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November 18, 2010

Citylink Edmond ridership nearly triples

Mark Schlachtenhaufen The Edmond Sun

EDMOND — Ridership on Edmond’s relatively new public transit service has nearly tripled during its first year, a city official said.

During Wednesday’s City Council workshop members of the Edmond Public Transportation Committee, chaired by Councilman David Miller, discussed the increase in ridership with Citylink Edmond.

The city’s new free public transportation service, managed by McDonald Transit, began operating in July 2009, and currently manages eight buses equipped with bike racks and wheelchair tie-downs, according to the city. Two Expresslink buses seat 30 passengers each while the six local route buses can carry 19 passengers each.

In July 2009, Citylink transported 4,609 passengers, according to city records. In July 2010, 12,724 were transported. And a total of 109,156 passengers have been transported from July 2009 to June 2010.

The city offers six routes originating at the transfer center located at Festival Market Place in downtown Edmond. Edmond also offers citywide access paratransit, a free service for disabled residents who are picked up and driven to appointments within city limits.

“All of them continue to do very well and increase,” said Shannon Entz, Edmond’s Community Development Block Grant coordinator. “You’ll have ups and downs a little bit every month.”

Related issues include being closed on Sundays, not all buses running on Saturdays, being closed on holidays such as Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day, the effect of fall break and student commuters on the route serving the University of Central Oklahoma.

Ridership with the paratransit service continues to rise nearly every month. During an undated 11-day study by Citylink, a total of 76 individuals with wheelchairs and 163 individuals with bicycles were transported.

“That’s a lot of individuals we’re picking up every day on the paratransit service,” Entz said.

Citylink routes reach a good chunk of Edmond.

Route 1 ends at the Walmart at Danforth and Santa Fe Avenue. Route 2 ends at Crest Foods at 15th Street and Santa Fe Avenue. Route 3A makes a loop that includes Memorial High School and the UCO Jazz Lab. Route 3B makes a loop that includes Broadway, 33rd Street and Boulevard. Route 4 includes the UCO campus, stops along Ayers and the Oxford Oaks apartments. Another route ends in Oklahoma City.

From July 2009 to June 2010, the route to Oklahoma City transported 34,883 passengers. Route 1 transported 32,167 passengers. Route 4 transported 15,918 passengers. And Route 3B transported 2,834 passengers during that period.



NEW CAMERAS COMING

In other public transit business, the city has been awarded $74,290 from the Oklahoma Department of Transportation’s public transit revolving fund, Entz said. The funds will be allocated to operations of the citywide paratransit service. Contracts have been signed and invoicing has begun. The city expects to receive the first payment of $24,763 in December.

Some funds from the Central Oklahoma Transportation and Parking Authority and Edmond are scheduled for the future purchase of a new 30-passenger bus, two paratransit buses, on-board cameras and software, bus facilities including shelters and bicycle racks and bus preventative maintenance.

Entz said the cameras will provide a nearly 360-degree view of what’s going on, and provide a record of potential liability-type issues.

Tim Lett, senior vice president over technical services for McDonald Transit, said options include wireless camera systems in which officials observe what’s happening in a bus in real time. Data storage can be up to 10 days, Lett said.

Citylink has received no customer complaints, and no requests for service changes, the city reports.



FOR MORE information on Citylink, call customer service at 509-6370 or visit http://edmondok.com/communitydev/citylink.

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