Two years ago, I was on my way to work in Innisfil, Ontario when I noticed a resident walking along the shoulder of our town's rural roads.  She was wearing the shirt of a local grocery store, so it seemed she was walking to work. I saw her again on the same road, going the same way, with the same shirt, but this time I pulled over, offered her a ride to work, and we struck up a conversation. Her name was Joanne, and she told me about her struggle of getting around town with only one car that had broken down and no public transit options.

In my work as Innisfil's Chief Administrative Officer, our town had been trying to find an answer to our lack of transit options for a long time.  Located in Simcoe County, our challenge was to solve a complex equation: How could we bring affordable and reliable transportation to our community of close to 40,000 residents spread over an area that's the same landmass as the City of Mississauga?

After dropping Joanne off, I arrived at the office, walked into a meeting that day and asked everyone if there was a way to bring back the hitch-hiking days of long ago.  How could we connect all the cars that are travelling along our main roads with the people that need to travel the same way but safely? 

As fate would have it, I met Joanne at a time when the transit options from a study prepared by a consulting firm were being considered for approval in our Town's budget.  The study proposed setting up two bus routes that would cost over a half a million dollars in capital and operating costs in the first year alone. This might not be much money for larger cities, but it represented a massive cost for Innisfil residents.

Furthermore, these fixed route bus lines came with significant constraints. The hours of service would be limited, and only some residents would have stops within walking distance.  In practical terms, many people would simply not have access to this transportation option, including late at night when safe rides are needed most.  Council wasn't sure this was the best route - pun intended.  We had all seen empty buses driving around all day long in other communities.

So we went back to the drawing board, but this time, we wanted to think outside the box.  In fact, forget the box - it never existed.  Who needs a box?  We talked about what the perfect transit system would look like and how important it was for all residents to have access. Through these long discussions and chats came the idea of a ridesharing and a demand-based transit solution, and ultimately a Request for Expression of Interest.   

Uber and the Town would connect at the end of 2016 and they loved the idea of partnering with us for an alternative transit solution, seeing the many mutual goals we shared (e.g. getting cars off the roads, getting people to meet each other, building an engaged community.)

After just a few short months of discussions with Uber, together we created Innisfil Transit-a customized, cost-effective transit solution that uses the Uber platform to provide service to every resident, at any time of the day - when they need it.  Our ride-sharing transit solution is providing a service that is better than any bus could provide.

When we announced the partnership with Uber and our plan to essentially subsidize Uber rides, we saw lots of raised eyebrows and confused faces - many people thought we were just small town folk who didn't understand how transit works.  In addition, when it comes to politics - especially municipal politics - you just don't take big risks. And here we were, arguably about to take the biggest risk our municipality had ever taken.  Luckily, we had a Mayor and Council who had guts; sure it could fail - but we weren't afraid to fail; we wanted to give this a shot as we were confident we would at least get a bunch of data about where and when people really wanted to travel not just projections.

We went ahead and hit the launch button in May 2017.  Our service offers residents flat fares to a select number of popular destinations, such as the local recreation complex or our main industrial area (commonly referred to here as Innisfil Heights Employment Area.)    A standard $5 discount applies to any other rides beginning or ending anywhere else in Innisfil. 

Now, our residents have access to an alternative transportation that provides independence and opportunity and lets them leave their cars at home - and they're taking advantage of it.  Within eight months, about 3,400 users have taken more than 26,700 Innisfil Transit trips.  In fact, more people are using the service than we anticipated would use a bus, and all at a far lower cost to our taxpayers. 

We estimate that our solution will save us millions of dollars over the long run.  And since Innisfil Transit uses UberPOOL, multiple riders can be picked up along the way, reducing emissions and helping create "social collisions" where local residents get to meet one another and create connections that may never have happened otherwise.

Without a doubt, Innisfil Transit has changed our town for the better.  Residents who never before had access to public transit, and particularly those without a driver's license or personal vehicle, can now request rides to and from their doorstep.  

A large number of trips take place to and from the local GO Train Station, meaning residents are using ridesharing services for first/last mile commuting instead of their personal cars.  Thanks to this success, we're thrilled to announce we're moving forward with Stage 2 of Innisfil Transit, with even more flat fare destinations to help our residents get to where they need to be.

The best part of all this have been some of the amazing stories that have come to our attention of the impact of Innisfil Transit in improving our community's quality of life.   We had one resident who suffered a stroke and couldn't drive for a few months.  Thanks to Innisfil Transit, he was able to continue on like everything was as normal as possible, and kept up with his appointments.  We also had a woman write to us and tell us how the service finally allowed her to get a job, and about the impact that had on improving the financial well-being of her family.  We're also seeing lots of local drivers using the opportunity to earn additional income, including one in particular who told us that being a driver has given him the funds he needs now that he has retired.

The story of Innisfil's transit may be unique, but our challenges are not.  

Cities and towns across the world are struggling to provide cost-efficient transit systems that connect people to the places they need to get to.  Whether it's allowing someone to obtain a job, helping a senior citizen get to the grocery store, providing someone a safe ride after the bars close, or reducing the stress of a commuter, we're proud to have led the way - together with Uber - to help bring more transportation options to our community.

We hope our work encourages other municipalities of all sizes to explore partnerships and build new solutions to help residents leave their cars at home and use shared, sustainable transportation options.

--Jason Reynar, Chief Administrative Officer, Town of Innisfil, ON