The City of Fredericton is asking residents how they can make public transit services more efficient and effective.
In mid-January, the city announced details and plans to engage the public in consultation, part of the city’s Fredericton Transit Strategic Plan.
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An “Engagement Bus” will be parked around the city at specific locations, with members of the consulting team on-board to engage users. City councillors are also asking people, including those who don’t normally use transit, to participate in an online survey. They are hoping to attract more residents to use public transit.
A Transportation Committee meeting was held on Tuesday afternoon. Stantec consultants were in attendance and provided an update on the feedback received so far from Frederictonians.
Committee chair Henri Mallet said it’s been 10 years since the city last did public consultations regarding transit services.
“It’s a pretty large undertaking that we’re taking, and we’re really reviewing all the aspects. We want to make sure we have an efficient service that represents the need of the population, so there’s a lot of aspects we’ll be looking at,” Mallet said.
He said they want to hear from transit users and non-transit users.
“We want users to be happy with the service and we want new users to use the service,” Mallet said.
Stantec Transit advisory lead Sasha Pejcic said so far, they have gotten 855 responses to the online survey that was launched a week ago.
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“I can tell you honestly, it’s been one of the most robust uptakes I’ve ever seen of a survey of this nature. We’re hoping to see as many individuals as we can to understand their challenges,” Pejcic said. “I mean, there’s obviously some pent-up feedback that people are very interested in voicing their opinions.”
He said 60 per cent of respondents are transit users, while the remaining 40 per cent are not.
“In terms of some of the opinions, certainly there’s a desire for Sunday service as something we need to take a good look at. I think we saw that during today’s committee meeting that it’s an area of focus for us. But by and large, looking at improving service, and what I mean by improving service is improving frequency, improving reliability,” Pejcic said.
In his presentation, Pejcic said that every $1 invested in transit results in $4 of economic benefits. The purpose of the plan is to provide strategic direction for transit over the next 10 years.
Other options the city is exploring include student passes for university students, the creation of a north side transit hub, park-and-ride lots and services, express service, new technology and alternate delivery service.
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Pejcic said a meeting occurred on Tuesday morning between city staff and with the officials from the Fredericton airport to look at having bus service run there.
Councillors also brought up the issue that parking downtown is extremely cost-efficient and said in the meeting that increasing downtown parking fees could work as an incentive to encourage residents travelling downtown to use transit.
Mallet said that could be an option, but said it’s just an idea right now.
Pejcic said their mandate from the city is looking at optimizing the current spend.
“So we’re not looking to necessarily cut back, but we are looking at making more effective use of what is being spent on transit,” Pejcic said.
The price tag for adding Sunday service wouldn’t come cheap, with some councillors suggesting during the meeting it could cost an additional $500,000.
Pejcic said all feedback is being taken seriously.
“If it’s warranted through our research that the Sunday service is a must, I think we have to have that discussion,” Pejcic said. “Life doesn’t end on Saturday night… students need to go shopping, they need to get to work… We need to look at that, and if I need to make the case for that, I’m going make the case for it. I think it makes sense.”
He said sometimes, you have to spend money to get more people onto buses.
“If you’re essentially saying, ‘I’m going to give you 85 per cent transit a week, not a 100 per cent,” and if you want me to give up a car then I need 100 per cent availability, Pejcic said. “I need to be able to live life, so that’s really the story, that if we need to go for an ask, then we’ll go for an ask if it makes sense,” Pejcic said.
The project will run for three months, and draft recommendations will be presented back to the committee by March.
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