Council to look at Pointe des Chenes bus service

At budget time, council will consider a pilot project that provides limited bus service to Pointe des Chenes.

The project, which gave residents access to the popular site, ran weekends from Saturday June 26, 2021 until Monday Sept. 6, 2021, including statutory holidays that transit regularly runs. Over the course of the summer, there were 419 rides.

A report to council indicated that utilization to the beach was heaviest at the 12:15 PM departure time with 208 rides and lowest at 9:15AM with only 18 rides. There were also seven (7) days with zero rides due to poor weather.

Average riders per day amounted to nineteen (19) and increases to twenty-seven (27) per day when considering rain days.

If the pilot were to be extended to 2022, staff would recommend the following revisions:

- Eliminate the morning departure time. The first trip would be scheduled to leave between 12:15PM and 1:15 PM and the return trip will be scheduled to leave between 4:15PM and 5:15PM.

- Cancel projected rain days with advance notification using the city’s Facebook page and other social media platforms (post to the public on Friday if applicable).

- Continue to communicate with social services and the local immigration partnership (LIP) to promote. Both organizations continue to be very supportive of for this initiative and will promote with their clients and agencies they work with.

- City staff to continue using social media and will issue an annual press release for awareness and promotion.