FILE: A SamTrans Ride Plus van offers on-demand shuttle service in select locations in San Mateo County.

It’s a gorgeous Friday in mid-October, and I’m in California’s lesser-known -by-the-Sea town, Princeton, trying to figure out the best way to kill an hour and a half while waiting for my ride, SamTrans Ride Plus — an on-demand microtransit service that’s quietly reshaping transportation in San Mateo County.

Launched in 2019 as a pilot program in Pacifica, Ride Plus was created to address the “first mile, last mile” problem, the tricky distances between people’s homes and larger public transit stops. Most of the shuttle vans in the fleet can seat up to seven passengers and fit one wheelchair. They operate every day of the week in East Palo Alto and Menlo Park’s Belle Haven neighborhood from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and in Half Moon Bay from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For local riders, including many seniors, students and workers living in those areas — a third of whom make under $50,000 a year — Ride Plus is a lifeline that connects them to grocery stores, hospitals and transit hubs. According to Randol White, a SamTrans spokesperson, the service averages 109 trips per weekday and over 3,000 trips per week, with around 63% of these trips occurring in East Palo Alto and Belle Haven. The rest of them take place in Half Moon Bay.

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Riders can book their trips several ways — via the Ride Plus app, online or by phone. Ride Plus operates with three shuttles in East Palo Alto and two in Half Moon Bay, offering rides for just $2.05. “There’s this incredible service that will take them curb-to-curb within the area that they live or bring them right to a SamTrans bus stop,” White told SFGATE over the phone.

FILE: A SamTrans Ride Plus van offers........

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