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Transit staff brief council on development plan and microtransit pilot; recommend evening expansion options
Summary
At a work session after the council meeting, transit staff reviewed a draft transit development plan and a microtransit pilot (91 rides so far), discussed potential evening microtransit expansion to replace low‑productivity night routes and flagged paratransit cost pressures and funding tradeoffs.
Council held a work session on the transit development plan and received an update on a microtransit pilot that launched this summer. Transit staff reported 91 microtransit rides to date (driven by a small number of frequent users), reviewed ridership recovery since COVID and described the agency’s operating‑fund structure in which approximately 50% of net deficit is federally reimbursed and the remainder split between state and local funding.
Staff proposed that microtransit could be used to replace low‑productivity evening fixed routes, pointing to peer examples such as Green Bay where evening service has been shifted to on‑demand microtransit. They also discussed paratransit costs (20% of transit operating budget and 5% of rides), the possibility of in‑house paratransit to control rising contractor costs, and pilot options to offer targeted fare‑free access (K‑12 students or low‑income riders). Council members encouraged more data collection and outreach, and staff said they would continue the pilot, adjust hours if warranted and prepare materials for potential adoption of elements of the transit development plan in the coming months.
