North Bay councillor Mike Anthony feels it's time for some creative thinking when it comes to getting more bums in the seats of city buses.
He thinks it's time to offer some incentives to get new passengers, or ones that haven't used it in a while, to give the service a try. Barrie is already doing it on its bus system.
"They are trying children under 12 free," says Anthony. "The idea being if you start young, you may continue to use it and see the value in it "
He says it could also be attractive to seniors.
"Offer seniors a day a week. So while there are seniors that have begun to rely more on cabs, or more on family, or other things, for those that could use it with independence and maybe have just stopped using it, a day a week would be free for seniors. Get seniors used to using it plus young riders who could become future riders."
Anthony is already pleased with the bus service.
"We've done some really great things with our transit. we were one of the first to have more accessible buses, but when you see best practices elsewhere it's good to look at them."
Anthony is looking at the 2021 budget for a pilot project.
The City is already going ahead with one project next year, where you could set up an appointment for a 'bus on demand.' That could be in place by late January.
The idea is that if there are empty buses, is there a way to use them more effectively?
"What sort of app would you use? What type of technology would make it easy for somebody with a landline to still use it? says Anthony. "Use your phone to access transit. Plan ahead for it, and that bus still gets to be useful and people still get to go places where normally there wouldn't be enough traffic to have a full run. It's a neat idea that Councillor Vrebosh first brought forward."
