Ridership may not be as strong in Taylor, but city leaders want to expand local transportation services in anticipation of expected growth. At the regular meeting of the Taylor City Council Sept. 22, city leaders had the opportunity to hear a presentation from Capital Area Rural Transportation System (CARTS) General Manager David Marsh.
“We have had steady ridership throughout our tenure here in Taylor,” Marsh said. “Just because others are doing more doesn’t mean yours isn’t serving a need. (However), we are confused as to why Taylor, one of our largest towns, isn’t keeping up with some of our other towns.”
Despite the smaller populations of Bastrop, which has around almost 10,000 people, and Lockhart, which has around 14,000, they both have seen higher ridership for CARTS Now, which is a new on-demand service, than Taylor has, despite its higher population of 17,000, Marsh said.
According to the presentation, total ridership through CARTS for the month of August for Lockhart was 2,925, for Bastrop 1,915 and for Taylor 1,549.
“Some opinions are that most people in Taylor get in their car and drive somewhere else to go to work, and there is not as much local need for transportation,” Marsh said. “I don’t know, and I will ask you all that.”
Still Marsh said it was important to keep the numbers in perspective.
“We have good ridership here,” Marsh said.
“It’s four times what we used to do in the country bus, but it works better for more people. It works for all the people that used to ride the country bus, so we are confident it will continue to be a resource for you.”
CARTS provides transit to 168 communities within a nine-county area around Austin, including rural areas of Bastrop, Blanco, Burnet, Caldwell, Fayette, Hays, Lee, Travis and Williamson counties.
In Taylor, CARTS offers a variety of ride options, including to locations throughout Williamson, Travis County and beyond.
In addition, in 2021, it launched CARTS Now, which provides doorto- door transportation between any two points within Taylor for $2 per ride, and within 15 minutes of calling or using an app.
At the meeting, District 4 Councilman Robert Garcia said he wished the service was available on the weekends.
“I have a friend who raves about CARTS, and can go to H-E-B, Walmart and back,” Garcia said. “She really loves that. The only thing she did say was that she hopes we can increase the weekend presence.”
In addition, Garcia encouraged Marsh to consider a free evening pilot program for the downtown that could be promoted by area businesses, and said it was important to think about expanding boundaries for routes in anticipation of growth in the near future.
“I know within the next three to six months, we are going to have a lot of workers coming into a small project out here called Samsung, just a tiny one,” he said.
“How can we expand our boundaries to include Samsung because some of those workers are going to want to come in from that site to downtown, especially some of the late-night hours, and early morning hours, and we want to capture that money (for our businesses).”
District 2 Councilman Mitchell Drummond said the need for more transportation services was already becoming apparent in Taylor.
“At some point we will either have to widen our streets or have public transportation,” Drummond said. “We are not there yet, but that’s coming. We all see that.
I can’t even get on the Main Street anymore, so traffic is picking up, so it’s coming. We need to prepare for that.”
Marsh said these changes are doable but require more money.
“We know what it costs to put an hour of service on the street, and it’s really simple, but weekend service would add 20 percent to our costs,” Marsh said. “But weekend service is something we certainly can do if you think it’s necessary.”
Marsh also said that it might be a good idea to ask Samsung to help shoulder some of the cost. “It would be nice if Samsung creates a transportation need, that they kind of step up and help us meet it,” Marsh said.
But regardless, Marsh said CARTS was committed to serving Taylor and meeting the city’s needs.
“A lot is coming,” Marsh said. “It’s almost like a blue norther you see out in the distance.
The skies are all blue.
You know you had better do something. It’s kind of what it’s like in a lot of places.”
“ A lot is coming. It’s almost like a blue norther you see out in the distance. The skies are all blue. You know you had better do something.”
- David Marsh, general manager of CARTS.
