MANSFIELD — Richland County Transit officials on Tuesday rolled out a 10-year transportation strategic development plan that’s been two years in the making.
Jean Taddie, transit development manager for the county’s only mass transit service, met with county commissioners, joined by Christy Campoll, a senior associate with R&L Associates from Dayton, the consulting company that spent the last year helping develop the plan.
“The goal of the plan is to ensure that RCT provides the best service it can within its available resources,” Campoll said of the effort, funded by a $165,779 grant from the Ohio Department of Transportation through the Ohio Transit Partnership Program.
(Below is the new Richland County Transit 10-year transportation strategic development plan.)
The development plan has been a key project for Taddie since she joined Richland County Regional Planning Commission in late 2020 as the transit development manager, responsible for obtaining and managing grants and building partnerships to support RCT’s mission and goals.
One of the goals of the plan is to continue the work to better market the system and continue efforts to regrow ridership, which peaked in 2013 when RCT provided 280,860 rides.
It dropped to 183,181 in 2019, the last year before the pandemic — a drop of 35 percent. That drop came when routes and services were sharply reduced.
It fell off to 104,751 in 2020 in the first year of COVID-19 and finished below 100,000 in 2021.
Taddie said it rebounded to 111,000 in 2022 and she expects 2023 to finish between 120,000 and 125,000 rides.
Campoll told commissioners that the effort began with “a very comprehensive” data-gathering process that helped inform recommendations made in the plan.
“We conducted a public survey about residents’ current travel patterns and their opinions about public transit. We also surveyed local employers about the needs of their workforce regarding transportation.
“We also conducted one-on-one and small group interviews with 22 local stakeholders, including government officials, human service agencies, and healthcare organizations and others.
“We spoke to every RCT driver and office staff member, as well,” Campoll said.
She told commissioners that the plan consists of immediate and longer-range plans consisting of “strategies that will be implemented in large part based on the ability to generate additional funding.”
Early in the development process, officials said they would not seek solutions for problems that didn’t exist. Mission accomplished, according to Campoll.
“I’m absolutely confident in that because I can’t recommend you spend valuable resources on solutions that aren’t targeting a problem that exists,” she said. “We’re already looking at asking for additional funding for some good solutions.
“I think the bottom-line need that I heard the most was we’re not really able to support our workforce with the current system as we have it today,” Campoll said.
Even people who work a standard first-shift job, depending on how the bus schedule works and where exactly the route goes, it doesn’t even work for all of them.
“(There is a lot) of great manufacturing employment in this county. A lot of those are running second and third shifts. People who don’t have cars just can’t take those jobs unless they are scrounging around for taxi fare or family and friends.
“(With) all of these added services or technological enhancements, one of the guiding principles was, ‘Can we help get more people to work in the county? That’s my take on it,” she said.
One potential funding source RCT may consider in the future is asking county taxpayers to approve a levy that would generate dedicated income to a service that is largely depending on federal funding and local money provided by local governments.
“I don’t see a levy on the November ballot. That’s not gonna happen in 2024. But the conversations are worth having (as to) what kind of sustainability do we want for our transportation system?” Taddie said.
One of the first changes, implemented in September, led to the launch of a six-month pilot of route changes to “improve efficiency and serve some key destinations.”
The new Ontario circulator route serves local college campuses at The Ohio State University at Mansfield and North Central State College.
The route serves 10 stops including Avita Ontario Hospital, Richland Mall, Walmart and Meijer. On-call stops include Buckeye Village apartments, the Cinemark Theater and the Area Agency on Aging.
In another upcoming change, Campoll said RCT in 2024 will transition to a designated bus stop system from its current “flag stop system” in which people can flag bus down at any point on its fixed route.
“This is going to be a lot more efficient and safe,” she said.
RCT is also changing its CAD/AVL software provider riders can use to obtain real-time tracking of buses, as well as assist in the mapping of routes.
The new provider will be ETA Transit and will be implemented once the contract is approved by the county prosecutor’s office.
Campoll said RCT plans to expand its “dial-a-ride” to same-day service in 2024 and also make it possible to reserve a ride through its website.
Other longer-range plans (2024-2026), which would likely call for new sources of local or federal funding, are:
— adding more service on Ohio 13 to the industrial parks near Mansfield-Lahm Regional Airport
— on-demand service in the early mornings and evenings.
— on-demand service in Mansfield during Final Friday events.
Smaller vehicles, rather than the larger buses used on fix routes, would be more cost-efficient in performing on-demand service, Campoll said.