(rdnewsNOW file photo)

By Alessia Proietti

55 per cent pre-pandemic ridership level

Red Deer plans to increase resident dialogue to improve public transit

Nov 30, 2022 | 9:30 AM

The City of Red Deer said on Tuesday they intend to have more dialogue with residents to determine what would encourage public transit ridership.

On day two of the 2023-24 Operating and Capital Budget deliberations, administration and council discussed the challenges the system is facing as ridership is currently at 55 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, they confirmed.

Transit Manager George Penny said they will be speaking with groups like Red Deer Polytechnic students and seniors through surveys and in-person meetings.

“Asking them why they’re not using transit and how can we help them is something that we need to do so we’re actually working on a ridership improvement project now”, he said, also planning to speak with operators.

Penny says a request for information has been sent out to look into the best option for dial bus services through digital on demand platforms, and is considering busses from 40 feet long to smaller sizes.

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Currently, he says the City has the equipment, such as their five 30 foot long buses, and the operators to improve service, but is trying to find a way to put them together. He used an example from Calgary where downtown parking prices were increased 150 per cent while public transit in the area was made free to increase ridership levels.

“If we can get people moving to transit, we’re taking cars off the road, we’re reducing parking requirements and that’s the key to doing that,” he said.

While transit fares won’t go up this year, he says they may in the future through comparison with similar-sized cities.

Regarding bus passes, he said he plans on working with vendors to see how they can increase accessibility for recharging stations and eventually move to a card-less system downloadable on cellphones.

Various councillors brought up the topic, including Councillor Victor Deorksen who said he’s received phone calls of residents late for shifts at Parkland Mall due to the timing of routes.

On the resident budget feedback form, one respondent said she has been having difficulty booking an Action Bus, the City’s door-to-door service for residents with a disability or physical ailment.

“Currently there can be up to a two week wait for bookings. Short notice is not an option for seniors that need to go to the doctor when they fall ill,” she wrote.

The City’s transit department said the Action Bus service can meet the demand for a two week period with notified cancellations by riders if their schedules change. They say the service has 12 available busses during weekdays, five on Saturdays and three on Sundays.

In the proposed budgets, there is no increase besides inflationary for the Community Services or Transit & Fleet Departments, where public transit falls under. General Manager of Community Services Sarah Tittemore said a budget increase would have large impacts on taxes and doesn’t want to set an increased service level expectation that the City may not be able to maintain as the Action Bus is subsidized 90 per cent by the City and only 10 per cent by ridership.

Following 10 years of service with the City, Penny also announced his retirement on Tuesday. He explained how his time in a large city, Calgary, felt like steering a cruise ship while his time in Red Deer felt like operating a speedboat.

“The thing with Red Deer, we are more nimble because we’re smaller so we can try things and we can pivot and change,” he said. “If you make a change, people feel it straight away.”

“That’s been a very positive thing; getting the feedback from people fairly quickly so we can make a change.”