2009
PARA TRANSPO RURAL FARE ZONE MAP DOCUMENT 2
Report to/Rapport au
:
Transit Committee
Comité du
transport en commun
and
Council / et au Conseil
13
April 2010 / le 13 avril 2010
Submitted
by/Soumis par: Nancy Schepers, Deputy City Manager/Directrice municipale
adjointe, Infrastructure Services and Community Sustainability/Services d’infrastructure et Viabilité des collectivités
Transit Services/Services du transport en commun
613-842-3636 x2271, Alain.Mercier@ottawa.ca
|
Ref N°: ACS2010-ICS-TRA-0001 |
REPORT
RECOMMENDATIONS
That the
Transit Committee recommend Council approve:
1.
Urban Para Transpo service and fares be expanded to
cover the entire Urban Policy Area plus the Rideau-Carleton Raceway, as
detailed in this report;
2.
A consultation process be carried out with residents
of rural villages to plan up to four new once-a-week bus trips from rural
villages to shopping destinations in the urban part of the City; and
3.
The Para Transpo rural fare zone boundaries be
revised, as detailed in this report, to simplify fares by removing specialized
sub-zones that are little-used.
RECOMMANDATIONS
DU RAPPORT
Que
le Comité du transport en commun recommande au Conseil d’approuver :
1.
L’élargissement du
service Para Transpo urbain, ainsi que de la tarification qui s’y rattache, à
l’ensemble de la zone visée par la Politique urbaine de même qu’à l’hippodrome
Rideau-Carleton, comme le précise le présent rapport;
2.
La tenue d’une consultation
auprès des résidents des villages ruraux afin de planifier jusqu’à quatre
nouveaux trajets hebdomadaires par autobus depuis les villages ruraux jusqu’aux
destinations commerciales de la partie urbaine de la ville; et
3.
La révision des
limites de la zone de tarification rurale de Para Transpo, comme le précise le
présent rapport, de façon à simplifier les tarifs en éliminant les sous-zones
spécialisées peu fréquentées.
BACKGROUND
On November 7, 2007, the Seniors
Advisory Committee (SAC) presented a report titled Transportation Parity for Seniors and People with Disabilities in Rural
Areas (ACS2007-CCV-SAC-0003) to Transit Committee, which had the following
recommendation:
Therefore, be it resolved that the Seniors
Advisory Committee recommend that the Transit Committee request that Council
instruct staff, in preparation for taking over Para Transpo in January 2008,
review the issue of parity for rural seniors and people with disabilities to
ensure that they are receiving a service that is affordable for all especially
those on low fixed incomes.
The recommendation was amended and
carried by Transit Committee as follows:
1.
That Transit Committee
direct staff to review the issue of parity for rural seniors and people with
disabilities using Para Transpo to ensure that they are receiving a service
that is affordable for all, especially those on low-fixed incomes, and report
back to Committee by May 2008; and,
2.
That the review proposed in
this report include a review of the pre-amalgamation practice of purchasing
service from a local Community Resource Centre as a means of providing
‘para-like’ service.
Since that direction from Transit
Committee, several tasks have been undertaken which have delayed the completion
of this report. The management and operation of Para Transpo has changed, owing
first to direct operation of the service by the City (formerly contracted-out),
and second, to personnel changes and restructuring.
Staff have participated in the
development and review of provincial accessibility regulations, and it has been
determined that these will not apply to Para Transpo, as it is a
federally-regulated undertaking. Staff have had interim discussions on this
subject with the Seniors Advisory Committee during this time.
If adopted, the recommendations in this
report would provide enhanced access to Para Transpo and OC Transpo services
for people living in, and travelling to, rural areas.
DISCUSSION
Para
Transpo service was expanded to be available in all parts of the City of Ottawa
in September 2002.
In
2009, 15,200 trips were made by Para Transpo customers to, from or within the
rural area. In 2010, that number is expected to decline to 12,600 because
Stittsville is now in the urban fare zone. There are approximately 300 Para
Transpo registrants who live in the rural area. Just over two-thirds of the
rural trips are made by registrants from the rural area and just under
one-third are made by urban residents.
