By Hayley Ferguson

Pilot Project

Brooks to Medicine Hat transportation pilot seeing success

Sep 24, 2019 | 5:07 PM

Brooks, AB – In February, the City of Brooks announced that they would be launching a pilot project aimed at making it easier for residents to travel to Medicine Hat for medical and other appointments.

Now over six months later, they’ve expanded the pilot and say it is running very successfully.

The pilot was launched after there was about $57,000 remaining from a transportation grant given to the area in 2014.

When they first started the service, it was running just once a week.

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It has now been expanded to Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays to allow users to have more freedom in booking

appointments.

Amanda Peterson, the deputy chief administrative officer, says that they will keep the program running until the grant money is depleted.

She says that that money has stayed steady.

“We’ve had about $1,990 worth of revenue that’s been received since the pilot began. So of course with remaining grant proceeds, the revenue, and then the pilots expenses have been about $10,000. So as of September the 9th we have about $48,365 remaining.” She explained.

Once that money has been depleted though, Peterson says that they will have to take a deeper look at the program to see if they can continue running it.

“At that time when the pilot is done and the grant funds are used then, of course, the information will be brought back to the joint services committee. And at that time they’ll make a decision on how they want to proceed. If they want to leave it as a pilot or if they want to do something different.” Peterson said.

Peterson said that they have received a lot of positive feedback on the program.

“For individuals that do use the service that’s recurring for their medical appointments, it’s great because then they don’t have to rely on family and friends to take them to their appointments.” She continued. “They can use the service to get to their appointments so it doesn’t put pressure on or doesn’t give them anxiety to try and find some way to get to their medical appointments.”

Although they give preference to riders who are heading to Medicine Hat for a medical appointment, anyone can use the service.