Case study: How Bloomington Transit broadens reach without breaking the budget

Tucked in the hills of southern Indiana, you’ll find the vibrant city of Bloomington.

Home to Indiana University’s flagship campus and 80,000 residents, Bloomington is a diverse community spanning metropolitan and suburban areas. Responsible for connecting that community with vital transportation? Bloomington Transit. 

In 2024, Bloomington Transit forged a strategic partnership with Uber and microtransit partner RideCo, launching an API integration that broadened the reach of its services without breaking the budget. Let’s explore the collaboration.

Faced with a driver shortage during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bloomington Transit assessed its fixed-route services. Between 9pm and 12am, the number of hourly passenger trips was less than 10% of morning ridership. Overtime restrictions meant that drivers working those low-demand late-night shifts were unavailable for peak morning hours, causing significant strain across services. Bloomington needed to reallocate resources while ensuring stress-free, reliable transportation for late-night riders, including students and graveyard-shift workers. 

“Our ultimate goal was to continue preservation of late-night service, but at the same time, we wanted to have our fixed-route operators available when we needed them the most,” says John Connell, General Manager of Bloomington Transit. “We decided we had to create a safety net for riders … and through our partnership with Uber, we developed a plan.”

In June 2022, Bloomington Transit launched the BT Late Nite On Demand program with Uber. The program provides vouchers for Uber rides within the Bloomington service area between the hours of 9pm and 11:59pm, Monday through Friday. Riders pay a small co-pay of $2, while Bloomington Transit covers the next $12. 

BT Late Nite On Demand expands access to stress-free, flexible transportation, making it that much simpler for night-shift workers, students returning from study sessions, and other evening travelers to move throughout Bloomington with confidence and ease. 

In 2024, the partnership took convenience a step further by integrating into BLink (Bloomington Link), a demand-responsive transportation program powered by microtransit partner RideCo.

BLink offers 3 service types: microtransit, paratransit, and late-night on-demand rides with Uber. To start using BLink, riders simply download the Bloomington Link mobile app or visit the web-based platform to book their rides. 

With the integration of Uber’s API, BLink becomes a one-stop mobility shop. When riders enter their pickup and destination details into the app or booking platform, Uber and RideCo’s back ends communicate to display optimal transportation options, including BLink’s dedicated vehicles and, between the hours of 9pm and 11:59pm, Uber rides on demand. Riders can request and track their Uber rides directly within the BLink app. 

By combining dedicated vehicles during core service hours and non-dedicated vehicles on the Uber network for late-night services, Bloomington Transit extends its reach and service hours—without increasing budget or operational burden. Uber’s pay-per-performance model ensures that the city pays only for completed rides, making low-demand hours more cost-effective.

Since the partnership began, Bloomington Transit has delivered on 23,500+ trips with Uber. Streamlined operations have led to significant cost savings. “Today we’re saving roughly $16,000 a month [with Uber],” says Connell. 

For transportation managers, monitoring program success is a breeze. Data from Uber rides and dedicated fleets are visible within RideCo’s program management platform, allowing for evaluation across the entire BLink program—no pivot tables needed.

“As a smaller agency, it’s critical for us to have the streamlined data and everything we need, [especially] for National Transit Database reporting,” notes Connell. “All that information is there [with this partnership], and it’s less of a lift for our staff. All the technical support we receive from Uber is critical.”

The program’s convenience and single-app solution have made it a community favorite, with Bloomington residents enjoying the ease and comfort of traveling to and from work, errands, school, and outings with flexible transportation.

Thanks to its innovative collaboration with Uber and RideCo, Bloomington Transit has dramatically enhanced its services, delivering tens of thousands of rides at reduced operational costs. In under a year, a late-night service expansion has blossomed into a comprehensive mobility solution that serves an entire community. 

To transit agencies like Bloomington Transit looking to take the first steps into public-private partnership, Gaston Kelly, Global Head of Transit, shares: “Our technology is flexible, and we’ve found that the easier we make the lives of the folks who manage the programs, the better the experience. We can make it work for your goals and your budget—it doesn’t need to be complicated.”

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If you’re interested in enhancing your service offerings with Uber Transit, please visit uber.com/transit.