Norman transit ridership up sharply; staff report software fixes, microtransit contract work and transit-center security options

The City of Norman Community Planning and Transportation Committee was updated Thursday, June 26, 2025, on transit performance and operations, including rising ridership, work on microtransit contract amendments and possible changes to transit-center security.

Taylor Johnson, transit parking program manager for the city, told the committee the transit system logged about 42,400 rides in May across paratransit and fixed-route services, roughly a 22% increase over May 2024. He said the system is on track for about 462,000 rides for the fiscal year, “a little less than 27% increase over last fiscal year.”

Why it matters: Johnson said higher ridership strengthens the case for keeping expanded services introduced last year — including restored Saturday service and increased West Lindsay frequency — and affects near-term budget and contract decisions.

Johnson described several operational developments. Staff are working on contract amendments “with both Via and O U to get those in front of council hopefully at the first meeting [in] July” so the city can continue its microtransit program past its second year. He also reported improvements after early problems with a paratransit software transition, saying staff tightened settings after rider and staff meetings and will follow up again in July.

Ridership detail and service efficiency: Johnson said fixed-route ridership showed notable gains at several routes (Westheimer, Rock Creek and West Lindsay), and described ridership per service hour on fixed route at about 20 riders per service hour in May, up from about 18 last May. He said Embark Plus (the demand-responsive/paratransit program) carried roughly the same number of trips in May year over year (about 2,150 in May 2025 versus 2,110 in May 2024) while Norman on Demand saw “almost 3,400 rides” in May compared with 2,567 the prior May; staff reported ridership-per-service-hour for Norman on Demand of about 5.8 for May and 6.1 fiscal-year to date.

Equipment and accessibility: Johnson said nearly all fixed-route buses now have the Quantum securement system that speeds boarding and gives more independence to riders who use wheelchairs, except for two older buses inherited from the University of Oklahoma.

Transit center security and facilities: Johnson said the transit center restroom was reopened after installing a different toilet style and that public-safety staffing covers the restroom when security is on duty. Security coverage is currently noon to 8 p.m. Monday–Friday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday; Johnson and committee members discussed moving the weekday start time earlier to about 11 a.m. to match higher morning traffic. He said adding security is a budget question and that the current contract add-on for security is about $88,000 per year; staff said increasing coverage would not be exactly double that figure but would raise costs and would require an appropriation if additional funding becomes available.

Next steps and staff direction: Committee members asked staff to continue incident analysis and to return with budget implications and contract amendments. Johnson said the city received its FY2025 federal allocation that staff will program through ACOG and the usual grant process; he said staff had not been told of any federal funding decreases but could not guarantee future budgets.

Staff emphasized that many changes under discussion — contract amendments, security-hour changes and any expansion of weekend or Sunday service — depend on council appropriations, grant programming and final contract terms.