About Commuters Trust

Commuters Trust is a private-public partnership bringing together the City of South Bend and local employers and other partners. We’re working to take the stress out of your commute. 

Commuters Trust was launched with the support of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge as one of nine city projects funded in 2018.

Since launching, Commuters Trust has partnered with 16 local employers providing over 500 employees rides to get to and from work. This has resulted in roughly 9,800+ Uber and Lyft Rides and 48,000+ Transpo rides.

In 2021, Commuters Trust partnered with United Way of St. Joseph County to launch the Community Nonprofit Partners Program (CNPP). This partnership brings together 13 area nonprofits with transportation needs for their clients providing free rideshares and bus passes. To date, the CNPP program has served over 229 people and provided 18,000+ rides. 

PROGRAM REPORTS

Commuters Trust launched in September 2019, and continues to evolve as we learn from pilots and expand across the community. The following reports summarize what we’ve accomplished and learned so far.

PRESS

• Mar. 2024: South Bend relaunches transportation benefit program for nonprofit organizations

• Sep. 2021: More workers in South Bend will get help paying for Uber, Lyft, Transpo rides. Here's why.

• Mar. 2020: METRO Magazine: How to create a viable alternative for cities without public transit access

• Mar. 2020: South Bend Tribune: South Bend city initiative adds new employers, new carpooling cash incentive app called Hytch

• Mar. 2020: Traffic Technology Today: Carpooling initiative that pays members launched in South Bend

• Mar. 2020: Harvard Data-Smart Cities Solutions: Supporting Economic Mobility by Innovating Transit Mobility

• Dec. 2019: Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago: Getting to work: An innovative partnership removes transportation barriers in South Bend

• Oct. 2019: South Bend Tribune: South Bend ride-sharing program solves transportation problems for workers

• Oct. 2019: Press Release: City Launches Commuter Benefit Program in Partnership with Local Employers

BLOG POSTS

• Mar. 2025: How to Create a Transportation-as-a-Benefit Program

• Jun. 2024: City Relaunches Commuters Trust Nonprofit Program

• Nov. 2019: One year in to our transportation job access program, here are our 3 top lessons

• Aug. 2019: We’re investigating mobility solutions for South Bend; here’s what we’ve learned

• May 2019: Getting to work: Testing new transportation Solutions in South Bend

COMMUTERS TRUST TEAM

• Lynn Wetzel, Program Manager - Transportation, City of South Bend

• Ashwin Mitra, enFocus Project Manager

• James Luk, enFocus Fellow