Workshop Agenda:
1:30 – 4:00 | Rural Transit Workshop
Facilitator/Speaker | Dennis Kar, Partner/Transit Planner - Dillon Consulting Limited
Speaker | Melissa Djurakov, Director, Municipal Programs Branch, Ontario Ministry of Transportation
Waterloo Speaker | Grant Jones, Mayor, Township of Southwold
Ottawa Speaker | Nancy Peckford, Mayor, North Grenville
Rural Transit is back, but is it sustainable? Both newly funded pilot services and long-established rural transit systems have identified the community need, but traditional ways of measuring value for investment (e.g. ridership, mode share, productivity) make rural transit a difficult proposition.
This session will focus on identifying ways to measure the external benefits of rural transit, based on what is important to the province and local municipalities.
The session will be broken down into three parts:
Part 1: The Role and Value of Rural Transit
Dennis Kar will share his perspective on the importance and value of rural transit and some strategies that have been effective in implementing service.
Part 2: Perspectives from the Province and Municipal Decision-makers
Hear different perspectives from both the Ministry of Transportation Ontario (MTO) and a municipal elected official on the key policy objectives that rural transit can help address and key measures required to demonstrate value given other competing priorities.
Part 3: Break-out Session
Breakout into working groups to tackle some important questions that will help identify a process for determining the return on investment of rural transit. Key discussion topics will include:
1. Role of Rural Transit - What is the role of rural transit and how does it align with broader provincial and municipal policy objectives?
2. Key Performance Indictors (KPIs) - What KPIs should we measure that align with the role of transit?
3. Monitoring – What data is available to monitor performance and identify return on investment? How do you measure external benefits?
4. Resources – Outside of funding, what support do municipalities need to measure success and operate rural transit?
While this session is focused on rural communities, the KPIs we will discuss may also benefit urban communities. Our goal is to get meaningful insight based on your experience to inform decision makers about next steps in rural transit.