transportation to every resident in the Upper Cumberland. Medley said the agency has color-coordinated its fleet to help passengers distinguish between door-to-door services, out-of-region trips to Nashville and local city routes.
“We have seen an explosion in ridership in the last three years, and really it’s because we went fare-free and a lot of outreach and education of showing people when I drive down Interstate Drive in Cookeville and I see that bus shelter in front of Logan’s, that is for this service,” Medley said. “People wait for the bus, we try to stay on schedule, we’ve formulated the routes so they hit the high points of the city.”
Medley said the agency operates 101 vans daily and completed more than 349,000 trips during the last fiscal year. The agency’s door-to-door service remains its most utilized program, requiring a three-day notice and charging a standard fare of $2 per trip within a resident’s home county.
“Anyone can ride,” Medley said. “That is the biggest takeaway from anything today I say is anybody can use our public transportation services.”
Medley said the agency also offers a “Pick-Up Upper Cumberland” service in Putnam and Cumberland counties that functions similarly to private ride-sharing apps like Uber or Lyft. The service utilizes an app-based booking system and includes a Mustang Mach-E electric vehicle in its fleet.
“What blows my mind about the Pick-Up Upper Cumberland service, the app-based service, is we first thought it was just going to be for Tennessee Tech students,” Medley said. “We thought a lot of people would be out on the town and they would maybe just want to use us to get back and forth to their apartment, but really the ridership comes from people going back and forth to work every day for that pickup service.”
Executive Director Mark Farley said approximately one-third of all agency trips are now dedicated to transporting residents to and from their places of employment. Medley said the agency also maintains a Job Access program that can provide up to 12 months of free transportation for income-eligible residents to reach their jobs or childcare providers.
“Travel training is a lot of what I do in transportation,” Medley said. “A lot of it is just trying to show people that public transportation is not scary.”