In
2010, the budget for rural Para Transpo service is $1,748,000 (funded $1,614,000
from property taxes collected in Rural Transit Areas A and B and $134,000 from
fares on rural trips). The costs to provide Para Transpo service in rural areas
are being managed to be as low as possible by the careful assignment of
contracted taxis or Para Transpo vans to each trip.
Current
fare levels for trips to or from rural areas vary by distance, from $4.00 up to
$18.25. The current fares are shown in Document 1 and the fare zones are shown
on the map in Document 2. Most rural trips are made between Zones 2 and 1, and
the fare for these trips is $9.50.
Current
fares for trips entirely within the Urban Transit Area are $4.25 (or three tickets)
for trips before 09:00 Monday to Friday, and $3.25 (or two tickets) for trips at
all other times of the week.
Reduced Para
Transpo fares across entire rural area
One
option that has been suggested at meetings of the Seniors Advisory Committee is
to reduce Para Transpo fares in rural areas so that they are the same in the urban
area. This would have two effects: it would reduce the fare revenue and it
would increase the demand for service.
Based on industry research (Transit Cooperative
Research Program Report 119, Improving
ADA Complementary Paratransit Demand Estimation, Transportation Research
Board, 2007), fare reductions would increase the demand for service by 50 per cent
or more, or 6,400 trips per year. There are three basic ways to deal with this
increased demand:
Staff
are concerned that if fares were reduced for rural trips and service availability
were not increased, some customers who are now prepared to pay the higher zone
fares for trips that are important to them would not be able to successfully
book a trip because of the increased demand. The current zone fares serve as a
form of demand management. Customers are asked to share a small fraction of the
very high cost to provide trips in the rural area, and the zone fare encourages
customers to be selective in their requests for service. In the worst case, it
could be that trips that are important and time-sensitive could not be accommodated;
for example, trips to medical appointments, family dinners, or flights from the
airport.
The
cost implications of this concept depend on the details. A fare reduction and a
service increase would require approximately $1.1 million in additional funding
per year, which would increase tax rates by approximately $25 from the current
$42 to a total of $67 per year for a typical residential property in the rural
area. A fare reduction with no service increase would require approximately
$90,000 in additional funding per year, which would increase tax rates by
approximately $3 per year, but would reduce service availability in the urban
area. Implementing a cap on the number of rural trips would also have a one-time
capital cost in the range of $100,000.
Staff
are not able to support the option of flat fares City-wide because it conflicts
with Council policy that Para Transpo costs be shared at equal ratios in the
urban and rural areas and because it would result in either increased funding
requirements or a reduction in customers’ mobility.
Despite
the foregoing conclusion, staff are committed to providing increased access to
Para Transpo services in rural parts of the City and have identified several
ways within the current fare procedures to improve mobility and
affordability. The remainder of the
discussion in this report outlines recent improvements and provides details on
recommendations for further improvements.
One
recent improvement has been the change to urban fares in Stittsville. Based on
a decision by Council at its meeting of November 26, 2008, transit fares in
Stittsville were reduced to be the same as in the Urban Transit Area with the
fare change in 2010. The fare change began on March 1, 2010, as decided by
Council in approving the 2010 budget. In addition to reducing the fare on
direct-to-downtown conventional service from Stittsville, this change has
removed the need for Para Transpo customers travelling to or from Stittsville
to pay the rural zone fare. Stittsville is now in Para Transpo Fare Zone 1
instead of Zone 2. Approximately 2,600 Para Transpo trips were made to, from,
or within Stittsville in 2009, and the fare for all of these trips has been
reduced.
A
second approach staff is taking towards improving access is to encourage Para
Transpo customers to travel in groups, to reduce their average fares. Under the
current fare procedures, when a number of customers book a trip as a group, the
rural zone fare is only charged once, and the other customers pay the regular
urban fare. The more customers in the group, the lower their average fare.
Also, each Para Transpo customer is able to invite a companion, who need not be
a Para Transpo registrant, thus allowing mobility for some people who are not
Para Transpo registrants. This option may not now be well-known, and staff are
promoting the idea to Para Transpo registrants in rural areas.
