IMPACT, LEARNING & ACCOUNTABILITY
Every Ride Teaches Us Something.
Catch a Ride measures the trips completed today, the opportunities made possible tomorrow, and the insights communities need to build transportation systems that work better over time.
Every trip, conversation, and partnership helps us better understand where transportation is working—and where people still need more support. We use those insights to improve programs, strengthen communities, and guide future decisions.
.jpg)
We Measure More Than Trips.
Rides and miles matter. But they are only the beginning. Catch a Ride measures impact across three connected areas: the access people receive, the experience they have, and the systems communities strengthen together.
Did people get where they needed to go?
Measures may include:
✔ Rides completed
✔ Miles traveled
✔ Unique riders supported
✔ Transportation modes used
✔ Trip purpose
✔ Service-area reach
✔ Referrals completed
✔ Transportation options available
Did the support make daily life more manageable?
Measures may include:
✔ Rider-reported access to care, food, work, education, and community
✔ Confidence using transportation
✔ Stress reduction
✔ Independence and choice
✔ Ability to reach essential services
✔ Ease of booking or receiving help
✔ Rider satisfaction and feedback
Did the community become better equipped to solve transportation barriers?
Measures may include:
✔ New community partnerships
✔ Reduced coordination burden for partner organizations
✔ Transportation gaps identified
✔ Shared referral pathways created
✔ Public-transit connections strengthened
✔ Local funding leveraged
✔ Data used for planning and policy decisions
The goal is not simply to provide more rides. The goal is to help communities make transportation more dependable, more responsive, and more sustainable.
From a Local Vision to a Growing National Network.
Catch a Ride began with a simple belief: transportation should not determine whether a person can reach healthcare, work, food, education, family, or opportunity.
2018
Feonix – Mobility Rising Is Founded
2021
Feonix begins building community-centered transportation solutions designed around compassion, trust, perseverance, and the belief that mobility is essential to health and wellbeing.
Expanding Access to Care
Catch a Ride begins building stronger transportation connections with healthcare, public transit, and community partners, including Access to Care work in the South Carolina Midlands.
The Midlands program began in 2021 through collaboration with The COMET and healthcare partners, evolving from first- and last-mile support into more flexible, coordinated healthcare transportation.
2022
Rural Workforce Mobility Takes Root
Catch a Ride launches workforce-focused transportation support in Waupaca County, Wisconsin, helping local employers and community partners respond to the transportation barriers affecting workers.
The Waupaca initiative began in August 2022 and was designed with employers and local partners to address rural workforce transportation barriers.
2023
Mobility Wallets and Shared Support Expand
With support from the Michigan Department of Transportation, Catch a Ride continues developing flexible transportation options that allow people and organizations to use local transportation resources in ways that better fit real life, including multi-provider Mobility Wallets and coordinated referral pathways.
2025
2024
New Partnerships, New Learning
Catch a Ride expands work with veterans, older adults, families, workforce partners, health systems, public agencies, and nonprofit organizations—strengthening local programs while learning how transportation barriers differ across communities.
Investing in Data Infrastructure
Catch a Ride begins modernizing its data systems to better understand trip purpose, transportation gaps, rider needs, equity indicators, and community outcomes.
The data-capacity initiative includes Salesforce and Tableau modernization, interactive dashboards, equity tracking, and policy-relevant reporting intended to support healthcare, transportation, and public-sector decision-making.
2026
Building Toward Stronger Local Mobility Systems
Catch a Ride continues operating across multiple states while launching new community partnerships, expanding local Mobility as a Service options, and supporting the transition of Waupaca County’s pilot into a rural public-transit model.
Waupaca County’s Catch a Ride work transitioned into a Section 5311 rural transit contract in January 2026, with Catch a Ride providing mobility management, rider support, coordination, and community engagement.
A Growing Network of Local Access.
Every day, communities across the Catch a Ride Network help people reach healthcare, work, food, education, and the people who matter most.
188,340
Completed rides supported since 2018
Local Data Helps Communities See What Needs to Change.
Waupaca County, Wisconsin
Rural Transportation Needs Do Not End at the County Line.
Workforce transportation in Waupaca County revealed that residents needed more than traditional, limited-hour service. Workers needed early and late shift access. Families needed transportation that worked around childcare. Older adults and people with disabilities needed reliable ways to reach healthcare, groceries, and essential services across a large rural geography.
What the data helped shape:
A broader mobility strategy that evolved from workforce transportation into a countywide public-transit partnership.
