In rural communities such as Blacksburg and Christiansburg, inadequate transportation is one of the biggest obstacles to obtaining or maintaining employment. After conversations with Virginia Tech's Center for Transportation Research and local social service organizations, the Blacksburg team decided to use technology to address the area's transportation challenge.

From this desicion "Access to Rides" was born. The Center for Transportation Research offered to design an Internet-based database to match passenger needs with volunteer availability at the click of a mouse. The MIRA team submitted a proposal to create a volunteer-based transportation program called "Access to Rides" in January of 1999. They received funding in March of 1999 and the Blacksburg MIRA team formed the Access to Rides Project Council.

Volunteers learning to install child safety seats

The program provides temporary transportation to people living and working in Blacksburg and Christiansburg who need rides in order to secure and maintain jobs and other related social services. They use a dynamic database-and-dispatch system to match up trip requests from agencies, such as the Department of Social Services, with volunteers available and willing to drive.