COUNTY OF WELLINGTON – A Wellington County committee has approved measures aimed at improving access and equity of its ridesharing service while maintaining its financial sustainability.
At Tuesday morning’s economic development committee meeting, members approved adding more vehicle hours, reallocating vehicle hours to Centre Wellington, a new zone structure, group bookings to Guelph and increased marketing for Ride Well.
Ride Well is the county’s ridesharing program, similar to Uber, currently in a government-funded pilot program until March 2025.
These new changes are being paid for through the existing base funding and partially through an additional $227,000 the county was recently awarded by the MTO to complete the pilot.
The county has been working on how to improve Ride Well for some time, recently doing a survey and holding a workshop to brainstorm ideas for improvements.
Dennis Kar, consultant on the project from Dillon Consulting Ltd., said at the meeting a major issue identified is delays or challenges in requesting rides which is due in part to the county’s large geographic size and the growing number of people using Ride Well.
Average ridership is 775 per month, Kar said, which is on the low end when compared to other counties with some form of public transportation but the service also has a low direct operating cost per capita comparatively too.
With this in mind, Kar said they have settled on an approach balancing increasing access and equity with an aim to keep it financially sustainable.
“Our mission is to provide financially responsible public transportation throughout the county to promote mobility for residents of all demographics, abilities and income,” Kar said.
To do this, the committee was told it was recommended to focus on increasing the number of vehicles but to focus on areas that see the highest amount of ridership such as Fergus where about half of all trips either start or end.
At the same time, Kar said implementing a zone system splitting the county into three — northern municipalities, Centre Wellington, and the southern municipalities — where cars would focus on those areas would make sure those in the furthest reaches are also serviced without wasted driver time getting to those destinations.
Among the recommendations was to work on group bookings to the City of Guelph where passengers can be grouped into single vehicles with specific departure or arrival windows which a report said “would help test the potential of implementing a future fixed route service.”
Kar said all changes would be monitored and there is some flexibility as the pilot project enters its final months.
The committee approved the recommendations to start in July 2024 which will need ratification by County of Wellington council at a meeting later in the month.