South Carolina Midlands
Healthcare Access Requires More Than a Fixed Route.
In the Midlands, Catch a Ride and community partners saw that many riders could not rely on traditional public transit alone because of treatment schedules, distance, mobility needs, and limited service outside urban centers.
What the data helped shape:
A more flexible healthcare transportation model that combines public transit with door-to-door and on-demand support.
Southeast Michigan
Transportation Gaps Cross Neighborhood, City, and County Boundaries.
In Southeast Michigan, people may have transportation options nearby but still struggle to connect to specialized healthcare, workforce programs, food resources, and community services across multiple systems and jurisdictions.
What the data helps identify:
Where referral pathways, Mobility Wallets, public transit connections, and human support can reduce the gaps between available transportation and usable transportation.
“I’m looking forward to the next meeting in order to share feedback to make our program even better.”
RIDERS HELP SHAPE THE SYSTEM
The Best Transportation Solutions Are Built With the People Who Use Them.
In Waupaca County, Keenan uses Catch a Ride to reach work, social activities, church, family, and a bowling league that gives him connection and enjoyment each week.
But Keenan’s role does not stop when the ride ends. He has also participated in Catch a Ride’s Rider Advisory Committee, helping share feedback about what riders need, what is working, and where the system can improve.
That kind of feedback matters. It helps Catch a Ride and local partners understand transportation from the rider’s perspective—not only through reports, schedules, or ride totals.
Keenan’s story reflects Catch a Ride’s emphasis on rider involvement, community connection, and feedback-driven improvement in Waupaca County.
When Transportation Is Available, People Say More Is Possible.
In an independent evaluation of Catch a Ride participants, riders described transportation support as essential to reaching healthcare, food, and daily needs—and as connected to improvements in wellbeing.
83%
said they would struggle to reach medical care without transportation support.
74%
said they would struggle to access food or meals.
58%
reported improved physical health.
82%
reported improved mental health.
Data Should Help Communities Do Better.
Catch a Ride is building data systems that help communities move beyond assumptions and see where transportation barriers are affecting real people.
We study transportation patterns to understand where people are still facing barriers—and how communities can respond more effectively.
Rider Experience
What people say they need, what makes transportation difficult, and what support helps them move forward.
Service Data
Trips, destinations, time of day, transportation options used, support requests, cancellations, and recurring barriers.
Community Insight
Patterns that help local partners see where care, work, food access, public transit, and transportation resources are not connecting effectively.
Better Decisions
Stronger transportation programs, better coordination, more responsive funding, improved care planning, and smarter public policy.
We are not collecting data for the sake of data. We are collecting it so communities can make better decisions about the people they are trying to serve.
Catch a Ride’s current data-infrastructure work is designed to improve real-time reporting, equity measurement, dashboards, healthcare and public-system alignment, and policy-relevant insights.
From Local Learning to Better Policy.
Transportation policy is often shaped by funding categories, service boundaries, and eligibility rules that do not always match the reality of someone’s daily life.
Catch a Ride is building the evidence needed to help communities ask better questions: Where are people unable to reach care? Which trips are falling outside traditional funding rules? When do public transit routes need flexible support around them? Where are workers, families, veterans, and older adults experiencing the greatest gaps?
Catch a Ride will use privacy-protected, aggregated information whenever possible. Individual rider data will not be sold, publicly displayed, or used in ways that compromise dignity, safety, or trust.
Healthcare access and continuity
Where transportation barriers affect treatment, follow-up care, rehabilitation, behavioral health, and prevention.
Workforce mobility
Where transportation barriers affect job access, early and late shifts, training, retention, and economic stability.
Rural and public-transit planning
Where fixed-route, demand-response, volunteer, and on-demand transportation must work together.
Older-adult independence
Where transportation access supports treatment, food access, caregiver relief, social connection, and aging in place.
Flexible funding and community investment
Where modest transportation supports may prevent larger disruptions in healthcare, employment, food access, or family stability.
What We Are Building Next
2026–2028 Learning Agenda
2026
Strengthen the Foundation
2027
Improve data consistency across programs, expand dashboards, clarify outcome definitions, strengthen rider feedback processes, and build reporting tools that are useful to communities—not just funders.
Publish More Local Insight
Develop community learning briefs that help partners understand transportation gaps, trip purpose trends, rider needs, and opportunities for better coordination.
2028
Inform Broader Systems Change
Use multi-year transportation, rider, and community data to strengthen conversations with health systems, transit agencies, employers, public leaders, funders, and policymakers about what dependable mobility requires.
