Blackburn Hamlet chosen for on-demand transit pilot

OC Transpohas chosenthecommunity 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-daypickupsor drop-offs on weekends attheir closest bus stop.

Alltrips would start and end within the service zone or at Blair station.

"I think Blackburn Hamlet is agreat community for this to start,"said Barrhaven East Coun. Wilson Lo, who'sbeen championing the idea of on-demand transit in the city.

Lo pointed to the community's already reduced transit service andthe financial burden of running theservice in a low-density community as factors that made Blackburn Hamleta 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 usersover the duration of the pilot would be enough to deem it successful, Lo said.

Transit ridership has suffered

The on-demand transit projectwasfirst announced at the June 29 transit commission meeting.

If approved by council, the service wouldoperate 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 Transposaid there are several parts of the citywhere 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 Transponot 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, thecity owns 80 minibuses that areused for Para Transpo.Of those, 65 are used each weekdaywhile the rest are in maintenance, and 44 are usedon weekends.

"These buses, along with contracted taxis, accommodate substantially all trip requests from Para Transpo customers," the reportsays.

Some transitriders with disabilities have expressed frustration that theon-demand transit they've been requesting for yearsis now being providedto riders with other transit options.

• Using Para Transpo buses for on-demand pilot project a 'slap in the face' for riders with disabilities

OC Transpo's report will be presented to the transit commission at itsSept.14 meeting.

At that meeting, the agency will also requestthat $16.7 million set aside in the 2023 budget to buyzero-emission busesbe reallocated for the purchase of 51 new minibuses.

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