In
addition, staff have developed several alternative ways to improve the
affordability of rural service that would achieve some of the intent of the
advisory committee recommendation.
·
Remove sub-zone
2B (Richmond), as no trips were made entirely within Richmond in 2009;
·
Change the $4.00
village fare for sub-zone 2C (Manotick) to $5.00, to be the same as the fare
for trips between Manotick and Barrhaven, as no trips were made entirely within
Manotick in 2009;
·
Remove sub-zones
2F (Fallowfield Village) and 2G (March), as only 12 trips were made in 2009 to
and from the adjacent urban areas; and
·
The current
sub-zones 2D (South Gloucester) and 2H (Winding Way) would be replaced by the
expanded urban fare zone.
With
these changes to the fare zones, the revised fare chart is shown in Document 4.
Overall
effect of these changes on rural Para Transpo customers
The
change of Stittsville to urban fares in 2010 reduced the fare for approximately
2,600 trips each year. The recommended change to expand the urban fare zone
would reduce fares for approximately 1,200 trips each year. These two
reductions apply to approximately 25 per cent of trips that were categorized as
rural in 2009.
The
possible once-a-week shoppers’ bus trips from rural villages would allow
economical access to shopping areas in the urban part of the City for Para
Transpo registrants, seniors, and others in rural villages. Increased group
travel and companion travel on Para Transpo rural trips will also allow
customers to effectively reduce the fares they need to pay.
Transportation in rural areas before
amalgamation
Para
Transpo service was available in some of the rural municipalities before
amalgamation. The availability of service was based on the home location of the
Para Transpo registrant, not on the destination of the trip, so many of the
trips were by urban residents travelling to rural points. In 1999, the
municipalities spent as follows on rural Para Transpo trips: Goulbourn
($5,754), Ottawa ($3,647), Gloucester ($2,031), Nepean ($1,968), Cumberland
($430), and Kanata ($379), for a total of $14,209. There are no records of
expenditures by Osgoode, Rideau, West Carleton, Vanier, or Rockcliffe Park.
Different
arrangements for transportation support for seniors and other people with
special needs were in place between the 11 different municipalities before
amalgamation. Staff have no specific information on these arrangements.
Staff
recommend that urban Para Transpo service and fares apply throughout the Urban
Policy Area, as defined in the Official Plan and as updated from time to time
as the Official Plan is revised. This would allow for consistent fares for
travel to or from all points in the urban area, regardless of whether they are
currently included in the Urban Transit Area
(UTA) or Rural Transit Area A (RTA-A).
The
concept behind the UTA is that taxes to support urban transit service are
collected in areas which have developed sufficiently that conventional transit
service is provided. Where there is not yet sufficient development, or in older
areas which predate the expansion of the transit system, it is not financially
feasible to provide conventional transit service. This limitation does not
apply to the provision of Para Transpo services, as trips are operated only
when there is a specific demand for service, and as the cost to provide a trip
is the same in two adjacent areas, regardless of whether each is in the UTA or
RTA-A.
The
effect of this change would be to reduce the fares substantially for customers
in areas such as Honey Gables, Winding Way, and Heart’s Desire, but also in all
other similar areas in or adjacent to developing parts of Orléans, Gloucester,
and Nepean.
To
accomplish this, after Council approval, staff would take the following steps:
·
Reduce the fares
in the affected areas as soon as is practical after the approval of Council.
For the year 2010, the lost fare revenue would be accommodated within the
existing budget.
·
Prepare for the
consideration of Council as part of the 2011 budget possible changes to the
areas within which taxes are collected to support transit service. This could
detail the creation of two Para Transpo tax areas for the urban and rural
areas.
·
For the budgets
for 2011 and subsequent years, separate the Para Transpo budgets from the
budgets for conventional transit services, so that tax rates for the urban and
rural Para Transpo tax areas can be calculated in a straightforward and clear
way.
This
change would not result in any changes to the tax rates that properties
contribute to the costs of conventional transit service. (If a decision were
taken to provide new once-a-week trips from rural villages as outlined earlier,
there would be an accompanying recommendation on how best to fund the operating
costs.)
