HART and Coast Bike Share Partnership Helps Tackle the 'First Mile, Last Mile' Problem

Three Coast Bike Share bikes will be stationed at MTC

May is National Bike Month and HART makes connecting to the bus by riding a bike a breeze.
 

The Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority (HART) and Coast Bike Share are formally announcing that we have teamed up to add three Coast Bikes at the Marion Transit Center (MTC).

 

Through this partnership, bicycle racks with quality Coast Bikes are set up at high-activity hubs such as MTC, and dozens of additional hubs in the Downtown area, Ybor City, and Hyde Park. The MTC location will help residents, students, businesses and visitors to get around by combining HART and Coast Bike Share trips to explore the Tampa Bay area.

HART works hard to promote the growth in cycling around Tampa and seek proactive, long-term solutions to accommodate a growing market of transit users who travel by bike. Bicycle friendly transit provides cyclists with increased options to travel, and it also expands transit ridership.        

 

"The Coast Bike Share connection helps make HART a more convenient option for customers needing a way to start or complete their trip," said Jeff Seward, HART Chief Financial Officer. "With the additions of Coast Bike Share, RedCoach, to compliment the Megabus.com partnership, MTC has now become a busy inter-modal hub for Bus Rapid Transit in Tampa and a catalyst for travel throughout the state of Florida."

Coast Bikes can be reserved on Coast's mobile app, online at app.socialbicycles.com, or at the bike using its keypad. Coast to your destination and lock it to any hub or public bike rack. It's that easy!

Purchasing a monthly or annual membership to this program would provide a convenient, healthy transit alternative to run errands, make it to class on time, or simply sight-see. On a larger scale, the availability of public bikes would offset the costs of car pollution, parking lot use, add convenience to multi-modal travel, and strengthen the local culture of health and environmental sustainability.

  

This partnership is just one more example of how HART staff is focused on attracting new ridership, fueling revenues, and enhancing service through strategic innovation. The HART inter-modal approach strives to connect various modes of transportation such as walking, bicycling, and using the TECO Line Streetcar System, Park-n-Ride facilities, and paratransit system.  

HART Ridership Continues Record Trend

62 consecutive months of over a 1 million trips on HART!

The numbers are in, and HART had a big month for ridership in April, including another month of more than a million trips on HART bus service. The increase continues to be evident in our daily ridership; April 14 saw the greatest daily ridership throughout the month with 53,103 bus trips.

A total of 1,255,932 trips were taken last month, which marks the 62nd consecutive month of serving more than 1 million bus rides; February 2010 was the last month with under 1 million rides. This continues a strong upward ridership trend for HART, with a fifth straight year of record ridership. We've set annual ridership records in 10 of the past 11 years.

"We are extremely pleased that more people are taking advantage of the affordable cost and convenience of our service," said HART Chief Executive Officer Katharine Eagan. "We look forward to these new customers becoming regular riders as they continue to discover all the great benefits of taking transit."
 
Fast facts: 

Last month, April 14 saw the highest daily ridership throughout the month with 53,103 bus trips.

11 days exceeded 50,000 riders

The TECO Line Streetcar System saw an increase of two percent for April and is up four percent for FY2015.

For the month of April, HART logged 20,752 bicycle boardings; an increase of 2.6 percent compared to last year.

HARTFlex ridership was up 3.1 percent from April 2014 and up 6.3 percent for the year.

Year-to-date (FY2014 vs. FY2015), bus ridership is up 2.6 percent; an increase of 230,681 trips compared to the same period last year. Recent statistics from the American Public Transportation Association's (APTA) Transit Savings Report indicate that the average annual savings for public transit riders was $9,394. Individuals who ride public transportation instead of driving can also save, on average, more than $783 a month.

These savings are based on the cost of commuting by public transportation compared to the cost of owning and driving a vehicle, which in this APTA Transit Saving Report includes the April 27, 2015 average national gas price ($2.54 per gallon- reported by AAA), and the national unreserved monthly parking rate numbers.

HART is hiring new Bus Operators, Fleet Mechanic, Finance Assistant TVM, and many other great job opportunities. If you are interested please visit: http://agency.governmentjobs.com/gohart/default.cfm.

Summer is in Session: The HART Summer Blast Pass is Back!

The HART Summer Blast Pass is back!

It's time to blast into summer with the HART Summer Blast Pass! For just $30, students 18 and under get 3 months of unlimited rides on HART services.

That's less than $1.90 a week! 

The Summer Blast Pass is the perfect way for to get to summer jobs, the movies, the mall and all of your child's favorite places.

The pass is now on sale, and may be used on any HART service, excluding HARTPlus and The TECO Line Streetcar System from May 11 - Aug. 31. Riders 12 and younger must have an adult traveling with them. Proof of age is required at the time of purchase.

Summer Blast Passes are available for purchase at any of the following four HART locations:

• Downtown Tampa: HART at City Hall, 306 E. Jackson St.
• Downtown Tampa: Marion Transit Center, 1211 N. Marion St.
• University Area: University Area Transit Center, 13110 N. 27th St. 
• Ybor City: HART Administrative Offices, 1201 E. 7th Ave.

The HART Summer Blast Pass provides kids with a way to be green, learn independence and save money. The purpose of the program is to familiarize youth to consider transit as alternative transportation, and it allows them to travel safely and independently throughout Hillsborough County. 

View HART Summer Blast Pass flyer in English and Spanish (.PDF)


For more information about HART, visit www.goHART.org 

HART Seeks Grants for Regional Fare Initiative

Smartcards such at the Orca card allow Tap N' Go verification!

Imagine grabbing a HART or PSTA bus and paying with the same fare media that you just used to ride MCAT and Polk Transit. Later, you head to Pasco County and use the same fare media to ride the bus there. Moving to such a system is in the works in the Tampa Bay area.

HART is leading the push to secure important federal and state funds for the completion of a long-awaited regional fare collection system upgrade that will benefit a regional connectivity in the Tampa Bay region.

HART has applied for two separate grants that would provide more than $20 million to fund the Regional Revenue Collection and Inter-Jurisdictional Mobility Project.

The initiative, led by HART, represents a collaborative partnership between Citrus, Hernando, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pinellas, Pasco, Polk, and Sarasota counties. Once it is finalized, patrons will be able to travel across the entire multi-county Tampa Bay region using one single ticket in the form of a smart card that can also be instantly downloaded wirelessly to carry on mobile devices.

The Regional Working Group has spent more than two years planning and strategizing to ensure a smooth and timely transition to the high-tech system. The upgrade will allow transit passengers, including those with disabilities and the elderly, easy access to transportation throughout a multi-county region.

"This is a transformational moment for regional cooperation in the Tampa Bay area," said HART Chief Financial Officer Jeff Seward. "The benefits of a more connected fare collection system would be evident from the start from a regional standpoint, and would also help others upgrade their systems so that we all can be compatible. Eventually the customer that's out there would be able to use a smart card technology that would work seamlessly across all systems."

Customers will be able to check their smartcard balances at any time and buy or reload the cards at multiple, convenient card outlets or even online. Because the cards can be scanned instantly on transit vehicles with a digital fare reading device on board, the process of boarding will be accelerated for increased efficiency with a more accurate system that saves HART and its customer's time and effort.

Although $2,367,907 million of funding has been received to-date from a combination of State and TBARTA grants, there remains a shortfall of $10,232,093 based on full smartcard technology implementation at an estimated cost of $12,600,000 for hardware, infrastructure, and integration