Humboldt's council has approved applying for funding for vans for improved public transportation. (City of Humboldt/Facebook)

By Doug Lett

Humboldt transit plans

Humboldt looks at transit options

Mar 28, 2023 | 8:51 AM

The city of Humboldt took some small steps toward improving public transportation at city council on Monday.

The city has not had a taxi service since the only company shut down during the pandemic, so the city commissioned a study last year to look at options for better public transit.

The upshot was councillors approved applying to the federal and provincial governments for money to buy two wheelchair accessible vans, to get the ball rolling.

However, the approval came with a lot of caution.

“I know that as a city, we need to do something,” Coun. Rob Muench said. “I guess my concern is how it’s going to affect the long term cost,” he said, pointing out while government grants could cover much of the cost of new vans, there are still operating costs.

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“I’m still not totally satisfied that we haven’t explored the taxi route well enough,” he added. “I’m just going back over my lifetime in the community of Humboldt, we’ve had several times where we’ve had two taxi services in the community with less population than we have now.”

Mayor Michael Behiel echoed those concerns.

“I actually had a lengthy discussion with a resident today about that exact thing,” Behiel told council. “He was asking why there could not be a subsidized taxi service in some shape or form that would allow them more mobility…we need to do some more research and discussion on that before we move forward with anything.”

Muench pointed out while the motions are to apply for funding for two vans, that’s as far as it goes for now.

“I don’t know if this is a good idea or not. I like the idea of being able to ease into it,” Muench said.

Last year the city hired Dillon Consulting, to look at the lack of public transportation in Humboldt and come up with options. The company submitted a report, that found Uber and taxi companies were not interested in Humboldt because of its relatively small size.

The report did recommend a three-pronged approach to improving transit in Humboldt.

• An accessible paratransit service, continuing the current Mobility Van Service.
• An on-demand shared-ride service, offering rides shared with other passengers at a subsidized rate.
• Door to door service, much like a taxi.

The plan would also include an on-demand routing platform subscription, so a mobile application could be used for the integration of the three transit services.

Council approved applying for funding for two vans – and voted to accept Dillon’s report as information.

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doug.lett@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @DougLettSK