Transportation Options in Small Communities: Lessons for Portage la Prairie

1. Transportation Options in Small Communities: Lessons for Portage la Prairie Richard Milgrom Associate Professor Department of City Planning University of Manitoba Deepa Chandran Masters Student Department of City Planning University of Manitoba

2. Presentation overview • Transportation constraints in small towns • Successful transportation strategies in small towns • Portage la Prairie today • Transportation suggestions: Portage la Prairie Age Friendly Study, 2015 • Options for funding and technical support • Next steps: Beginning for change

3. Transportation in small towns Funding constraints Limited demand Organizational capacity constraints Limited public transportation options Auto-centric built form and development Social Issues Ecological Issues Economic Issues

4. Impacts of poor transportation options • High individual transportation expenses • Auto-oriented built form and high level of pollution • Reduced options for social exchange • Discourages seniors to age in place • Forces young people to move to larger cities • Transportation exclusion • Poor accessibility to social infrastructure and basic amenities • Lower levels of community wellbeing

5. SUCCESSFUL TRANSPORTATION STRATEGIES IN SMALL TOWNS

6. Investing and encouraging active transportation • Cheap and beneficial in small cities • Collaborative programs with schools, employers and non-profit organizations • Investment required in on-road, off-road and way-finding facilities • Examples: City of Whitehorse YK, Fernie in BC and Township of Minton Hills, ON • However, health, age, weather factors may prevent many from using this option Bike to work program in Fernie, BC

7. Demand-responsive options • The customer has to make call for the service • Highly flexible but costly • Dial-a-ride and HandyVan are widely used • Handy-Dart service for customers with disabilities (BC) Pioneer Valley para-transit service for disabled, Massachusetts

8. Carshare • Convenient and cheap • Benefits those who cannot /do not want to buy a car • Reduces unnecessary travel • Carshare co-op in Kootenay benefits several communities such as Nelson, Revelstoke, Kimberley and Rossland. A group of people owning the same car in Kootenay region

9. Carpooling • Reduces travel cost and is environmental friendly • Easy if all members have the same destination and origin • Local bodies can support by providing ride matching services • Successful in many BC communities such as Vernon, Nelson and Kelowna. Carpooling advertisement in Vernon, BC

10. Enhanced Taxi-Pass program • Subsidized taxi tickets • Benefits seniors, students, disabled and low income households • Mainly based on Municipal subsidies • Successful in communities like Peace River, AB A senior using a free taxi ride in Chilliwack, BC

11. Transportation Information and Reimbursement Program (TRIP) • Entirely free travel option for seniors and disabled • Customer avails help of friend/neighbor to reach destinations and gives back the reimbursed money • Partnership between non-profit organization and City • Successful in several small US communities (e.g.: Riverside, California) A senior member covered under TRIP in Riverside, California

12. Taxi-bus (People travel in the same taxi) • Routes may be fixed or flexible • Cheaper than taxi service • Useful for those who are settled away from the downtown • Successful in several small communities in QC such as Rimouski A taxi-bus in Rimouski, Quebec

13. Collaboration with school bus operators • School bus used as public transit during the school hours • Besides, adults/disabled people get ride if seats are empty (ride with students) • Though sounds utopian, several communities in QC benefits from this option • Terrace Trail and Fort St. John are successful examples

14. Provincial and inter-municipal partnerships • Service shared by several neighbouring small communities • Small communities also purchase transit service from existing transit systems in the neighbouring areas • Cost shared by different administrative divisions • King County transit in NS, and Whistler Valley transit in BC are successful examples A WAVE bus in BC

15. Handivan/Minibus service as transit • Cheaper than conventional bus service • Fixed routes and schedule • Cheaper than the shuttles or taxis • Can be replaced by bus with increase in demand • Successful in communities like Hinton in AB and Wasaga Beach in ON. A Handibus used for transit in Wasaga Beach

16. Conventional bus service • Requires detailed planning • High initial investment (with provincial support) • Usually 60%-70% of the cost goes as subsidy • There is no threshold population required to check the success or need for transit (1 bus on service and 1 spare) • Collingwood, ON is a good example Collingwood transit, Ontario

17. Options to reduce travel needs • Telecommuting: (working from home) • Online shopping However, has much less impact as compared to previous options

18. Portage la Prairie today • Fifth largest urban centre in the province • High share of seniors (senior population will drastically increase in the near future) • Numerous commendable age-friendly initiatives • Automobile centric development • Other transportation facilities - Handivan - Portage Voluntary Driving Program for seniors - Very limited active transportation infrastructure

19. Transportation Options : Portage la Prairie Age-friendly Report, 2015 • Enhanced Taxi-Pass (funding by city) • Transportation Reimbursement and Information Program (Funding by City (roughly 60% in Riverside), donations and other organizations) • Conventional transit (vehicle procurement using Federal/Provincial funds, operation by City/ through contract)

20. Bus Route Options Phase-I Phase-II • Service in 35-40 minutes • Length- 15km (Phase-I), 14.6 KM (Phase-II) • Options for bus-shelters and benches at selected bus stops

21. How costly is a conventional bus service? Source: Transit Implementation Guidelines for Small Canadian Municipalities, 2006) • A town with 10,000 tax payers will have to pay an extra $15-$20 in an year to maintain regular transit service • A transit system with six day bus service (3,333 hours per year), and 25% cost recovery will cost approximately $15 annually per resident of Portage la Prairie.

22. Selkirk Transit: A Successful Precedent from Manitoba • Population- 9800 (2011) • Transit service started in 2011 • Operating cost - $95000 (City) + $95000 (Province) • Vehicle procurement + additional expenses: Federal Gas Tax money and Public Transit Trust • Per capita cost of transit service- $10 • Ticket cost: $2 (for all except children) Transit in Selkirk

23. Transit: Options for funding and technical support • Green Municipal Fund (Federal) • Federal Gas Tax Fund (GTF) • Building Canada Fund (BCF) • Public-Private Partnership (P3) Fund • Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA) • Collaboration of Municipality with local business, non-profit and other organizations

24. Next steps: A beginning for change • Shift from conventional ‘economic bottom line’ approach to ‘triple bottom line’ approach in transportation planning. • Frame a Transportation Demand Management (TDM) strategy -Understand why, where, when and who travel -Encourage people to choose and make people aware of the need .. to have sustainable travelling options including a new transit system -Requires collaboration with various institutions

25. “A bus represents democracy in action” (Enrique Penalosa, 2013)

26. THANK YOU