Shortly into the new year and Cochrane's on-demand bus service COLT is already fine tuning for success.
As of January 2, 2020, COLT began running on full fare rates which has since brought the influx of ridership down due to Cochranites already being exposed to the novelty during its free period.
The high demand throughout the trial term made it difficult to secure a ride and more than 100 users a day were subject to failed searches which has now been reduced to 50.
Transit coordinator, Devin LaFleche says ridership numbers have remained steady with roughly 6,500 passengers travelling on COLT since the beginning of January to Feb. 21. Coming off the free trial, realistic data can now be collected which will continuously improve the service going forward.
"We used to have a higher (percentage) a day of late pick-up's and drop off's, we were seeing that at around 17 to 15 per cent, now that's down to four and three per cent," said LaFleche. "No shows are way down, so are cancellations. Ride shares have gone up from 59 per cent to 72."
Registration numbers are also increasing. LaFleche points out that near the end of the free period 5,000 individuals had registered online with COLT and now that number sits at around 5,500.
At the moment COLT is down to 148 stops from 153. With constructive feedback from drivers and residents this allows for the service to be updated almost instantaneously. Following a review in the spring, future modifications could be on the agenda including, extended evening hours on Friday's and Saturday's as well as operating on Sunday's.
"We constantly adjust, that's the great thing about this. It's just moving a sign and changing X, Y coordinates on the map," said LaFleche. "The Sunday is actually quite cheap to add just because it is only one day of the week. If I add three hours across the entire week it's much more expensive than adding a Sunday for nine hours like we do with Saturday right now."
Passengers are also on the learning curve when it comes to the on-demand service. The exact price per fare is required as drivers do not carry excess change.
"It seems that people only make that mistake once," chuckled LaFleche.
Being the first on-demand service of its kind in Canada, big plans are in store for COLT. The service aims to go down a regional integration avenue with sights set on establishing a partnership with On-It Regional Transit. This move will allow residents to travel from Cochrane to Calgary and out west to Banff during the summer months.
"People really want to get to Calgary and be able to get the C-Train to school or downtown. The flexibility of the service is really what allows for this," explains LaFleche. "We are looking at adding some fixed routes to connect to that regional service. The transit hub would be the stop for that."
The hope is to have all of the logistics sorted out by mid-year to transition smoothly into the regional combination.
