City to roll out “SAM On-Demand” for bus riders

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) - The City of Sioux Falls is working to make its public transportation cater more directly to the rider.

The SAM On-Demand Transit Project aims to make riding the city’s buses more efficient by allowing riders to be dropped off at specific times and locations. However, those stops will still need to be a part of the bus’s fixed stop route.

“They’ll get picked up, still at that same fixed route bus stop, but then they can be taken anywhere that they’d like to go within that same service area," City of Sioux Falls Senior Planner, Sam Trebilcock said.

This new service would be offered Saturdays and, according to the city’s website, weekday evenings.

“A lot of times it will avoid people having to take as many transfers," Trebilcock said.

Monday night the city held a meeting intended to provide the public with a better understanding of the on-demand project as well as gain public input from a rider’s perspective. A second session will be held Thursday, from 4:00 to 5:00 in the afternoon.

“We’re really trying to get information from riders, get the information out there to riders, and find out what questions riders are going to have," Trebilcock said. "And, then also see if there is anybody that’s interested in testing the service.”

Before SAM On-Demand is rolled out for the public, the city plans to launch a pilot program within the next six to eight weeks aimed at working out logistics.

“The way it’s going to work is that you can request a bus through a mobile phone app, or on the website, or you could call in for the service," Trebilcock said. "We’ll have people doing that on the street, and we’ll have the buses come and pick them up and see how it works before the service is actually up and going.”

For Thursday’s WebEx meeting numbers and passwords, e-mail sgoldammer@siouxfalls.org

Meeting contacts:

Sam Trebilcock, Senior Planner, City of Sioux Falls 367-8890 or strebilcock@siouxfalls.org

Shawna Goldammer, Planning Projects Coordinator, City of Sioux Falls 367-8692 or sgoldammer@siouxfalls.org

Robert Speeks, General Manager, Sioux Area Metro 367-7151 or rspeeks@siouxfalls.org

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