Colquitt County’s rural transit buses are based at the Intermodal Transportation Facility on Second Street at First Avenue Southeast.

MOULTRIE, Ga. — With the rise of gas prices and the constant need for transportation within Colquitt County, the Southwest Georgia Regional Commission says local residents can rely on its public transit system.

The 76-bus fleet conducted 36,126 one-way trips within Colquitt County during the fiscal year 2022, according to Beka Shiver, the commission’s economic development and transportation planner.

Approximately 7,477 out of the 36,126 recorded trips were categorized as public-demanded trips. The remaining rides were fulfilled in partnership with organizations like the Department of Human Resources and Medicare.

A common misconception is that the system only accepts Medicaid, elderly or disabled riders.

“There’s a lot of people that say, ‘Oh, I thought the little white buses were just for Medicaid patients.’ That’s simply not the truth,” Shiver said by phone Tuesday morning.

The transit service is available to all residents – of all ages – in Southwest Georgia. Children under the age of 13 must be accompanied by an adult. The regional commission started its fleet in 2003 through a grant provided by the Georgia Department of Transportation.

“With our own fleet, we’re almost 20 years strong,” Shiver said. “This is a rural transit service that is administered mostly through the Regional Commission in the state of Georgia. There are some cities that provide their own services as well, but due to the rural nature of our state, the regional commissions typically operates the rural transit services.”

Each community that participates in the Southwest Georgia Regional Commission transit system has to pay a fee for services. For the fiscal year 2022, the fee totaled $5.6 million, she said.

The system operates on a “demand-response model,” meaning a resident must call his respective county fleet line to request a ride. The request call must be done at least 24 hours in advance between 9 am to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday. The Colquitt County request line is 229-985-1666.

Each ride is counted as a “one-way trip.” For example, if you need a ride to a grocery store, you will have to pay separate exact cash fares, first from the pick-up location to the store then another fare from the store to the drop-off location.

Trips between zero to 10 miles within the county line cost $3. Trips over ten miles within the county line cost $5. Any trips that are outside the county line have a $5 base fare with an additional $0.50 per mile over ten miles.

As a part of the commission’s contract with the Georgia Department of Transportation, they are obligated to conduct transit development plans for each county within the region. The plan reviews the population demographics, the rural transit service and how it is related to communal needs.

The Southwest Georgia Regional Commission will be hosting a routine county-wide assessment of the transit system for Colquitt County’s plan at the Moultrie-Colquitt County Library on Tuesday, December 6.

Shiver said, “This meeting is intended to present our findings to the public, get their input and make sure that we’re on the right track with what we have found. But the document itself that we are putting together is going to be utilized as a planning tool for the county commission and then all of the different local governments.”

The assessment meeting is open to all local residents and will allow the commission to compare its prepared findings with the community’s outlooks.

So far, the commission has found that Colquitt County’s findings are “pretty consistent” with surrounding counties.

The basic findings include that some residents are unable to drive due to age or disabilities, socio-economic factors contribute to the transportation needs and some young adults use the system, Shiver explained.

Another finding is that the demand-response system works best for this area because of how frequently the buses travel dirt roads.

There’s no plan to expand the system anytime soon, but residents can look forward to future improvements to the transit system like the buses undergoing new paint jobs and a new app called Let’s Ride that’s under development by the Georgia Department of Transportation. Riders will be able to request rides through the app once it’s available to the region.

For more information about the Southwest Georgia Regional Commission transit system, please refer to www.swgrc.org/regional-transit/.