If
adopted, the tax area change would affect property taxes only in those parts of
the Urban Policy Area that are not currently within the Urban Transit Area.
Taxes to fund Para Transpo service are currently approximately $76 per year in
the Urban Transit Area and $42 per year in Rural Transit Areas A and B (these
are 2009 figures for a typical residential property).
RURAL IMPLICATIONS
The recommendations of this report would increase the affordability of service and mobility for rural Para Transpo customers, seniors, and others with limited means to travel. The recommendations would not change the taxes collected in the rural areas of the city.
CONSULTATION
The analysis and recommendations in this report respond to a position taken by the Seniors Advisory Committee. This report was discussed with the Seniors Advisory Committee at their meeting of April 7, 2010. The advisory committee intends to comment on this report at the Transit Committee meeting on April 21, 2010.
COMMENTS BY WARD COUNCILLORS
The Councillors for the areas affected by the recommended changes have been briefed by staff on this report, and understand the reasons for the staff recommendations.
LEGAL/RISK MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS
There are no legal/risk management impediments to the implementation of this report’s recommendations.
CITY STRATEGIC PLAN
The recommendations in this report are in line with several objectives contained in the 2007-2010 City Strategic Plan. Specifically, the recommendations will improve mobility for Para Transpo customers living in rural areas in an efficient, fair, and cost-effective manner.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
The financial implications are as described within the report. Approval of report recommendations would have no financial impact on the 2010 budget. The financial impact of approved recommendations will be brought forward in the 2011 draft budget.
SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION
Document 1 Current Statistics on Rural Para Transpo Service
Document 2 2009 Para Transpo Rural Fare Zone Map
Document 3 Current Para Transpo Rural Fare Chart
Document 4 Possible Para Transpo Rural Fare Chart
DISPOSITION
If adopted by Transit Committee and Council, staff will proceed with
recommendations outlined in the report.
CURRENT
STATISTICS ON RURAL PARA TRANSPO SERVICE DOCUMENT
1
Para Transpo Rural Costs and Revenues, Budget for 2010
|
Operating costs |
$1,748,000 |
|
Fare revenue |
$134,000 |
|
Net tax requirement |
$1,614,000 |
Rural Service by Fare
Zone
|
|
Trips in 2009 |
Fare |
|
Zone 2 to/from urban area |
8,143 |
$9.50 |
|
Zone 3 to/from urban area |
2,621 |
$13.50 |
|
Zone 4 to/from urban area |
711 |
$18.25 |
|
Within villages |
0 |
$4.00 or 3 tickets |
|
Adjacent sub-zones |
893 |
$5.00 |
|
Entirely within rural area, outer end of trip in Zone 2 |
106 |
$1.66 + $0.46/km |
|
Entirely within rural area, outer end of trip in Zone 3 |
114 |
$4.40 + $0.46/km |
|
Entirely within rural area, outer end of trip in Zone 4 |
20 |
$7.21 + $0.46/km |
|
Total |
12,608 |
|
Rural Para Transpo Registrants
by Fare Zone
|
Zone 2 |
193 registrants |
|
Zone 3 |
79 registrants |
|
Zone 4 |
29 registrants |
|
Total |
301 registrants |
Note: Registrants with
rural addresses make up 2.2 percent of the City-wide total.
Rural Service by
Registrants’ Home Location
|
Home address in rural area |
10,750 (est) |
68% |
|
Home address in Urban Transit Area |
5,060 (est) |
32% |
Average Length of Rural Para Transpo Trips
|
|
Customers’ trips |
Vehicle km required |
|
Within urban area |
12 km |
14 km |
|
Zone 2 to/from urban area |
24 km |
38 km |
|
Zone 3 to/from urban area |
29 km |
49 km |
|
Zone 4 to/from urban area |
58 km |
116 km |
2009
PARA TRANSPO RURAL FARE ZONE MAP DOCUMENT 2
CURRENT
PARA TRANSPO RURAL FARE CHART DOCUMENT 3
POSSIBLE
PARA TRANSPO RURAL FARE CHART DOCUMENT 4
