A Boise-area resident who uses a wheelchair was forced to cancel a kidney cancer screening last spring after the medical transportation service she relies on ran out of money mid-month. The episode exposed deeper structural problems facing public transit in Idaho, where no dedicated state funding exists for programs like the one that briefly left her without a ride.

A Program That Almost Went Dark

Ann Kirkwood had scheduled her appointment for mid-May, planning to use Rides2Wellness, a medical transportation program administered by Valley Regional Transit serving Ada and Canyon counties. The program suspended operations in May after exhausting its budget. Kirkwood canceled her appointment and began contacting policymakers and journalists to call attention to the situation.

The service was restored by the end of May after St. Luke’s and Saint Alphonsus health systems stepped in with a combined $77,500 in emergency funding. But Kirkwood and transit officials say the patch doesn’t address what caused the shortfall in the first place.

“It’s a lot to ask a friend to take someone in a wheelchair to the doctor,” Kirkwood said.

Demand Outpacing Budget by Wide Margins

Founded in 2016 through a partnership with the two major Treasure Valley health systems, Rides2Wellness logged roughly 16,000 rides last year. The program was budgeted for nearly 1,300 rides per month in Ada County and around 250 rides per month in Canyon County for fiscal year 2026.

By the end of April, actual bookings had already exceeded that budget by roughly 14 percent — with Ada County seeing more than 1,400 rides per month and Canyon County approaching 370. By early May, Ada County had capped new rides at 500 per month, effectively denying all remaining May requests; Canyon County had already reached its budget limit at the start of the month.

Transit officials attribute the rising demand partly to health insurers cutting back on transportation benefits, pushing more patients toward the publicly subsidized program. Valley Regional Transit projects demand will climb another 5 percent in the next fiscal year.

For patients without access to Rides2Wellness, private medical transportation typically costs $60 per trip — a significant barrier for low-income and mobility-limited residents.

A Structural Funding Problem

Idaho is one of few states that does not dedicate any state funding to public transportation. Valley Regional Transit has operated primarily through a patchwork of local government contributions, federal grants, and health care system partnerships.

That model is showing strain. The Valley Regional Transit board recently approved a plan to lobby the Idaho Legislature for taxing authority — a move that would require legislative action to give local transit agencies a more stable, independent revenue source.

Meanwhile, local funding is moving in the opposite direction. The Nampa City Council voted to cut its contribution to Valley Regional Transit. A public hearing on those cuts is scheduled for August 17. A pilot expansion of Rides2Wellness into Elmore County is underway, but funding sustainability remains uncertain across the entire service area.

Elaine Clegg, CEO of Valley Regional Transit, said the recurring crises reflect a deeper problem with how Idaho approaches transit funding overall. “When we talk about it piecemeal, we find piecemeal solutions,” she said. “But we never really address the root cause, which is that our transportation system is not very resilient.”

What Comes Next

Among the cities in the service area, Meridian is currently the only municipality providing dedicated funding for Rides2Wellness. That leaves the program heavily dependent on health system contributions and federal dollars — neither of which is guaranteed from year to year.

The Valley Regional Transit board’s push for state taxing authority will require buy-in from a Legislature that adjourned in April without addressing public transit funding. Whether lawmakers take up the issue in the 2027 session remains to be seen, but transit advocates say the May near-collapse makes the case for action harder to ignore.

For riders like Kirkwood, the stakes are immediate. A missed cancer screening isn’t an abstract policy outcome — it’s a delayed diagnosis, and the difference between a manageable condition and a life-threatening one.