Requests for accessible transit trips in the County of Grande Prairie have gone up over the past several months.
Of the 17,696 trips made by Grande Prairie Accessible Transit from June to November 2022, 743 of those trips were for users in the County of Grande Prairie, equaling 4.2 per cent of total rides. That’s nearly double from the last report in 2019, when it was 2.5 per cent.
There are 601 registered Grande Prairie Accessible Transit clients, and 59 of those clients live in the county within a maximum five-kilometre radius from the city, primarily the Lakeview Seniors Housing Facility and the Clairmont area.
According to the report made to a County Committee of the Whole meeting, a trip for a county client takes four times the amount of time a trip takes for a client in the city. Due to the increased demand exceeding available resources and time restraints, it’s reported trips have to be prioritized with medical trips being number one.
Grande Prairie Accessible Transit is a door-to-door service for residents with limitations and accessibility needs to help them get to medical appointments, educational programs, and work. The program’s total budget in 2022 was $1.3 million, and the county will pay for its portion of the budget through its three-year agreement with the City of Grande Prairie under the Intermunicipal Collaboration Committee.