While most transit agencies report declining ridership, numbers are up for Pulaski County's transit system.

NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — At a time when most transit agencies are stuck in reverse, Rock Region Metro is moving forward.

“Historically, when it’s low unemployment and low gas prices, public transit’s usually low ridership during those times,” Becca Green mentioned, “so we’ve been able to counteract that, which is pretty exciting.”

Green, the director of public engagement for Rock Region Metro, said its ridership is up by roughly three percent in 2019 compared to the same time period in 2018. In a presentation to the Little Rock Board of Directors in August, executive director Charles Frazier said most transit agencies have seen ridership decline by 2-4 percent.

“One of the reasons why is new fare agreements,” Green explained. Several local schools and non-profits have signed contracts to provide bus passes for their students or clients for a flat fee. Green said Shorter College in North Little Rock signed an agreement this year to give its students access to a bus line that passes next to its campus. The Arkansas Homeless Coalition launched a program in February of this year to give out passes to homeless people who need transportation to and from services or job interviews.

“When they first started the program, they wanted to get 20 people—by the end of the year—out of homelessness,” Green recalled. “To date, they have more than 90, which is an incredible statistic for this program.”

Green said a partnership with eStem has had a significant impact on overall ridership. “That helps, also, with bus ridership and streetcar ridership,” she explained. “So, a lot of those students take the streetcar every day. For example, two stops down on the street car line to the Central Arkansas Library System main branch library to go study and do research for their papers and things like that.”

While bus ridership is up three percent, Green said ridership on the downtown streetcar is up 229 percent compared to last year. The reason for the dramatic increase is clear: rides are now free. The fare for streetcar rides was eliminated in December 2018, and ridership spiked immediately.

The change led to a new business model for the street car, which Rock Region Metro claims is one of just 11 historic streetcar systems in the country.

“We have some sponsorships now,” Green said, “and we also have been doing a great job of selling our streetcar rentals. You can rent the street car for parties, for weddings, just for fun.”

Frazier, in his presentation to the Board of Directors, said 23,137 people rode the streetcar between January and July of 2018, with fares at one dollar per person. In the first seven months of 2019, Rock Region Metro made approximately $27,000 from advertisements and charters, and Green said the agency recently signed a few new sponsorships.

Green said Rock Region Metro has also seen success from its pilot microtransit program, METRO Connect. It removed an underperforming route along John Barrow Road and started an on-demand service within the neighborhood. “And it’s a smaller vehicle,” Green stated, “and we send it out in this zone, and we can pick you up. The travel times have absolutely, hands down, beaten the former bus route that was there.”

Riders can use an app or call Rock Region metro’s dispatch center to request a pickup. Green said microtransit is one example of technology’s influence on the evolution of the transit industry. She added that it could be a solution in other neighborhoods, as well, where routes tend to have long wait times.

“Areas where you have transit demand, where you may not have a lot of—it may not be a huge demand, but there is demand there,” she said. “And so, microtransit can help to meet that demand and make sure that citizens have a way to get around via public transit.”

Green said there are a few ideas Rock Region Metro leadership is prioritizing for future growth. One is a downtown circulator to run on weekends and during special events. Green pointed out that she and many others use the streetcar to cross the Arkansas River when there is a big event at Verizon Arena or the Statehouse Convention Center, in order to avoid the hassle of parking near the venue.

Another idea is to create an express route to the Promenade at Chenal. Lots of shoppers and employees have said they want greater access to the shopping center, but the closest a bus comes currently is the area of Chenal Parkway and Bowman Road.

Green said Rock Region Metro is currently developing a vanpool program. The agency will partner with local businesses that have several employees who live in the same area. Rock Region Metro has contracted with Commute with Enterprise to run the program, and Green said a few local employers have shown interest in it.

Another priority is to expand the fare agreement with the Little Rock School District. Currently, students from the district’s five high schools can get bus passes. Green said she hopes the same arrangement can be made for middle school and elementary school students, so it is easier for them to get to class.

“There are actually a lot of elementary school and middle school-aged children who ride our system,” Green claimed. “So, for example, on my route that goes by my house, if I get on at about 7:30 in the morning, I’m usually the oldest person on the bus.”

Green said there are two topics Rock Region Metro wants to study next year as part of its long-term strategic plan.

One study would look at the future of the River Cities Travel Center, Rock Region Metro’s downtown hub. Green said the agency owns the land and its air rights, so a redevelopment would create vast opportunities. “We could do things like build a grocery store or a farmers market on the bottom floor, along with transit,” she mentioned. “And then the upper floors could be offices, they could be residences, they could be gallery space.”

Another study would be an examination of its routes. Green said the study will be called RISE 2020, which stands for Route Innovation Development and Evaluation.

She mentioned that routes are always examined each year, “but this is an even deeper dive into assessing our routes, assessing what our community’s mobility needs are, and being able to truly come up with a plan to change that over a longer-range time period, to really innovate, and bring Central Arkansas the type of public transit that our market needs.”