For the last four years as a student at Rio Americano High, I have seen a small, unassuming van pull up to the campus each morning to drop students off. I soon found out that the shuttles, part of Sacramento Regional Transit’s SmaRT Ride program, were helping students get to schools that lacked regular public transportation.

SmaRT Ride, which was free for K-12 students, operated for years in neighborhoods that did not have full SacRT routes, making it possible for riders of all ages to get to school, work, the grocery store – wherever they needed to go that light rail and buses didn’t reach. The shuttles operated like shared Uber rides within specific zones.

Despite 700 daily riders across nine transit-starved Sacramento neighborhoods (the highest ridership in the country for that type of service), SacRT ended the program earlier this month in a cost-cutting measure.

In eliminating the commuting alternative, the transit agency is taking a major step back in public transit progress. And with SmaRT Ride’s demise, many students in need of reliable transport have had a critical lifeline taken away from them.

SacRT says they consider the SmaRT Ride program an overwhelming success, but that operating costs were too high. It makes sense given the $47-per-rider cost for SacRT to run the service, especially when students rode for free.

But the new substitute for the program, minivans called SacRT Flex, just doesn’t cut it. The microtransit service is now only available to seniors, people with disabilities, and students ages 13-17 from specific low-income households. Using Flex also requires an extensive application to determine eligibility, which contradicts the very purpose of public transportation.

What about younger and older students? What about those who don’t meet the income bracket? What about the families who don’t own a car and whose schools are not within walking or biking distance?

A mere 700 riders might not seem significant in a large urban area, but the decision will undoubtedly disproportionately affect students in need of a dependable transit option.

SacRT does not publish the exact number of students who regularly used SmaRT Ride. 

The agency did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

The only solution offered by SacRT was for riders not eligible for Flex to look into existing bus and light rail routes, when the founding purpose of SmaRT Ride was to reach unserved areas.

The RydeFreeRT initiative, which has for the last several years allowed K-12 students in the Sacramento region to take public transit for free, is also taking a hit. SacRT’s Flex program, the lackluster SmaRT Ride replacement, does not accept the pass, so even an eligible student rider will still have to pay.

Over the years, access to non-car transportation to Sacramento schools has been gradually eroded – most area school districts ended regular yellow school bus routes as early as 2011. But making public transit free to Sacramento students helped reverse that trend and sparked a surge in SacRT ridership.

A limited-eligibility, expensive service like Flex will only further discourage transit use as it leaves out so many students. The move comes even as transit agencies in California cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles begin to use public buses to serve schools directly.

We know that public transportation can’t effectively serve every resident, but far too often a small group of riders is, literally and figuratively, left behind, even when those riders relied on the services the most.

Hundreds of Sacramento schools are still served by regular buses and trains, but we can’t afford to forget those that have not been given public transit access. Large area high schools like Rio Americano, Bella Vista and Casa Roble have no fixed-route service, while dozens more only have unhelpful commuter buses running past them.

In car-centric metro areas like Sacramento, it’s easy to write off meaningful public transit services. We also far too often hear “just bike, walk, or take the bus” as an alternative to cars. But what if that isn’t possible?

SacRT is directly impacting certain students’ ability to get to school on time and safely.

It doesn’t matter if only a subset of a few hundred students are affected. Public transportation is meant to serve everyone, and students are some of the most valuable riders. Having access to reliable public transportation not only helps current students to make it to school every day, it will set them up to be lifelong transit riders.

Eleven vans driving around Sacramento that are only available to low-income teenagers is not very aspirational – SacRT needs to do better when it comes to meeting the transportation needs of students throughout the region.

If you are a student rider without access to a fixed route, you can find more information about SacRT Flex here.