Shaping the Future of Mobility: Spare's Commitment to Fundamentally Improving Paratransit

As one of Spare’s founders, I often find myself reflecting on our vision for the future of transportation. To us, transportation is much more than just getting from point A to point B. It’s about freedom, it’s about connections. It’s about moving the world in a way that opens up mobility — and opportunities — for all.

We believe that the true potential of transportation goes well beyond what we see today, and the key to unlocking that potential begins with serving those who need it most.

From the very first day at Spare, as recent university grads, Josh, Alexey, and I wrote on our vision whiteboard that we would change paratransit for the better. While paratransit was the destination, we didn’t know how we would get there. And we knew it wouldn’t be easy — but nothing worth doing is easy. This challenge excited us. So we set out to build a product that would:

1. Dramatically improve the quality of services that we provide, because those who need it deserve mobility services far better than the ones they are offered today.
2. Reduce the cost of providing these services — by an order of magnitude — through increased automation and streamlined operations.

We knew it was a monumental task, but we had a simple goal that guides us to this day: to make every ride possible.

Building a paratransit product is complex—harder than we ever imagined. We started with microtransit, introduced automated commingling, then layered on ever-larger paratransit services. Each new increment in size and complexity has been a challenge. But it’s in the struggle, in the learning, that the magic happens. Insights gained from our customers and importantly, the riders, have been instrumental in our learning curve. Our aim is to deliver an incredible experience to all involved in our services — from service administrators to drivers, and, most importantly, paratransit riders.

Now, as I look back on the progress we’ve made, especially when I consider the impact we've had at PSTA, I can’t help but feel a sense of immense pride. If you talk to our customers from a year ago today, they’ll tell you about the leaps and bounds we’ve taken forward. I encourage you to speak to our customers about this. They’ll tell you that no other mobility company has improved paratransit in the way that we have. We didn’t set out to change the world. But we’re doing it, one ride at a time. And we’re just getting started.