‘New’ Richland County Transit leaders digging into the numbers

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second day in a series of stories that examine issues surrounding public transportation in Richland County.

MANSFIELD — Jean Taddie and Clint Knight are both still relatively new to Richland County Transit.

In late 2020, Taddie joined Richland County Regional Planning Commission as the transit development manager, responsible for obtaining and managing grants and building partnerships to support RCT’s mission and goals.

Eleven months ago, Knight accepted an appointment to the Richland County Transit board — and is now the chairman of the seven-member board.

It hasn’t taken long for either of the two leaders to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the county’s only true public transportation system, which suffered declining ridership even before COVID-19 arrived in the spring of 2020.

For Taddie, who came in with a master’s degree in communication and more than 10 years of experience building partnerships and administering grants on behalf of two local nonprofits, it’s been a deep dive into the numbers.

Simply put, figuring out the federal, state and local financial streams for RCT, which has about a $2.5 million annual budget, is a job all in itself. More than $1 million of that is federal, though varying degrees of local matching funds must accompany it, much of that through City of Mansfield and Richland County block grant funds.

For example, there are 80 percent federal dollars for one kind of ride and 50 percent for another kind. There are Community Development Block Grant funds. There are contributions from cities like Ontario and Shelby, as well as OSU-Mansfield and North Central State College.

The day-to-day operation of RCT is actually contracted out to First Transit, a Cincinnati-based company that operates in more than 300 locations, carrying more than 300 million passengers annually throughout the United States in 39 states, Puerto Rico and Canada.

“Richland County Transit doesn’t actually have any employees at all,” Taddie said. “Our management team is employed by First Transit and the drivers, mechanics, dispatchers etc. are all employed by a subsidiary of First Transit called Transit Management of Richland.”

Declining ridership

One of Taddie’s immediate concerns was ridership, which peaked most recently at 280,860 rides provided in 2013. It dropped to 183,181 in 2019, the last year before the pandemic — a drop of 35 percent. It fell off to 104,751 in 2020 in the first year of COVID-19 and may finish 2021 below 100,000.

The COVID-19 drop has a number of causal factors, as the pandemic has affected public transit around the country. Despite the drop, the RCT Board earlier this month approved a 2022 operating budget with a 13-percent increase over 2021, largely due to higher fuel prices.

Buses carry fewer riders due to social distancing requirements. More people began working from home and didn’t need transportation. More health-care visits and social-service appointments have become virtual, reducing the need for bus services.

“Frankly, we’re about half of what we were pre-pandemic,” Taddie said. “It’s still trending down. We have a few more numbers to hit by the year end, but that’s the way things are tracking.

“I did and still do recognize that public transit offers affordable mobility options that are important to our community. So I was happy to be joining an effort that benefits our community’s health and economic prosperity,” Taddie said of her decision to take the position, which required her to surrender her ward seat on Mansfield City Council.

Despite the decline in usage, Knight, the director of workforce development for the Richland Area Chamber & Economic Development, said he was impressed with the level of availability already present with RCT, which has nine fixed routes and also Dial-A-Ride services.

RCT maintains a fleet of 28- and 16-passenger buses, all of which meet ADA accessibility requirements with space for two wheelchairs on each. The buses are garaged and maintained at RCT’s facility on North Main Street and begin and end their routes at the Stanton Transit Center on South Diamond Street.

“Just because someone is in a wheelchair doesn’t mean they are going to automatically use Dial-a-Ride because we welcome them on any of our fixed routes and people do use them all the time,” Taddie said.

In October, RCT received three new 28-passenger Gillig buses. Each of the buses, which were purchased with a combination of federal and state grant dollars, cost about $450,000 and should last about 350,000 miles over the next decade. No local money was used in the purchases.

Weekday fixed routes starting downtown at the Stanton Transit Center and provide transportation to medical facilities, retail outlets and other stops along the way, including:

— Park Avenue West to Lexington-Springmill Road.

— Lexington Avenue down to Kroger’s.

— South Main Street down to Wal-Mart.

— Springmill Street out to Trimble Road.

— Wayne Avenue/Ashland Road out to Kroger’s in Madison Township.

— Glessner Avenue to OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital, the VA outpatient clinic and Akron Children’s Hospital.

