A resident who addressed council this month about issues with on-demand transit is concerned an update to the City’s transit app won’t fully resolve the system’s problems.
Pauline Atwood moved to St. Albert from Edmonton a couple of years ago and delayed buying a vehicle because she wanted to utilize the city’s transit system. Atwood addressed council during its April 4 meeting to share concerns about on-demand service, which runs weekday evenings, and all day on weekends.
Concerns Atwood shared with council include multiple pick-ups and drop-offs added to her transit route mid-ride, sometimes tacking on a half hour to 45 minutes of additional travel time. Atwood also said she would like to see fixes to heated bus shelters she said weren’t operating properly in the winter.
Additionally, Atwood would like to see the City offer a program for seniors similar to St. Albert’s Students Ride Free program, noting that the large volume of youth taking the bus can often lead to delays due to youth cancelling trips and loitering.
“I feel like the system mostly belongs to them,” Atwood told council. “Everybody is frustrated — drivers, and me as a passenger, I’m frustrated, but the teens are very happy.”
According to Atwood, the unreliability of transit has made her wary of going on regular everyday outings, especially when new bookings bull her on-demand route off its course, causing it to “zig-zag.”
“There’s no guarantee when you’ll make your trip at all,” Atwood said.
In December, council voted to expand on-demand service to replace fixed-route service on Saturday. Previously, the service had only been offered during Sundays and on weekday evenings.
At that time, Coun. Sheena Hughes expressed concerns about issues with the on-demand service‚ such as unreliability.
In response, Will Steblyk, manager of planning and customer service with St. Albert Transit, told council the software algorithms the City currently uses can occasionally structure a trip with one too many drop-offs or pick-ups.
Update yet to arrive
During the April 4 meeting, Steblyk said the City is getting “very close to a resolution,” with the timeline now scheduled for end of April or early May (in December Steblyk relayed the update would arrive at the end of February).
“Without revealing proprietary information, I would like to say that we are addressing the on-demand issue,” Steblyk said.
When asked if there is any new clarity on when the app update will arrive, City spokesperson Cory Sinclair said Thursday there are no new updates at this time.
While the app update is on its way, Steblyk said during the April 4 meeting that the issue of youth would be a bit more difficult to address.
“We don’t want to discourage youth from taking the public transit,” Steblyk said. “Youth are making a lot of bookings, and they also cancel a lot of bookings.”
Steblyk said the City is preparing messaging to help change youth behaviour.
Mayor Cathy Heron said she believes education is “quite often the key.”
“The youth probably don't understand the unintended consequences … so I think that's a good place to start,” Heron said.
After Atwood presented to council, Coun. Wes Brodhead asked City administration to review for council the process of engaging in on-demand transit service “so that council is aware of the process that is gone through.”
Atwood said in an interview with The Gazette she wishes councillors would reach out to her to better understand the issues with the city’s transit service.
“It just seemed like it was tokenism — me being there,” Atwood said.
Atwood said she will be awaiting the on-demand app update, but noted other issues she raised, such as transit catering predominantly to youth, still need to be resolved so everyone can utilize the transit system effectively.
“What I was going to do is go [to council] once a month and say the same things … about the bus system,” Atwood said. “But the onus shouldn’t be on me to keep going back.”
