In 2023, more than 7 billion trips were taken on America’s public transit systems, in towns, cities, and rural areas across the country. Demand for transit is growing, as the cost of car ownership increases and fewer young people express interest in driving. Moreover, as America’s population ages, an increasing number of people will lose the desire or ability to drive. Transit provides an affordable option that allows everyone—including older adults, people with disabilities, youth, and people without cars—to continue participating in the economic and social life of their community.
To meet this demand, transit leaders are finding innovative ways to provide service. Too often, however, these agencies must make difficult trade-offs, shifting and even cutting services as resources are insufficient.
Small Cities, Big Moves focuses on transit in small cities—places with populations between 50,000 and 200,000, of which there are over 300 in the United States. Transit serves an essential role in these communities, yet they are rarely studied.
Sioux Falls, South Dakota is the case study feature of this week’s quick takes—read on!
Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is the center of a small urbanized area with a total population of 194,283. The economy of Sioux Falls depends on manufacturing, food processing, health care, and finance. Bren Schweitzer, the transit program coordinator for the City of Sioux Falls, shared about the growing pains of living in and serving a community that’s growing in population by about 2% per year but that still has a small-town mentality. Nevertheless, the city’s new approach to transit has left her optimistic and excited about the future.
Schweitzer has been at the forefront of the changes to Sioux Falls’s transit system, Sioux Area Metro (SAM), in the past few years. Post-pandemic, the city has focused on modernizing its transit services to increase efficiency and convenience for its riders. To that end, Sioux Falls pursued a contract with Via Mobility, which now operates the SAM service on its behalf. This new partnership has led to significant changes, including the introduction of on-demand service in addition to fixed route and paratransit service. In August 2024, a citywide program for on-demand service was launched, allowing riders to book a ride anywhere within the city limits Monday through Friday between 5:45 a.m. and 9:15 p.m. and between 7:45 a.m. and 6:15 p.m. on Saturdays. This app-based service integrates with the fixed-route system, taking riders curb-to-curb or connecting them to fixed routes. Riders without smartphones can book rides through a phone call, but this option is rarely used; according to Schweitzer, 90% of rides are currently booked through the app.
In the fall of 2022, SAM began offering free fares for youth riders. Children 10 and under always ride free, though they must be accompanied by an adult. Youth ages 11-18 can ride the bus unaccompanied for free with a current school ID or Freedom Pass, which can be obtained at no cost from the SAM offices or the Downtown Bus Depot.
In September 2024, Sioux Falls reduced its fixed routes from 12 to nine due to a focus on increasing frequency and creating more-efficient routes that could be supplemented through on-demand rides, representing a significant shift toward a more modern, flexible, and tech-centric transit system.
Ridership in Sioux Falls has been steadily increasing post-pandemic. Implementing the aforementioned changes has contributed to the increase in ridership, which is both a metric of success and a strain on current resources. Since launching the on-demand service, demand for rides has been higher than expected, but available funding has limited the amount of on-demand service SAM can provide.
Historically, employment and medical care have been the top uses for public transit in Sioux Falls. Since that is the case, the Community Health Worker Collaborative of South Dakota, a statewide network of community health workers (CHWs), regularly uses the transit system in Sioux Falls to be able to assist their clients. Tracy Bieber, a program manager for the group, has led two innovative practices called “navigation experiences,” where CHWs are given a destination and have to figure out how to get there using public transit. It provides the CHWs firsthand experience navigating the system, so they can better support their clients, and it is an opportunity to gather feedback for the transit agency. In the long term, Bieber and the CHWs agree that increased funding, better stop amenities, more-frequent services, and simplified technology are needed to maximize the benefits of transit in the community. While there are some issues to be worked out as riders adapt to new technologies, Bieber is optimistic that strong partnerships and a shared commitment to serving the transit riders of Sioux Falls will result in a robust transit system that meets the various needs of riders.