Metro’s $4 million microtransit pilot has gone off the rails

Metro’s spending on the Evolve Houston microtransit program is about to cross the $4 million line, and it is time for Houstonians — and City Council — to start asking some serious questions.

Most Houstonians have little idea of this program because it serves so few people and only in certain neighborhoods. It involves little electric vehicles that seat five people. Riders use an Uber-like app to request a door-to-door ride.

Evolve was originally pitched as a pilot program to serve communities where a significant portion of residents didn’t have a car. Technically, Evolve is a nonprofit that pays for Ryde electric shuttles and funded by the City of Houston, which is then reimbursed by Metro. The current Metro board chair, Elizabeth Brock, was a founding member and chair of Evolve’s board. Since the microtransit program began in 2023, it has spiraled in size and cost, providing free rides for key Inner Loop neighborhoods at a taxpayer expense without any rigorous measure of whether we are getting our money’s worth.

Last year, a six-month $216,000 extension of the test case quickly ballooned to a $1 million-plus initiative. Now the METRO committee overseeing this operation is considering another extension — more than $2.24 million to keep the program going and possibly growing until Sept. 2026.

Don’t expect it to stop there. Watch the discussion at last week’s committee meeting, and you’ll see interim Metro President and CEO Thomas Jasien casually mentioning the idea of adding even more money to the program for an “enhanced” dollar amount.

Investing additional taxpayer dollars might make sense if this pilot were a proven success. But right now the board is still waiting on an update from an ongoing Ernst & Young assessment of the program. Board member Holly Vilaseca even asked when they would have that information in hand. She was told it would be another three weeks. What’s the point of having an assessment of Evolve if Metro isn’t going to use it to guide its decision-making? Because right now, Metro is on path to spend $4.2 million on a program it still calls a “pilot.”

Maybe Metro leadership is worried that the Ernst & Young report won’t deliver a positive assessment. It wouldn’t be the first red flag on the program. I recently filed an open records request about Evolve Houston and received an internal audit that highlighted how Evolve’s prices were “unsupportable.” The audit also pointed out that Evolve’s electric shuttles failed to meet federal requirements that vehicles be accessible for riders in wheelchairs.

That bad news shouldn’t be a surprise. Evolve has had problems from the very beginning.

The initial pilot used a loophole to avoid state requirements for competitive bidding on large contracts. At the time, the city argued that no other vendor could provide Evolve’s microtransit service. Each amendment since then has been an extension under that initial agenda item. And I would argue that the initial justification isn’t even accurate. In 2023, Texas Department of Transportation identified a number of microtransit operations across the state.

Microtransit pilots in other cities run up to 12 months to catch data during different seasons. We’re going on three years. At this point, it is fair to say that Evolve is not a pilot program. It is an entire system built without ever having to go through formal procurement. Metro’s own presentations tout how they have expanded a “2-vehicle Evolve pilot to a 5-zone METRO microtransit system.” A system without wheelchair-accessible vehicles or air conditioning, but a system nonetheless.

Maybe Evolve Houston is a worthwhile program. Maybe future Houstonians will view today’s Metro board as pioneers of a new and effective transit paradigm — even though I’d argue our local leaders should still leave the pioneering to the free market.

But my guess is that this will end up being a failed experiment that funnelled $4 million to a politically connected vendor that overcharged taxpayers for the privilege of free rides in glorified golf carts, landing another blow to a transit agency already struggling with its public image.

If Metro won’t be willingly transparent about Evolve Houston, then it falls on City Hall to start demanding answers.