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A new transit option will be piloted in Innisfil this fall, even after some councillors tried to drive the issue back to staff for further details.
Two micro-mobility pilots will be launched in the community following the decision earlier this week at the Innisfil council meeting, including a three-month fixed route e-shuttle pilot and a 12-month e-carsharing pilot.
A third pilot, involving e-scooters, was deferred to staff for more information.
Steer Technologies, formerly known as Facedrive, will be operating the micro-mobility pilots, which incorporate light vehicles that carry a small number of passengers at a time, including bicycles, scooters or small vehicles.
“The overall purpose for the micro-mobility pilots will be to assess the level of demand for these various offerings that could potentially be integrated into the Innisfil Transit service,” a staff report stated. “The data collected from the pilots will be evaluated through the preparation of the Town’s Transit Master Plan, which will consider the feasibility of implementing the pilots over a longer term.”
The data collected during the pilots is essential to staff as they look to develop a Transit Master Plan and cement what the future of public transit is in Innisfil. Currently, Innisfil Transit consists of a partnership with Uber, giving residents door-to-door service, with certain destinations costing a flat rate, and a discount applied to all trips beginning and ending in the municipality.
A recent partnership with Toronto Metropolitan University has indicated Innisfil would benefit from a hybrid transit model, with a mixture of a fixed-route service within the more densely populated sections of town, such as Alcona, and the current on-demand service.
The three-month fixed-route pilot would provide “real-life” experience to the data the town collects from its partnership with Uber and with the proposed one bus option considered in the 2015 Transit Feasibility Study.
Even Paul Pentikainen, senior policy planner for the town, admitted three months isn’t a long enough time for a pilot, but still believes the town can gather relevant information during the stretch.
“Something that we can leverage through this partnership is just the ability to have more targeted surveys to the users of the pilot, to ask them some more targeted questions… (such as) ‘how far are you willing to walk to a potential bus route?’” he said. “This is a way that if there is a fixed route (between Alcona and Barrie South GO), how many of the current (Uber) trips may transition to that route.”
As Coun. Alex Waters noted it might be an uphill battle to get people to move from Uber to a fixed-route system.
“If I have the option of somebody picking me up in my driveway and taking me to the South Barrie GO station or standing on Innisfil Beach Road waiting for a fixed route to pick me up, I know which one I’m going to choose,” he said.
Despite his misgivings about the timing of the pilot and how it would be marketed, Waters eventually voted in favour of it moving forward.
Coun. Ken Fowler wasn’t able to be convinced.
“I think it has bones to be better, I just don’t agree with what’s being proposed at the moment,” he said.
Fowler first had concerns about accessibility. The proposal by Steer as outlined in the report called for two, four-passenger Telsa Model 3s to be utilized as part of the fixed-route pilot, operating in 15- to 30-minute intervals between Innisfil Beach Park and Barrie South GO, during the morning and afternoon rushes, 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
A four-person car made the service unusable for the parent with three children, or two couples going on a double date, Fowler said, wanting the town to investigate using a vehicle that held four to six people. Pentikainen indicated that after the report to council had been submitted, the option to have a larger vehicle was made possible.
Fowler also raised an issue with the vagueness of the e-carsharing pilot as outlined in the report - something also noted by Mayor Lynn Dollin when she asked how much it would cost to rent the vehicle - and how the drivers would be hired by Steer, pointing to issues the town has had with certain Uber drivers.
The cost to the town to take part in the pilot is $10,000, compared to the $50,000-plus Steer is estimating it will spend during the three months of fixed service. Dollin saw the scenario as a no-lose for the town, as if the pilot failed, it would fail fast, and the town could then pivot to its next option.
“We’ve gained a reputation for being innovative, so companies like this do reach out to us from time to time because they know that we are not afraid of doing a pilot,” Dollin said. “If it works, great. And if it doesn’t work, we move onto something else.”
A decision on the entire motion was nearly deferred to allow staff to bring back more information, however, that attempt was kiboshed. A deferral on the matter would almost certainly mean that this current group of councillors would not get to make a decision on the issue if there would be a decision to make at all. Staff was able to provide no guarantee that Steer could operate the pilot under the same financial terms beyond 2022.
The fixed route and e-car sharing pilots were both approved with Dollin, Coun. Kevin Eisses, Coun, Carolynne Payne, Coun. Rob Nicol and Waters all in favour.
