How a DOT with no transit history, no appetite for risk, and a skeptical public built a microtransit system that works ?

Arlington, Texas with 400,000 people, 99 square miles, 3 failed transit votes over 25 years— built citywide public transit for a fraction of the cost of conventional fixed-route transit. A ride is now available within a two-block walk of every resident.

I sits down with Daniel Ramot, CEO of Via, and Alicia Winkelblech, Director of Transportation for the City of Arlington, Texas, who lived the transition firsthand. Via now serves 800+ cities across 30+ countries, powering microtransit, paratransit, school bus, transit planning, and autonomous-vehicle networks, and went public on the NYSE in 2025.

This episode is for the practitioner staring at a bus network bleeding both ridership and budget. It walks Arlington's route from the inside: how to procure for outcomes instead of vehicles; how to de-risk a launch so a skeptical public will tolerate it; and whether on-demand transit can scale to meet the needs of growing cities, and what role it plays alongside fixed-route systems.

We also covers the role of AI in the next generation of public transit. How Via is using it to reshape planning, scheduling, and real-time decision-making for DOT and cities.