The City of Bentonville has been kicking around the idea of adding a downtown bus route for a few months now, and it’s looking increasingly likely to happen next year.
As currently drafted, the new downtown bus route would serve The Momentary, the 8th Street Market, the downtown square, Crystal Bridges, and stops along SW A and Main Streets. All bus routes in Bentonville are free to ride.
Proposed downtown bus route
Two related changes are also proposed for next year: an end to on-demand transit service in Bentonville and an expansion of paratransit services for people with disabilities.
After some discussion in previous meetings, a new plan for 2026 services was shared at the Nov. 25 City Council meeting. Here are the details:
Ending On-Demand
On demand transit explainer video
The introduction of the new downtown route would involve ending on-demand transit, a door-to-door Uber-like service that is available to all residents. Both on-demand transit and regular bus services are provided by Ozark Regional Transit.
Earlier this year, Joel Gardner, executive director of Ozark Regional Transit, told The Bentonville Bulletin that the on-demand service wasn’t compatible with the long-term vision for public transit in the region. With just one bus dedicated to the service in Bentonville, it has been unreliable, with most ride requests (59%) rejected due to lack of capacity.
The bus currently used for on-demand transit will instead be repurposed for the downtown bus route.
Expanding Paratransit
For riders with documented disabilities, Ozark Regional Transit also provides a separate ride service called paratransit.
The plan from Ozark Regional Transit would expand paratransit service to more of Bentonville than before while eliminating on-demand transit service:
Because some funding for paratransit service comes from the federal government, it is limited to people with documented disabilities, Gardner said.
Next Steps
In the 2026 budget, the city agreed to pay $705,327 for Ozark Regional Transit’s services, a 24% increase over this year.
Details of the contract are still being finalized, and both the City Council and Ozark Regional Transit’s executive board will have to approve the final agreement.
Gardner said he hopes to have the finalized agreement in front of the City Council at one of its December meetings so Ozark Regional Transit can begin working on the changes at the start of the new year. He said it will take two to three months to implement the new route.
