Strathcona County is set to launch a new app for their on-demand transit service.
The change comes after receiving various feedback from users of the on-demand transit pilot project that was launched back in June 2022.
“Transit recognizes the importance of providing reliable transit service - which is why we listen carefully to rider feedback about the On-Demand service pilot," said Wade Coombs, the director of Transit for the county.
"We will continue to consult with our customers to evaluate how the new app, and the on-demand service, is meeting the local transportation needs of the community.”
The new app will be called 'SC OnDemand' and will launch in app stores one week before it is scheduled to go into use on July 10. It will have no crossover with the existing app in use.
A third-party service provider will be developing the application for the county. The hope is that this new app will be able to address a few critical concerns that users of the service have.
"We did a customer satisfaction survey back in January and we do receive feedback on a daily basis regarding how the pilot is going," said Janna Widmer, the manager of strategic initiatives and customer experience for the county.
"We're definitely receiving concerns about wait times for service and one of the other concerns was it wasn't truly feeling like on-demand."
The pilot project as a whole has been fairly successful so far and has been extended until December 2024. Widmer says that their ridership levels are slowly returning to pre-pandemic standards.
"It's actually doing really great. We are reaching our 2019 ridership and exceeding it at some points. It's really about trying to work through the challenges, the wait times, getting a ride, and seeing if this new style of on-demand service provider will help us with that."
Some key changes that come with the transition include:
- Trips are bookable up to five days in advance.
- Day of travel will move into a true on-demand format with users being able to book trips within 30 minutes of when they want to leave.
- Phone lines are available until 7 p.m. daily.
Day of rides will be limited to the 30-minute before departure booking system and cannot be booked further in advance on the day of travel.
Evening rides will need pre-booked the day before by 7 p.m.
More information on the on-demand transit service can be found here.