“It is just another option for customers,” said Michael Andrade, Metro’s director of paratransit and micro-transit services. “We are going to continue our call center. We know some customers don’t have technology but those that do have expressed interest.”

The app, curb2curb, adds another way to connect with Metro’s Community Connector shuttles services in Missouri City, the Kashmere area at night and Acres Homes that provide trips in set areas. The connectors were created after Metro redesigned its bus network, aimed at filling in gaps in the service area, but took years to tweak into their current forms.

Now officials believe tech like smartphone apps can make them even more practical for some riders. The app is available now for download on Apple and Android phones.

The app will be active for Missouri City and Kashmere area riders Sept. 8, with plans to expand to Acres Homes later this year. The pilot, expected to last 10 months, will study whether an app and so-called microtransit services such as neighborhood shuttles serve a demand in Houston that makes financial sense.

“There is a lot we can learn from it,” Andrade said.

Once rides can be requested via the app, the service operates much like ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft, with two notable exceptions: price and where drivers can pick-up and take passengers.

Within the community connector’s existing zone, trips can be booked door to door. For trips outside the zone, the van ride can be from wherever a person wants to be picked up to a transit center or park and ride lot where he or she can access Metro’s more frequent bus network. Fares are the same as regular bus transit — $1.25 for most users.

Riders also will be able to meet the shuttle at designated locations, such as grocery stores or transit centers in the zone, and schedule rides through the driver.

Riders without the smart phone app still will be able to schedule rides via Metro’s call center.

The three zones were chosen because they meet several conditions Metro wants to explore. The three areas have sporadic transit use but contain many residents in need of better access to bus stops. In many of the neighborhoods, ditches provide storm drainage but also can make bus stop access tricky.

“Once or twice a week, I feel like I’m going to slide in,” said Gary Arkin of the unkempt ditches along his walk to catch a southbound Route 44 Acres Homes bus at North Shepherd and Janisch.

In Metro’s sprawling service area, it is those last few blocks to and from bus stops that pose some of the biggest obstacles to drawing riders. Agency officials are hoping the door-to-door service will get more riders to hop aboard.

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For local trips, the shuttle vans serve where typical transit cannot because of a lack of widespread demand even as some residents need a ride.

“We’re trying to connect to those transit-dependent riders,” said Dustin Heimler, director of business development for RideCo, the Canadian company that developed the app Metro is testing.

The app also leans on options similar to ride hailing ones, Heimler said, such as immediate feedback from users.

“They will be able to rate the trip and leave a comment,” he said.

The community connectors have limited ridership but have grown in popularity since Metro debuted its first in Acres Homes five years ago, then called a “flex zone.” Missouri City’s connector launched in 2018 after various styles of flex zones.

Prior to the novel coronavirus’ entry into the Houston area, the Acres Homes connector service typically carried fewer than 600 people a day.

That changed during the pandemic.

Compared with most of Metro’s bus routes, use of the shuttles has been minuscule during the pandemic. While even the weakest bus routes with buses coming every 60 minutes averaged 200 or 300 boardings per day in July, community connectors in Acres Homes and Missouri City saw their ridership plunge to an average of 75 and 80 daily boardings, respectively.

Despite the massive decline, Andrade said Metro believes shuttles can solve some trips, at far less cost than conventional bus service.

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It worked for San Antonio, a service Metro inspected before proceeding with the pilot. In that area, RideCo’s app replaced three low-use local bus routes with on-demand service. VIA Metropolitan Transit, the local transit provider, said the service averaged 700 daily riders who waited between five minutes and seven minutes for a ride, compared with bus service that came every 30 minutes or 60 minutes.

As with San Antonio, transit officials are optimistic the app will draw riders, prompting more zones across more of the Houston area.

“It is something I would like to see spread out to our entire area,” Metro board member Jim Robinson said, noting many suburban communities do not want regular bus service but have some residents who could benefit from direct trips to transit hubs. “To me, this is the long-term answer to many parts of the service area.”

dug.begley@chron.com