WELLINGTON COUNTY- More people are relying on the rural transit service Ride Well to access essential resources in their community.
In a report to the county's Economic Development Committee, staff reported a significant spike in total monthly ridership for March 2023.
Reaching a new milestone, Ride Well completed 786 rides last month, surpassing the previous record of 624 rides in November 2022.
The service also witnessed a month-to-month increase of 194 more rides, marking the highest increase to date.
“Customers are still relying on the service for essential trips like grocery shopping or commuting to work,” said the report. “However, a rise in travel to the Guelph Central Station can be observed, which suggests that customers may be transferring to GO Transit or Guelph Transit.”
Of those rides, 180 were provided to seniors, which is 60 more than the previous month.
With data showing an increase in trips to medical centres and physician offices, this spike is being linked to more seniors using the service.
Top locations this month included trips to the Walmart Supercentre in Fergus, Guelph Central Station, Tim Hortons, Groves Memorial Community Hospital, and Stone Road Mall.
Additionally, individual riders increased to 120, up from 106 and the average number of rides per user went from 5.6 to 6.6.
However, there was a decrease in new users from 29 in February 2023 to 20 in March 2023.
Last year, 5,776 rides were completed, compared to 4,572 in 2021 and 2,248 in 2020. The county council projected 7,220 rides in 2023.
The program is funded in part by a community transportation grant funding of $143,000 and passenger revenue from the previous year.
Running from Monday to Friday from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., the service is primarily paid for by a provincial grant, with funding set to end in 2025.
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
