Sometimes you just need a lift. 

For the past three years, that’s what the city of Richmond has been offering to several dozen residents who need to get to work but, with no car and jobs off the bus line, have limited ways to get there themselves. 

“We were having conversations with people and this kind of common theme of ‘There are better jobs, but we can’t get to them’ came up frequently,” said Kelli Rowan, a planner in Richmond’s Office of Equitable Transit and Mobility. 

For people like Ebony Lyons, who works in the nursing field, the lack of transportation for work often meant eating into her paycheck, even if it was tight.

“I was struggling trying to get to work paying Lyft rides, and it was so expensive,” she remembered.

It was exactly that type of problem Richmond’s Free-Rides-to-Work Program was designed to solve. Created in 2022 and funded entirely by grants from the Virginia Transit Association, the program offers van transportation to people who qualify for the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, program. Most of its participants are residents of Richmond’s public housing communities and 84% are women; all of them have at least one dependent child and make less than 200% of the federal poverty level, which in 2024 was $62,400 for a family of four. 

“We have a lot of single parents that have multiple children. They were trying to figure out how they would get their kids to school and daycare because they don't live on the bus line,” said Chenice Brown, one of the coordinators with the Office of Equitable Transit and Mobility. 

Not having a car is more common among Richmonders than people might think. While U.S. Census figures estimate the city has roughly 178,000 people aged 20 and over, Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles spokesperson Mike Pressendo said about 158,000 vehicles (including heavy-duty trucks and motorcycles) are registered in Richmond. Rowan said many people living in public housing communities don’t have a driver’s license.

Having a ride has been “amazing,” said Lyons. “Everybody is so respectful. They’re always on time. They care about our well-being, that we’re okay.”  

Consequently, demand for the free rides program has been high. After former Mayor Levar Stoney formally announced the program at Fairfield Court in November 2022, Rowan said roughly 400 people submitted applications — well above what the $279,000 program could provide. Today, about 50 people use the service, but officials are looking to increase that number to 60 by June thanks to additional funds from the Virginia Transit Association. 

“We want to get the most number of rides as we can out of the grant money,” she said.

In the future, that will mean harder limits on how long residents can be enrolled. A survey of 25 participants conducted by OETM last winter found that on average, they stayed in the program just over a year, while several who spoke with The Richmonder said they had been using it almost two years. 

Going forward, “we're really trying to limit the interaction of an individual with the program to six months,” said Dironna Moore-Clark, OETM’s director. 

“We don’t want the same people to be on it forever,” said Rowan. “This isn’t the long-term solution. This is supposed to be just a shorter-term solution to help you make ends meet.” 

Myra Griffin, who with her husband Michael Griffin owns Community Transportation, the company that operates the vans that bring residents to work, described many of the residents using the program as “go-getters,” eager to put their life on a more stable footing and find better employment. 

“I thought we would be going through a lot of different people changing jobs every day,” she said. “No, these young ladies and men every day are out there ready to go.”

Survey responses show the service has made a difference when it comes to participants’ jobs. A third said they had been able to get a job that increased their living wage during the program, while more than half said they were in a better position to work toward getting a vehicle of their own. 

“We've actually had four parents that were actually able to move out of public housing because they were connected with transportation to a different workforce opportunity,” said Brown. 

Johnetta Burton, who also works in the nursing field and has been using the service for just under two years after the transmission on her car went out, said she knew her time in the program was coming to an end but she was glad others would have a chance for the helping hand.

“I just use that as a big push to get another vehicle,” she told The Richmonder. 

The program is also continuing to evolve. While previously the vans would also drive children to daycare when their parents needed to go to their jobs, the number of kids being transported has declined, and that aspect is being phased out. Efforts to transport parents to jobs far outside the city limits in places like Petersburg weren’t worth it, according to the Griffins, who now deliver workers mostly within a 20-mile radius to warehouses, factories and senior homes in Short Pump, Midlothian, Southside and parts of the West End. 

Finally, while initial plans called for participants to be picked up at hubs near their homes, the Griffins said they quickly pivoted to picking up everybody at their door.

“With the crime and people having to be to work so early in the morning, and it's getting dark early, it’s just not good to have our clients standing somewhere,” said Myra Griffin. “And so it’s better for us to pick them up as close as we can to where they live.”

To help people transitioning out of the city-led program, the Griffins are launching a new initiative through Community Transportation called the Second Phase Project where they will offer classes on car financing and assist them with setting up any driving lessons or licensure tests they need.

“We’re letting them get on their feet to move to another phase,” said Myra Griffin. “We want to see them do better, better themselves.” 

For the Office of Equitable Transit and Mobility, that’s the whole point. 

“Some people say that this opportunity made them grow up and made them see that, hey, you know, I have to create a way for myself, and this is how I get a jumpstart. And a lot of people we've had emails saying how this program has literally changed their life,” said Brown. “Some people think you’re just getting a ride, but it's more.”