Lethbridge's Park 'n Ride Transit Terminal. (Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

“On Demand” service proposed for Lethbridge Transit, goal suggested to save $2.6-million

Apr 28, 2020 | 11:28 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – If Lethbridge City Council goes ahead with recommended changes to the public transit system, riders could see some real differences.

Members of Lethbridge Transit presented at Monday’s Community Issues Committee meeting, detailing the results of the KPMG Transit Operational Review. Their Powerpoint presentation can be accessed here.

Transit Operations Manager Scott Grieco says it was a great opportunity for them to review how the system currently runs and how it could be improved for both the sake of the municipality’s finances and for users.

“Transit customers want to get places quick and convenient and so, right now through the Transit Master Plan and various other documents, our transit system is primarily a coverage-based model, so we would have to look at those service standards and look to get people from A to B quicker.”

City council has not made any formal decisions yet on whether they will be adopting any of the proposed recommendations. They will come back for votes at later dates.

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Finances:

The review notes that the City of Lethbridge “has been observed to have higher service intensity, relative to other mid-sized Canadian municipalities. This appears to be driving higher costs and investments in assets than comparable municipalities.”

Currently, the service is subsidized by tax dollars to the tune of approximately $10.9-million with $3-million in revenues from ridership and $13.9-million in total expenses.

With an average of 21 busses running per hour for 18.5 hours each day on weekdays, the annual cost per bus is $666,454 every year or $98.97 per hour.

Grieco believes that, with the right changes, they could save upwards of $2.6-million over the course of the next three-to-four years.

“If you wanted to achieve those numbers, you would have to analyze your walk distance, the frequency at which our busses transport people, so you really have to look at the service levels if you were to achieve those numbers.”

A significant component of these savings would be to increase the distance that people would need to walk to get to their bus stop to ensure busses do not have to stop as frequently.

Another suggestion was to reduce the overall hours of operation by ending transit at 10:00 pm instead of midnight. Grieco also proposed reducing the frequency of trips being made during conventional downtimes such as at night.

He believes these three changes alone would save the city $353,027 per year.

Officials would also look further into operational and administrative efficiencies.

Transit On Demand:

Grieco proposed implementing what he referred to as a “Transit On Demand” model that would complement the current route-based system.

It is an app-based service that allows people to book rides digitally.

In early April, the city moved to a “Transit by Reservation” system in light of COVID-19, which Grieco sees as sort of a test pilot for how this could work. At the same time, he believes the more technological model would be a drastic improvement.

“Right now in Transit by Reservation, we can’t book rides right away, we can’t get that information. We have to take phone calls, we have to take emails and compile all of that, so it takes a significant amount of resources to put that together.”

“With the technology, what that does is it really takes the administrative redundancies of accepting bookings, accepting schedules, amalgamation that. Another thing the technology does is it runs an algorithm so it takes the most efficient route, it accommodates the right amount of people to the right place at the right time.”

Another advantage that he talked about was being able to easily determine what the ridership levels are for a new community since it collects data on the number of trips that are being booked and from where, and based on that information, permanent transit routes can be created.

Grieco noted that Transit On Demand is not a door-to-door service or a “taxi or Uber”.

Access-A-Ride:

Transit System Operations Supervisor Michelle Loxton says the main difference she would like to make in the accessible transportation system is to see it better prioritized for those with greater needs.

Last year, a total of 119,768 trips were made through the service with an average of 1.2 rides per capita. Loxton does not believe the number of trips is the problem, but rather, who is using it.

She says there are a number of people utilizing Access-A-Ride who could be taking regular buses, meaning people who truly need the more accessible busses are sometimes not able to use it.

That is why she wants to see a contracted professional conduct independent assessments of everyone who is applying for Access-A-Ride.

“Currently, our application process comes to my desk and I do not have a medical degree, I’m not trained to do those sorts of assessments, right? So how can I argue with a professional who says they really do [need it]?”

“An occupational therapist, they are actually trained to do specifically this, right? They also have the tools and the knowledge to support people who may need a little extra help riding transit, but they can support that.”

By doing this, there could be a reduction in service anywhere from 42 per cent to 62 per cent.

As part of the review, 21 other municipalities were analyzed for the sake of comparison to Lethbridge.

Loxton says about two-thirds of them already had a professional assessor and all of them found success with that part of the program.

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