A year after a fleet of minivans was introduced by the Capital Area Transit System as part of a citywide microtransit program in Baker, program managers say the new service has proven to be an overwhelming success.
LYNX by CATS is an on-demand transportation service that provides rides to points of interest in Baker for $1.75 or less.
CATS spokeswoman Deanna Wallace said the number of rides since last June is equivalent to similar transit programs in much larger cities across the country.
“We had over 50,000 rides in our first year, which is fantastic,” she said. “That’s on par with what we’ve seen in places like Memphis and Jersey City, New Jersey, so it’s performing well above any of our expectations.”
While the base price is $1.75, trips on LYNX are only 35 cents for riders older than 62 and youth ages 5-18.
Passengers with wheelchair accessible vehicles can also ride LYNX for 35 cents, while high school and university students with a valid school ID can ride for free.
Wallace said LYNX was able to reduce the cost per rider in Baker and ended up being more cost-effective than a traditional fixed-route bus.
“That’s one of the main benefits of a program like LYNX,” she said. “Not only is it more efficient and effective for the people who need it in order to connect to more places, it’s actually more cost-efficient too.”
In 2018, Baker had a fixed route circulating around the city that averaged 12,000 rides annually, according to LYNX by CATS service planner Brandon Songy.
With more than 50,000 rides over the past year, Songy said, those numbers have more than tripled.
“I’m just surprised it’s been so successful; I didn’t expect to get 50,000 rides so soon, and we did it in one year,” he said. “We’ve also gone the whole year accident-free, and so that’s a big plus there.”
Wallace said LYNX was successful by extending its point of interests zone for certain demographics of riders.
“Southern [University] is technically outside the zone, but we allow some students to ride for free so that they can get the food they need or get to work and get supplies or things like that,” she said. “We wanted to support them with that; it’s good for all of us if we have a more educated populace.”
Limiting points of interest to make the program more efficient, while extending it to important places like Southern and the Lane Regional Medical Center, helped make LYNX a useful service right away.
“It started as a pilot, but after the first three or four months, it was very clear that it was a success and that was fabulous,” said CATS interim chief operations officer Cheri Soileau. “Ultimately, as a transit system, you want to give people that access and that independence to be able to go where they need to go.”
Because LYNX serves only as a microtransit project in the Baker area, Songy said it can’t be easily replicated across Baton Rouge any time soon.
“It doesn’t work in large cities such as Baton Rouge, otherwise you would have vans running all over the place and the quality of service is going to degrade,” he said. “Microtransit works in these niche areas such as Baker where you can make the entire city a zone and everyone has access to it.”
Using more niche zones, Songy said CATS is looking at expanding microtransit projects into smaller communities or areas.
“We are looking at other areas in Baton Rouge, such as downtown, to implement the service and finding out if any other cities want to join as a member city of CATS such as Denham Springs, Gonzales, Prairieville, Zachary or Port Allen,” he said.
Soileau said she hopes LYNX changes the way people interact with public transit, both in Baker and across Baton Rouge city-parish.
“Think about getting on a city bus; you don’t have to drive and you don’t have to be frustrated when you get to your office,” she said. “Let us do your driving for you, get out of the congestion, get in an air-conditioned bus and be happy when you get to work. Let’s think about the big picture of public transit in Baton Rouge.”
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