The Rocky View Handi Bus Society (RVHB) is projecting a sharp increase in ridership in the coming years. The fear, said the Society’s president Paul Siller, is that these increases could push RVHB past its limit.
“Increases in populations for all the municipalities, plus the aging demographic and more of an effort to keep people at home as much as possible, seems to be falling in our lap,” said Siller.
In 2023, RVHB completed 13,531 trips, a 16 per cent increase from 2022, and a 10 per cent increase overall from their pre-pandemic numbers.
Siller said while the Society had noticed smaller municipalities like Beiseker and Irricana had not been actively participating in the busing program for three to four years because of decreased demand coming out of the pandemic, larger communities like Cochrane and Chestermere have seen sharp increases in ridership in that same time span.
Chestermere alone had a 29 per cent increase in the number of trips in 2023 compared to 2022. Cochrane had an eight per cent increase in 2023 over the 2022 ridership numbers, and is up 20 per cent overall since the end of the pandemic. And Rocky View County saw a nine per cent increase in 2023.
“They're really pushing our numbers (up),” said Siller when asked specifically about ridership in Chestermere and Cochrane. “The downside is that we are growing faster than buses are arriving. The numbers are rising faster than we can grow at the moment.”
Nearly half of all the trips that the RVHB made in 2023 were for medical purposes, but the service covers a lot more than just trips to the doctor. According to Siller, the buses are for people who face transportation barriers, like the lack of a car, and can be used to take riders appointments at a bank or to the grocery store.
The main worry for RVHB, said Siller, is that the number of riders are pushing the service past what can be provided.
“We get more than 70 trips in a day,” said Siller. “The shoestrings are getting stretched at the moment.”
The current size of the RVHB fleet sits at 12 buses, but Siller said that within the next few weeks the total will reach 17 or 18. New drivers will be hired that Siller claims will help with the ease of demand and rapid growth.
With money coming in from the recently approved three-year funding agreement with Rocky View County (RVC), Siller said it’ll be easier for the Society to access resources they will need. “There is a [funding] decision made each year, and this is (like) three decisions made right now. It gives us a handrail we can work with.”
Siller hoped maybe its other jurisdictions where it operates may follow suit and provide multi-year funding agreements. These types of stable funding agreements would help the Society better plan for future growth, but Siller admitted there is a downside if that growth accelerates even more than predicted.
“There is a little worry that 2024 is growing a little faster than what we have anticipated,” acknowledged Siller. “If that's the case then we (may) ask for more in the next few years.”
