Blackburn Hamlet chosen for on-demand transit pilot
Service aims to reduce wait times and costs in area with lower ridership
OC Transpo has chosen the community of Blackburn Hamlet to host the first run of its on-demand transit pilot project, according to a report that will go before Ottawa's transit commission next week.
The service would enable residents of the eastern neighbourhood to schedule same-day pickups or drop-offs on weekends at their closest bus stop.
All trips would start and end within the service zone or at Blair station.
"I think Blackburn Hamlet is a great community for this to start," said Barrhaven East Coun. Wilson Lo, who's been championing the idea of on-demand transit in the city.
Lo pointed to the community's already reduced transit service and the financial burden of running the service in a low-density community as factors that made Blackburn Hamlet a good candidate for the pilot.
"It's kind of an isolated community, so in many ways you can get really pure data from a pilot there," he said.
An increase of just four or five regular users over the duration of the pilot would be enough to deem it successful, Lo said.
Transit ridership has suffered
The on-demand transit project was first announced at the June 29 transit commission meeting.
If approved by council, the service would operate on weekends in place of OC Transpo Route 28. That route would continue operating on weekdays, while Route 25, which runs on Innes Road, would not be interrupted.
OC Transpo's report says the goal is to provide "shorter waiting times and shorter travel times for customers, at a lower operating cost, in an area of the city with lower ridership."
It's part of a larger attempt to bring commuters back to public transit after ridership numbers plummeted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"This is one of those creative solutions we have to use to address the fact that OC Transpo has a substantial budgetary shortfall, without further cutting services," Lo said.
"In many ways introducing on-demand actually increases the service availability in the community."
OC Transpo said there are several parts of the city where ridership is low or there's no public transit that could benefit from on-demand buses.
Any expansion of the service would only occur after the pilot wraps up. The report doesn't say how long it will operate for.
Para Transpo not affected, city says
While the project will use spare Para Transpo minibuses, it won't interfere with Para Transpo's service delivery, the city said.
According to the report, the city owns 80 minibuses that are used for Para Transpo. Of those, 65 are used each weekday while the rest are in maintenance, and 44 are used on weekends.
"These buses, along with contracted taxis, accommodate substantially all trip requests from Para Transpo customers," the report says.
Some transit riders with disabilities have expressed frustration that the on-demand transit they've been requesting for years is now being provided to riders with other transit options.
OC Transpo's report will be presented to the transit commission at its Sept. 14 meeting.
At that meeting, the agency will also request that $16.7 million set aside in the 2023 budget to buy zero-emission buses be reallocated for the purchase of 51 new minibuses.
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