The Bear River Association of Governments’ Mobility Voucher Program in Utah allows qualifying participants to submit vouchers reimbursing friends and family for giving them rides to access healthcare, shopping, and other needs.  In its first year, participants submitted vouchers for about one thousand qualifying trip miles, for a total of about $350 in reimbursements. Even with the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, reimbursements have tripled on average every year since.

The voucher program went from always having a funding surplus to running out of funding four months before the end of the 2022 fiscal year. The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) stepped in to help find $40,000 in federal funding, citing the program’s great success at serving its target beneficiaries for a fraction of the cost of other systems.