It’s not hard to get people excited about microtransit, the public transportation service that promises taxi-like on-demand mobility for the cost of a regular bus.

Take Wilson, North Carolina: In 2021 this town of just under 50,000 launched a service called RIDE, which is operated by the mobility company Via. Instead of trudging to a bus stop, RIDE users can pick up their smartphone, open the Via app, and request a van to come pick them up. The van will then whisk them to their destination (perhaps with a slight detour, depending on other passengers’ itineraries), dropping them off exactly where they want to be.