PARTA Dial-A-Ride — Getting Around Portage County Without Driving

Hanging up the car keys doesn't mean staying home

When driving stops, the fear is never really about the car — it's about the groceries, the doctor, church, lunch with a friend. What most Portage County folks don't realize is that our county already runs a real, countywide, door-to-door bus service. It's called Dial-A-Ride, it's run by PARTA, and it will pick you up at your own address in Atwater, Ravenna, Windham, or anywhere else in the county — on a small bus with a wheelchair lift if you need one.

The catch isn't cost — rides are $6, or $3 with the senior reduced fare card. The catch is that nobody sits down and shows you how it works: the phone call, the township schedule, the one-day-ahead rule, the 10-ride ticket books. This guide is that sit-down, with every number and fare verified against PARTA's official site (partaonline.org) in July 2026.

How Dial-A-Ride actually works

• Door-to-door, anywhere in Portage County. Small buses with wheelchair lifts. You don't walk to a stop — the bus comes to your address.
• Book by phone, at least one day ahead. Call (330) 678-1287 — PARTA spells it 330-678-1BUS. Schedulers answer Mon–Fri, 8:00–4:30, so a Monday ride gets booked by Friday.
• It's a shared ride. The bus may pick up others along the way, so build in cushion time — and book your return trip in the same call.
• Hours: Monday–Friday 5am–11pm, Saturday 8am–7pm. No Sundays, and no service on six major holidays.
• Anyone can ride — you don't need to be a senior or have a disability. Seniors and disabled riders just pay half.

Your township decides your days

Kent, Ravenna, Streetsboro, Aurora, Mantua, Shalersville, Rootstown, Suffield, Randolph, and Brimfield get Dial-A-Ride Monday through Friday. Freedom, Garrettsville, Hiram, Nelson, and Windham are served Mondays and Wednesdays. Charlestown, Palmyra, Paris, Atwater, Deerfield, and Edinburg are served Tuesdays and Thursdays. The trick that makes the whole system pleasant: when a doctor's office asks when you'd like to come in, ask for a day that matches your township — offices hear this request all the time.

Get the reduced fare card first — it halves everything

If you're 65 or older, hold a Medicare card, or have a disability, PARTA's reduced fare card drops Dial-A-Ride from $6 to $3 and the regular buses from $1 to 50 cents. Apply once: in person at 2000 Summit Road in Kent with your Medicare card or driver's license/state ID, by calling (330) 678-1287, or by mailing the application from partaonline.org. It's the best return on one errand in this whole topic — and yes, you can take Dial-A-Ride to PARTA's office to go get it.

ADA paratransit and free medical rides

• ADA paratransit ($2 a ride): for riders whose disability prevents using the regular buses. You and your physician complete an application, PARTA sends you for a free functional assessment, and a personal care attendant rides free. Call (330) 678-1287 for the application.
• NET — free Medicaid medical rides: if you're Medicaid eligible, rides to doctor, dental, hearing, pharmacy, and counseling appointments are free across Portage and surrounding counties. Call (330) 297-3785 ten days before the appointment.
• Deaf or hard of hearing: PARTA's TTY line is (330) 676-5100, and Ohio Relay is free at 711.

The regular buses, and yes — Akron and Cleveland

PARTA's fixed routes run Monday–Saturday through Kent, Ravenna, Streetsboro, and out to Windham, Garrettsville, and Hiram for $1 a ride (50 cents reduced), meeting at the Kent Central Gateway at 201 E. Erie Street downtown. And two weekday express routes leave the county entirely: the Akron Express — Brimfield Walmart, Summa Akron City Hospital, downtown Akron — for one dollar, and the Cleveland Express — Streetsboro, Tower City, Cleveland State, and the Louis Stokes VA Medical Center — for five. For veterans with VA appointments, that Cleveland run is quietly one of the best deals in Northeast Ohio.

The phone side — where I come in

Two free apps make the regular buses friendlier: EZfare puts your bus fare on your phone (and it's the only way to get the $2 day pass), and Passio GO shows the buses moving on a live map so you wait indoors instead of at the curb — it also works in any web browser at passiogo.com, no smartphone required. Dial-A-Ride itself stays a phone-call service, which is exactly why I set customers up with PARTA's numbers as named contacts, speed dial, a practice booking call on speakerphone, and the printed township schedule on the fridge.

When PARTA isn't the answer

• Sundays and same-day trips: GoGoGrandparent (1-855-464-6872) puts a live operator between you and Uber/Lyft, 24/7, no smartphone needed — you pay the normal fare plus a per-minute concierge fee, so ask for a quote.
• The human network: a standing ride routine with family beats one-off asks, and many Portage County churches quietly run ride ministries — the church office knows.
• Skip the trip: groceries and prescriptions can come to you — see my Online Grocery for Seniors and Getting Rides Without Driving guides, both free on this site.

What's in the printable PDF

• Which service fits you — Dial-A-Ride, fixed route, ADA, or NET — on one comparison page.
• The booking phone call, scripted step by step, including what to have in front of you.
• The full township service-day table, with a fill-in box for your own town.
• Every fare: $6/$3/$2 single rides, the 10-ride ticket books, and all six places to buy them.
• The reduced fare card — who qualifies and the three ways to apply.
• Day-of-ride advice: being ready early, what drivers can and can't do, and missed-return rescue.
• The 0.3-mile "Fixed Route Only Zone" rule, explained before it surprises you.
• ADA paratransit — the three covered groups, the free assessment, and the appeal right.
• NET free Medicaid medical rides — the ten-day rule and what to have ready when you call.
• The Akron ($1) and Cleveland ($5) express buses, including the VA hospital connection.
• EZfare and Passio GO setup, plus a cut-out first-ride checklist and wallet card.
• Every phone number on one fridge page — verified July 2026.

Why I wrote this

I'm the tech guy, not the bus company — PARTA runs a genuinely good service, and everything in this guide comes straight from their official information. But I keep meeting folks in my service area who quietly stopped going places because nobody ever walked them through the system, and the phone-and-app side is squarely my lane. This is the sit-down I'd want someone to give my own family: every number checked, every fare current as of July 2026, and honest about the gaps. — Bill