Public Hearing To Be Held on Rideshare Fare Changes

A public hearing will be held Tuesday morning at 10 concerning proposed Rideshare fare changes, which would result in an average rate increase of $6 a month per rider.

Currently, each of Rideshare’s 61 routes are priced based on round-trip mileage. The new pricing will divide destinations into five zones for Douglas County’s public vanpool system.

“We are not looking for a profit. Our goal is just to cover our expenses,” Rideshare Division Manager Jim Watson said at Monday’s work session. 

Expenses for Rideshare include salaries, fuel, maintenance, repairs and insurance. More than 600 people leave from several origin sites in and just outside the county to their workplaces.

“Although Rideshare has seen an increase in ridership, the increase in fuel has outgained any ridership increases,” according to documents provided by the county. 

Fuel prices have increased 30 percent since the beginning of the year and 40 percent since 2010, the documents say. If fares stay the way they are, the county would fall short of Rideshare’s $475,000 budget by $20,000, projections show. With the increases, the county would exceed the budget by $5,000.

Noting that Rideshare is subsidized at the federal level, Comission Chairman Tom Worthan said: “We don’t need to subsidize anymore locally through local taxpayers.”

The proposed zone structure is as follows: 

• Zone A (within roughly 20 miles of the origin point)—$82 a month
• Zone B (20-25 miles)—$86
• Zone C (25-30 miles)—$90
• Zone D (30-35 miles)—$94
• Zone E (35-40 miles)—$98

Additional mileage fees will be added to vans traveling outside Zone E, to farther destinations like Forsyth County.

Though the average rate change is an increase of $6, some riders will see small decreases in their monthly fees while others who are traveling to father destinations could see hikes around $20. Four riders who travel to the farther destinations have given input against the changes, Watson said.

But, he added, the monthly rates will still be more affordable than those of GRTA Xpress ($100 a month) and private vanpools ($100 to $250 a month).

Commissioner Ann Jones Guider asked about the salaries of drivers. Watson noted that the drivers are volunteers and don't have to pay the fees as compensation.

“Basically the way it happens is when we have a group of people that come to us that want to start a vanpool in a certain area, usually one of those people we qualify as a driver,” he said.

While Rideshare does cut costs for riders in fuel, maintenance, insurance and parking, it also brings cars off the road, Watson noted. 

“If you went to the extreme and said each one of those people drove to work on their own, that’d be 600 vehicles” on the road, he said.

If the commissioners approve the rate changes on Tuesday following the public hearing at the Douglas County Courthouse at 8700 Hospital Drive in Douglasville, it’ll be the first Rideshare fare increases since 2008. They would then go into effect on Sept. 1.

Also on Tuesday, the Board of Commissioners are set to:

• Adopt a resolution keeping the county government’s millage rate at 9.9 mills. Although the tax digest dropped between 3 and 4 percent, the county expects to see an increase of 2 to 3 percent following appeals, Finance Director Jennifer Hallman said.
• Vote on transferring the county’s Speed Detection Device Permit from the Board of Commissioners to the sheriff’s office. Chief Deputy Stan Copeland said recent court decisions have showed that speeding tickets handed out by deputies within city limits can we waved since jurisdiction was with city governments, not county governments. But deputies have jurisdiction in the whole county and inside the city limits of Douglasville, Austell and Villa Rica, which is why the permit needs to be transferred to their jurisdiction.
• Vote on awarding bids for paving, pavement markings, gravel materials and concrete materials.
• Vote on the reappointment of Kim Ransom as the Region III EMS Council member representing the county.

And on Monday, commissioners the proposed annexation of land at Blair’s Bridge Road and Thornthon Road into the city of Douglasville that would lead to a RaceTrac fueling station. The discussion came after the county received Douglasville’s intent to consider the annexation last week.

Also, Douglas County citizen James Bell gave a public comment concerning the actions of the county’s Board of Assessors. He said the county valued less than an acre of land in Lithia Springs at $34,000, with the Board of Equalization setting the value at $15,000.

The case went to court, he said, adding the tax on the property was “basically $300” with two-thirds going to Douglas County schools and a third going to the county government.

The Board of Assessors “tied up the judge for eight hours to hear a case that should’ve been heard in 30 minutes … over $100 worth of taxes on less than an acre of land,” Bell said.

The property owner did get a reduction in value, Bell said, and when the value was appealed three months later, the Board of Equalization again set the property at $15,000. The appraiser came to court for the appeal without paperwork or a defense to justify a higher value, which “wasted taxpayers' money, wasted the Board of Equalization’s time basically over $50 in tax money,” he said.

“One issue that was brought up was Bryce Williams, the chairman of the Board of Assessors, has a property down the street from him,” Bell said. “He has 2.5 acres; his property was valued at $27,000, while (the other property of) less than one acre was valued at $34,000."

He added: “There’s something wrong with the Board of Assessors. They’re picking up pennies off the floor while there’s money laying on the table. I think they could spend their time better not arguing over $100 or $50 in taxes.”