— West Fourth Street to Richland Mall and the OSU-Mansfield/NCSC campus.

— Ohio 39 to Shelby and the Kehoe Center.

— Ohio 13 north to the industrial park and airport area.

Prices for rides vary, including $2 for an adult single-ride pass, a $5 adult pay pass or a $50 adult monthly pass. There are reduced rates for children, senior citizens and disabled residents. Children 5 and under ride free.

Dial-a-Ride services are available for $4 for a single pass or $100 for a monthly pass.

“As a resident, I see the buses, but have learned a great deal in terms of understanding the routes, where they can get you and the additional services (RCT provides),” Knight said. “I have learned about the reach we do have in the community.

“I have learned a lot about the opportunities, as well, and the logistics of trying to create new opportunities,” he said, expressing a desire to “first do no harm” when it comes to making changes.

“We have to make sure we’re not creating solutions for problems that don’t exist,” he said.

“We have a good rider base, a consistent group of people who have learned how to use it and rely on it. We’re always looking to improve, but that’s where we are,” he said. “I think there are opportunities to serve people better and to serve a broader ridership.”

Join us for ‘Coffee and Transit Talk’ Thursday, Jan. 6

Join Richland Source City Editor Carl Hunnell at Relax It’s Just Coffee, 105 N. Main St., for “Coffee and Transit Talk” on Thursday, Jan. 6, at noon. Read the series and join Hunnell for an informal, hour-long conversation to offer your thoughts on what improvements the public county bus service should consider.

Can’t make it? Email your thoughts to carl.hunnell@richlandsource.com.

No evenings or weekends

RCT only operates on weekdays — no weekends or evenings. That’s one of the concerns residents expressed during “Talk the Vote” sessions with Richland Source before the November election.

People who work on weekends or at night cannot use public transit as it operates locally today. There is also no RCT service for those who may want to use it to come during the evening to a downtown Mansfield being revitalized.

There is also no bus service to villages like Lexington, Bellville, Butler, Plymouth or Shiloh.

All four of the candidates who won seats on Mansfield City Council expressed a desire to see evening and weekend service improve.

“I have been pushing for expanded service for several years, even before I was on council,” Stephanie Zader said in the run-up for her successful retention of an At-large council seat.

“I understand it’s like the chicken or the egg. We don’t necessarily have the money to expand it, but if we do expand it, it will eventually make money,” Zader said.

However, it’s notable that other than an annual $60,000 to $70,000 CDBG contribution to RCT, the City of Mansfield provides no general revenue funds to the service — which is largely utilized by city residents.

Richland County commissioners, in addition to their $70,000 annual CDBG award to RCT, will again allocate $70,000 from the general fund in 2022.

But county Commissioner Tony Vero said adding service hours is not as easy as it sounds.

“It’s not as simple as adding more routes and you will get more riders,” he said. “Our transportation system is quite remarkable for a community our size. Not many communities our size have a fixed-route bus system.”

Knight said he didn’t think the number one reason people use RCT is to get to work.

“There’s a certain group that does, but I don’t think it’s first or even second reason people ride the buses. In my current full-time (workforce development) position, that’s something we want to improve.

“We have some larger employers in the county now that are outside of our current bus routes,” Knight said.

Taddie said the local labor force has been shrinking for the past decade, a trend that will require local employers to work harder to find employees. In some areas of the country, private employers are helping fund public transit.

“Baby boomers are retiring and they deserve that. So employers have to get creative and recognize the value of retaining their employees and not letting someone’s flat tire or broken down car to cause them to lose their job,” Taddie said.

“I think there is mutual benefit. We could save (employers) money if they would work with us, rather than buying their own vehicles and driving all over north central Ohio to get people to come to work,” she said.

Knight said his leading goal is to use RCT’s current resources properly.

“We have to most effectively meet the needs of our community,” he said, “if that’s every day living, getting to food centers, healthcare appointments, or social or workforce development.

“I don’t want us to be afraid to do something completely new … think outside the box,” Knight said.

(Coming Wednesday: RCT plans major strategic planning effort in 2022. We also look at nearby Licking County, which underwent a similar planning effort in recent years. And we will visit Iowa City, Iowa, a city that recently revitalized its own public transit system.)