Located in Southern Ontario, Town of Cobourg had been operating a paratransit program using an outdated legacy platform, as well as a fixed-route bus system that provided limited coverage with high headways. With both services experiencing operational inefficiencies, public transit in Cobourg was not meeting residents’ needs. To improve these municipal services, the town developed a pilot project to trial on-demand transit, contracting RideCo as their technology partner.
Together, Town of Cobourg and RideCo operate Cobourg Transit with a commingled WHEELS paratransit and conventional on-demand transit service that provides town-wide coverage and has increase service frequency from 60 minutes to 26 minutes. The commingled service has also achieved 4.8 average passengers per vehicle hour, 71% average shared rides, and 97% average drop off on-time performance. Through its partnership with RideCo, Town of Cobourg’s innovation in commingled service delivery has been recognized by the Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA) and was awarded the 2022 CUTA Award in the Innovation Category.
