Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Transit topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
RTS reports lower overall boardings but a 47% rise in ADA trips; board requests more breakdowns
Summary
City transit staff told the MTPO board that March ridership was lower year‑over‑year due to reduced service, while ADA/paratransit trips increased 47%; the board asked for breakdowns by faculty/staff vs. students and follow‑up on rural service eligibility.
City transit staff provided the board with March ridership numbers showing an overall decline in boardings compared with last year, reflecting reduced service hours, but reported a significant increase in ADA/paratransit trips.
The presenter said total boardings for the month were about 390,000 and that ADA trips rose from roughly 4,000 last year to about 6,500 this year — a 47% increase. The ridership distribution in the packet attributed about 72% of boardings to University of Florida travelers (a mix of students, faculty and staff), 15% to city riders, 8% to county riders and 5% to Santa Fe. Board members asked staff to provide a clearer breakdown that distinguishes students from faculty/staff and to report recent trends for county and rural (MB) contract service eligibility concerns.
The board also asked for clarification on how the vendor and fare systems tag riders (badge scans, APC geocoding) and whether the data could be retroactively parsed for recent months; staff said they could provide those breakdowns.
Next steps: transit staff will return with more granular ridership slices (faculty/staff vs. students, county routes vs. city routes) and investigate citizen reports about rural service availability under existing MB contracts.
