{"id":106304,"date":"2025-12-31T14:55:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T14:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/106304\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T14:55:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T14:55:08","slug":"arlingtons-handitran-service-could-see-changes-in-the-way-users-pay-for-rides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/106304\/","title":{"rendered":"Arlington’s Handitran service could see changes in the way users pay for rides"},"content":{"rendered":"

by James Hartley | KERA News, Arlington Report
December 31, 2025<\/p>\n

Arlington\u2019s\u00a0Handitran service<\/a>\u00a0could see changes in rates and payment options, removing monthly passes and replacing them with a credit system.<\/p>\n

The service offers low-cost rides to Arlington residents who are elderly or disabled. District 7 Council member Bowie Hogg said most rides are for visits to the doctor or the hospital.<\/p>\n

The changes aren\u2019t finalized, though, and Arlington leaders want to hear from people who use Handitran at a public hearing on Jan. 6 ahead of a city council vote to approve or deny the changes.<\/p>\n

Alicia Winkelblech, the city\u2019s director of transportation, said the rate increase wouldn\u2019t go into effect until March or April, if approved by the council. That way, she said, the city will have plenty of time to communicate the changes to riders.<\/p>\n

The change to a credit system would see riders asked to buy bundles of credits in-app to exchange for rides. Winkelblech said the more credits bought, the less they\u2019ll cost per credit.<\/p>\n

Currently, Handitran riders pay $2 per person, per ride, or $55 for a 30-day pass with an unlimited number of rides.<\/p>\n

The credit system would work similar to many mobile phone games, where users can purchase credits with real-world money and exchange those credits for in-game perks. In this case, the credits would be exchanged for a Handitran ride.<\/p>\n

The actual cost per credit wasn\u2019t shared with council at a recent meeting where the possible changes were discussed, but Winkelblech said they could be a better option for folks than paying for a monthly pass.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also commonly have residents who may end up in the hospital for a couple weeks or they\u2019re on vacation and they bought a monthly pass and they feel like they\u2019re not getting the value of that pass,\u201d Winkelblech told the council. \u201cWhile they\u2019re unable to ride the pass is still taking their money, if you will. Whereas if they have a bundle of rides, if they\u2019re not taking those rides they\u2019re not paying anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using credits could also resolve misunderstandings about how monthly passes work, how long they last and how to renew them, she said.<\/p>\n

Hogg said those are good reasons to switch to the bundle of credits rather than a monthly pass but would like to see a monthly fee maximum.<\/p>\n

“I think about the subway system in New York, after some time they\u00a0automatically cap you at a monthly fee<\/a>\u00a0on some things,” Hogg said.<\/p>\n

That program with the New York subway system offers free rides anytime someone pays $34 in fares in a seven-day period. The free rides last for the rest of that period. Hogg’s recommendation was to take that same idea and apply it to a monthly maximum.<\/p>\n

Handitran has seen its popularity and use increase significantly since 2021, according to a report from the city.<\/p>\n

In 2021, the service provided around 97,000 rides. In 2024, it provided more than 140,000.<\/p>\n

Because Handitran is intended for people who are elderly or disabled, riders must be approved through an application process. While the number of rides per passenger has stayed roughly the same, the city data shows more users and an increase in the number of applications.<\/p>\n

Despite this increase, the number of active riders has not recovered to pre-pandemic levels, according to the data.<\/p>\n

One major change that has already gone into effect is the way rides are booked. They can still be booked over the phone, but the city has seen the share of rides reserved through the Via app and online reservations climb from around 21% to 41% since the app was introduced as a way to reserve rides.<\/p>\n

There have also been fewer no-show or canceled trip reservations since 2023 \u2013 the city\u2019s data shows that number dropping from 49% in 2023 to 22% in 2025.<\/p>\n

This <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2025\/12\/31\/arlingtons-handitran-service-could-see-changes-in-the-way-users-pay-for-rides\/”>article<\/a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org”>Arlington Report<\/a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<img src=”https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fortworthreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/cropped-favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;quality=80&amp;ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”><\/p>\n

<img id=”republication-tracker-tool-source” src=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/?republication-pixel=true&post=349696&amp;ga4=2820184429″ style=”width:1px;height:1px;”><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: “https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2025\/12\/31\/arlingtons-handitran-service-could-see-changes-in-the-way-users-pay-for-rides\/”, urlref: window.location.href }); } } <\/script> <script id=”parsely-cfg” src=”\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/fortworthreport.org\/p.js”><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by James Hartley | KERA News, Arlington Report December 31, 2025 Arlington\u2019s\u00a0Handitran service\u00a0could see changes in rates and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1854,150,152,151],"class_list":{"0":"post-106304","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arlington","8":"tag-arlingtonreport","9":"tag-arlington","10":"tag-arlington-headlines","11":"tag-arlington-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}