BILLY SHIELDS: If you live along Hull Street Road in Chesterfield County, you may see a logoed van like this one zipping through your community.

It's called the LINK.

STEPHANIE POWER: We are super excited about the LINK Microtransit.

It is basically a pilot program to offer free transit service to people in the counties.

People who maybe are not near a fixed route service with GRTC.

BILLY SHIELDS: Officials are calling it Microtransit.

You use an app on your phone to hail a ride going from one address to the other.

I tried it recently and while there was an initial hiccup because the app sent the driver to a location a block away from me, a dispatcher called back.

And like that, I was on my way to my destination within the 20 minute pickup window.

CHESSA WALKER: We have local bus service now.

We have a couple of routes and we were looking for something that could fill in a need where local bus service may not be as feasible.

BILLY SHIELDS: The service is totally free and it's part of a five zone pilot program rolled out in March.

Officials are trying to match riders with destinations.

CHESSA WALKER: There's the YMCA, There's a YMCA in the corridor, there's lots of shopping, jobs.

Rockwood Park is located at Courthouse and Hull.

So, any reason from recreation to work to dining, you know, that's located in this corridor you can use.

HENRY BENDON: Public transit is for everybody but there are places where the density of your community might not necessarily support a bus.

In 2021, after the creation of the Central Virginia Transportation Authority, there was a regional study commissioned to figure out where can we expand transit to and how.

BILLY SHIELDS: Buy in for the program has been gradual.

But the GRTC notes it's still early days.

HENRY BENDON: To put more simply, like, there's a lot of work and a lot of time to decide whether or not this has been a success, and I think we have a good start.

STEPHANIE POWER: Yeah, the number one challenge is letting the public know that this is a service.

BILLY SHIELDS: And just like that, we arrive at the Chippenham Mall and from this point I can also enter GRTC's network of busses.

Officials say the program could help them figure out where to establish more conventional bus routes in the future.

Billy Shields, VPM News.