St. Stephen residents now have a new way to get around the community.

Future St. Stephen has partnered with ridesharing company Kari for a pilot project.

The pilot began in the municipality on Wednesday and is expected to run for six months.

Ridesharing is an on-demand service that uses an app to match passengers needing a ride with a vehicle owner.

Jeremy Barham, president of Future St. Stephen, said if you do not have your own vehicle, it can be very challenging to get around town.

“We’ve had taxi companies come and go, but haven’t had anything consistent for a long time now. And there’s obviously no public transport either,” Barham told our newsroom previously.

“So people are very much reliant on their own two legs or on friends to get them where they need to go.”

While ridesharing services have become a popular transportation option for many years in larger communities, it is less common in smaller communities, where there are fewer people to take advantage of it.

Barham said it made sense to work with Kari, which is based in Charlottetown, since its focus is on smaller areas like St. Stephen.

He added that they also hope to expand the service to other parts of Charlotte County, depending on how the pilot goes.

“We’ll use this six months to determine how many people there are who would like to use the service and how often they need it,” said Barham.