Cochrane town councillors were taken on a ride that left some asking questions and others voicing concerns after a report on Cochrane On-demand Local Transit (COLT) was presented at the committee of the whole meeting on May 15.
Director of Community Services, Mitchell Hamm, appeared before council to follow up on the March 20 council report, answer questions about public transit in Cochrane, provide recommendations, and propose operational changes.
Hamm outlined that although challenges exist with COLT, improvements to the service are definitely possible. He emphasized the local on-demand transit system should be considered as a community wellness investment with goals differing from traditional transit services, where cost neutrality and revenue generation drive decision making.
“Accommodating demand remains a significant challenge for COLT,” Hamm said. “However, for the ridership COLT has been able to serve, the system has been cost-effective amongst peer systems.
“Improving system efficiency and scale, to supply and demand remain top priorities, while also managing associated costs.”
For the vision of transit in Cochrane, Hamm argued COLT remains a vital component of a multi-modal community, since it can provide year-round, all-weather, cross-town transportation.
In 2022, COLT conducted 48,223 passenger trips, according to Hamm’s stats presented at the meeting. With the addition of the On-it service, Hamm said COLT is expecting to see 60,000 to 70,000 trips this year.
On a monthly basis, ridership has grown from 4,019 in 2022 to 5,549 from January to April of this year, with the daily number of commuters growing from 181 to 246.
Hamm said through the Town’s 2023 analysis to date, a range of 15 to 25 per cent of trips are being “unmet.”
“People want to be on the bus, [but] they can’t get on it.” he said.
That being said, Hamm noted ridership per capita is low, which suggests unobserved latent demand, given Cochrane’s population. He feels Cochrane’s geography and topography play a huge factor in this, as the town does not have a grid system of roads.
As ridership potential has not been reached, Hamm said the two big focuses for COLT involve addressing the desire of residents to use the service more, and have it continue to be offered cost-effectively.
Although COLT – alongside other forms of public transportation – cannot be cost-neutral or generate revenue, Hamm said it benefits the Town by providing a social service.
When compared to other municipalities, Hamm said the cost to operate COLT is average, with ample opportunity for improvement.
In terms of occupancy and ridership, Hamm argued the buses are never idle. Through peak hours from 8 to 10 a.m. and 2 to 5 p.m., he said COLT completes an average of 20 to 25 passenger trips.
To better help address demand, Hamm suggested the Town look into studying fixed routes and on-demand hybrid transit systems, optimizing the 149 bus stop locations, as well as app and program parameter adjustments, which he later presented as short-term recommendations for council to consider.
Alternatively, scale increases as seen through the 21.75 vehicle hours that were added have proven to also be effective in addressing the needs of COLT riders.
When examining COLT to the popular ride-sharing app Uber, and based on data from Innisfil, Ont., Hamm claimed Uber would not be able to compete in terms of productivity.
“Uber is not necessarily recommended due to the poor financial sustainability, decreased fare affordability, lack of wheelchair access, [and it] does not contribute to decongestion,” he said. “There’s 4,000 Uber drivers in Innisfil, [and] does not contribute to air emissions reduction or greenhouse gas emissions reductions.”
Short-term operational adjustments were also proposed to council on May 15, including increasing the service level to account for the additional 21.75 vehicle hours per weekdays, for a total budget increase of approximately $90,000 for the rest of 2023. The total budget increase per year would be $300,000.
Proposed adjustments also included a driver wage increase, which would see a total budget increase of approximately $65,000, or moving fuel expenses to the internal budget, which would see annual fuel costs of $230,000.
Hamm additionally proposed medium-term plans, such as drafting an integrated Cochrane Mobility Plan, increasing weekday evening service times by two hours (adding a $61,849 budget increase), increasing service on Saturdays (leading to a $84,166 budget increase), and offering service on Sunday and holidays (combining to bring a $86,624 budget increase).
After Hamm’s presentation, Coun. Marni Fedeyko mentioned the lack of success she has had as a parent when booking rides for her children. She questioned whether “throwing more money” at improving COLT is the right choice for the Town to make.
“And so, for me to throw more money at it, . . . I just don’t know if they’re going to fix any of those issues that other people have,” she said.
But with Cochrane’s population rapidly growing, Fedeyko argued Cochrane needs to offer alternative transportation for residents.
“We have to be able to get people around, it’s just that it’s not working and for me to want to throw extra dollars at it, to hope that it possibly it may work better, is kind of a hard sell,” she said.
Coun. Susan Flowers said after examining all the information ahead of time and listening to Hamm’s presentation, she still felt the material was complicated and confusing. After clarifying some inquiries and asking for additional information from Hamm, she said Cochrane needs the public transit service.
Coun. Morgan Nagel inquired if the Town would consider raising transit fare, as demand for the system is high, but fare prices, he believes, were pretty low.
“Most communities are gravitating more closely towards our fare as opposed to going higher,” Hamm replied. “Once you move into a fixed-route system, you have the economy of scale. It’s the number of riders that offsets [that], not the amount of fare.
“So, keeping the costs to residents low is keeping the highest number of people, and also the people most greatly impacted by the need for transit are the ones that will be mostly impacted . . . so we did not consider that as an option.”
Sharing the same sentiments as Coun. Fedeyko, Nagel suggested moving towards figuring out how much the hybrid or fixed-route system costs would be the best option.
Stressing it was for solely information purposes only, he inquired what would happen if council decided to no longer continue with COLT.
Hamm replied that if COLT were to cease operations, outside of impacting Southland, the community connectivity group would no longer be operational, and residents would no longer have the service after a notification period.
Speaking from the perspective of taxpayers, Coun. Alex Reed said he is not trying to throw COLT under the bus – to excuse the pun – but that may be the most necessary option.
“I know you’re talking about efficiencies, and I think your projections in terms of ridership are optimistic at the very best because essentially that was the original story or bill of goods that we were sold when this thing took off, he said.”
“But I’m going to be honest. I think I’m going to continue to ask serious questions about why we’re doing this in terms of the kind of increased cost that you want.”
Reed argued the presentation’s conclusion was to double the budget for COLT. Like many of his colleagues, he said he was overwhelmed by the amount of information.
“I’m going to be looking at this carefully from a taxpayer’s lens and saying, ‘Yeah, we want transit,’ but not at all cost,” Reed said.
