County to hike fares as taxi ridership increases

Fares to ride the Ozaukee County Shared Ride Taxi will go up starting next year under a plan approved by county supervisors last month, even as the service approaches 100,000 riders in a year for the first time since before the pandemic.

Members of the Public Works Committee approved the two-step plan that would increase the amount users pay to cover more than 21% of the cost of providing the service by 2028.

Riders’ fares currently cover about 13% of the cost, with the rest of the funding coming from the state and federal governments and, if necessary, county property taxes.

The plan is based on the recommendation of the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC) and would be done in two steps to keep pace with inflation.

The increase could have been done in a single year but the two-step plan was recommended by county Transit Supt. Kara Ottum so it would be less of a shock to riders. 

Under the plan, an adult fare would increase $1.50 to $5 next year, and $2 in 2028 to $7. 

“I know how much this service means to people,” Ottum told supervisors. “Many people in their minds consider it a doubling of the fare, so we chose to do it in steps every other year.”

Raising fares would put Ozaukee County on par with nearby counties, Ottum said

Washington County’s base fare, for instance, is $10 while Hartford’s is $4.25 and West Bend’s is $5.50.

“I know a lot of these people don’t have a lot of money but sooner or later the fares have to go up,” Supr. Tom Grabow said.

A wealth of federal funds received by the county following the pandemic and the canceling of the commuter bus service last year helped delay the increase, she said.

Those funds had to be spent by the end of this past July. To help do that, about $1 million in federal money was used last year to purchase a dozen vehicles to replace older models.

Not increasing fares would increase the likelihood that county property tax levy would eventually have to be used to support the taxi service, officials say.

Property taxes are currently not needed thanks to the large amount of federal funding made available in recent years.

Use of the taxi service continues to increase.

Ridership in October totaled 9,304, the highest it’s been since October 2019 before the pandemic.

Ridership for the year through October stands at 83,102, putting the taxi service in position to surpass 100,000 riders for the year for the first time since 2019.

That’s enough to make the shared ride taxi service the largest in the state, despite Ozaukee being the state’s smallest county, Ottum told supervisors, citing the state Department of Transportation’s review of the program.

“It was a surprise to me, but probably should not have been,” she said. “While Washington County is larger in area, Ozaukee County provides more rides. This may be due to the difference in cost to the rider or the fact that West Bend and Hartford have their own (shared ride taxi) service. It dilutes the ridership of Washington County.

“Most other shared ride taxi services are community based rather than county based, like Rhinelander, Hartford, West Bend, Beaver Dam or Berlin,” she said.

Ozaukee County increased fares by 25 cents per ride in 2020 and then revised its fare structure in 2023 from a zone-based structure to mileage-based.

Fares currently range from $3.50 to $8, with students, seniors and people with disabilities paying discounted rates.

So-called “agency” fares, which are paid by the federal government to nonprofit agencies that serve the elderly and people with disabilities, would rise from $15 per ride to $18 in 2026 and $20 in 2028 under the approved plan.