City Hall: On-demand bus rides to be tested on Saturdays starting next year

The days of waiting at a bus stop for a ride to come by every half hour could be numbered. At least on Saturdays.

A team of city staff tasked with revamping the Sioux Falls public transit system of fixed-route busing is readying to launch a pilot program to test whether a request-based ride structure could replace the city-provided service that’s been hemorrhaging taxpayer dollars for decades.

Sioux Falls Innovation and Technology Director Jason Reisdorfer told the Argus Leader Thursday that after 10 months of brainstorming, data gathering and study, the group next month will formally unveil at a Public Transportation Advisory Board (PTAB) meeting its plan to scrap the fixed-routes at least one day a week.

“If that works, spread it throughout the regular routes the rest of the week,” he said.

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Testing the request-based system, which would be done through an app on a cellphone or a phone call to the bus depot, would take place on Saturdays, while the traditional fixed-route system would continue to run Monday through Friday. Initially, the group, which Reisdorfer and Mayor TenHaken refer to as the “core team,” considered testing the prototype on Sundays so not to disrupt the existing service that runs Monday through Saturday.

But understanding the goal of the core team was to make public transportation better for its current users while also making it more cost effective for the city to operate, Reisdorfer said it made more sense to test the request-based system on a day when demand already exists.

“We’re not trying to solve this for people who aren’t currently riding,” Reisdorfer said. “We’re trying to make it more effective for the ones who already are.”

Operating the pilot on Saturdays in place of fixed-route service also has financial advantages for the city. While the mayor’s 2020 budget set aside $190,000 for the core team to test its concept, Reisdorfer said operational savings will come by not having to run buses along traditional routes on Saturdays during the pilot period.

A portion of the $190,000 marked for the pilot instead will be used to hire a tech company to develop and manage the app and kiosks that riders will use to request a pick-up. A request for proposals will be issued by the city in the coming weeks, Reisdorfer said.

Reisdorfer said once given the go-ahead by PTAB and the City Council, the pilot would start June 1, 2020.

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In the lead up to the launch date, the city and its transit provider, Sioux Area Metro, will undergo a public education campaign to ensure bus riders are aware of the pilot and what they need to do to get rides on Saturdays, how to download the app and how to request rides if they don’t have a cellphone at their disposal.

The pilot is anticipated to run for a year while data about the number of riders, where they’re being picked up and dropped off and the duration of their ride will be analyzed and used to maximize efficiency, Reisdorfer said. But depending on the results, that could change.

“We are hoping to design this pilot to be flexible. As soon as we find out it’s working like we think, we want to expand the pilot to Sundays or evenings,” he said. “Conversely, as soon as we might find out it doesn’t work, we’ll shut it down and revert back to the old fixed routes and go back to the drawing board.   

“The last thing we want to do is disrupt service for our residents that absolutely rely on this as their primary means of transportation,” Reisdorfer added.