City of
Public Transit Advisory Committee
December 13, 2007 minutes
|
MEMBERS
PRESENT: |
Chair Marian Hukle, Mark Hurt, Marc Epard, Richard Heckler, Ian
Cahir, |
|
MEMBERS
ABSENT: |
Ann
Foster, David Dunfield |
|
STAFF
PRESENT: |
|
|
PUBLIC
PRESENT: |
Matthew Del Vecchio,
Marion Babb, Joshua Montgomery, Saunny Scott |
1. Call to Order
Committee Chair Marian Hukle called the meeting to order at
4:10 p.m.
2. Public Comment
Marion Babb presented a request from
3. Agenda Review
No changes were made to the agenda.
4. Public Transit Administrator Update
a. Introduction of
new PTAC member
Ian Cahir was introduced to the committee and round table
introductions were made.
b. Ridership and
Other Performance Statistics
PTA said that although fixed-route ridership is still
dropping, it has not dropped as much as projected with the fare increase and
policy changes. Since we had never
raised fares before, it was difficult to forecast how it would affect ridership,
and PTA said he initially forecasted a 20% drop. He finds it interesting that T Lift ridership
has increased despite the fare increase. After the fist of the year, PTA said it
is likely we will have to add service hours to meet the demand for paratransit
services. Marian asked if current
clients were riding more often, or if the number of new clients has increased. Mike
Sweeten said the majority are brand new riders. PTA said this will always be an
issue as more people retire and move to
c. Holiday
Emily shared that next Thursday we will hold a holiday food
drive on the buses. Passengers can
donate a non-perishable food item in exchange for a one-way trip on both the T
and T Lift. Driver Tony Duran came up with the idea to help support a local
food pantry during the holidays. If anyone has a place to post a flyer to
advertise the event, Emily has plenty made up for distribution.
d. January Fare Increase
PTA reminded everyone that the second phase of our fare
increase goes into effect January 1, 2008.
We put flyers on all the buses and on our website to remind the public
about the increase. Staff has also been
reminding people when they come in to purchase bus passes.
e.
PTA said he forwarded a copy of the proposal to all PTAC
members. Josh Montgomery from Lawrence FreeNet (LFN) is in attendance. LFN submitted a proposal to the City
regarding the implementation of technology to help make the public transit
system more user-friendly. Specifically,
some of the services proposed are trip planning, vehicle location, and Wi-Fi Internet
access on vehicles, in exchange for exclusive advertising on buses, bus stops,
and shelters. Any revenue realized would
go to LFN to offset the costs of their initial capital outlay. Once the company has been fully reimbursed,
any profits thereafter would be split between LFN and the City. Josh said LFN would assume all the financial
and technological risks, with the goal being to increase “choice” ridership,
and to improve the user’s experience on the bus. Josh said he expects LFN’s
initial capital investment will cost between $500,000 and $1,000,000. Josh asked for committee approval to assign
one of his staff members to start putting all the route data together and
submit it to Google Transit on our behalf.
PTA said the City already has a GIS staff person who is compiling the
data, and will submit the information to Google. PTA explained to the committee that Google
Transit is a free trip planning service offered by Google. Transit agencies interested in participating are
responsible for doing all the legwork and data collection themselves, and then
submit it to Google for publishing. PTA
said he feels it is a great service, and will help those who are intimidated by
reading route maps/schedules. The LFN proposal
went before the City Commission (CC) a couple of weeks ago, and it was sent
back to staff for further review. A
couple of challenges already identified are 1) the City currently has an
ordinance that prohibits off-site advertising, and 2) assurances that the
technology would be maintained at a satisfactory level. Staff will investigate if there are any ITS
grants available through KDOT that could be used towards this project.
5. Community-Wide
Survey Status
Surveys have been mailed to all Utility Billing customers
through their water bills. PTA said
we’ve received over 1,100 responses so far and preliminary calculations show
that the majority of respondents view the City’s public transportation services
favorably, at a 3 to 1 ratio. Of those
respondents who indicated they view our system unfavorably, there appear to be
two different groups: one is a group that supports the idea of public
transportation in general, but feels our City service doesn’t currently meet
their needs, and a group that philosophically opposes public transit
altogether. We expect to have the survey
results at the February PTAC meeting.
6. On-Board Passenger
Survey Results
PTA thanked everyone who helped with the on-board surveys. He passed around a report summarizing the
results and said he feels the data will be very helpful as we go into the new
operating contract. Coincidentally, the
American Public Transit Association (APTA) issued a report in May of this year
which profiled passenger demographics and travel characteristics of 150 public
transportation agencies they surveyed throughout the country. PTA was not only able to compare this year’s
survey results to our results from last year, but was able to compare them
nationally as well. PTA said one of the
first things he noticed was only 4% of riders surveyed were
over the age of 65. He believes older
citizens are most likely using paratransit services, rather than the
fixed-route. He feels we should be doing
a better job of meeting the needs of older citizens through our fixed-route
service. Other interesting demographics
pointed out by the PTA are: 61% of riders are adults and pay the full fare, 55%
describe themselves as White/Caucasian, 53% of riders were male, and 46% make
$15,000 or less annually. Although 39%
of passengers surveyed said their primary reason for using public transit was
convenience, 78% indicated they did not have a vehicle available for the trip. In the areas of customer satisfaction,
overall T riders indicate a satisfaction rating of 4.19, on a scale from 1 to
5, with 5 being Excellent, and 1 being Very Poor. Finally, when riders were asked to provide
one improvement they would like to see regarding T service, 27% responded they
would like us to run later in the evening, 22% asked for Sunday service, and
14% wanted increased frequency of service.
7. KU Coordination Status/Joint RFP for
Contracted Transportation Services
PTA said a good draft of the RFP has been developed. Some sections have already been forwarded to
FTA for review, with just a few left for fine tuning by the City and KU. PTA said he expects the RFP will go before
the CC next week for their approval, and will hopefully be released early
January. PTA said he will prepare a
summary outlining the changes between our previous contract and the new one, so
everyone has a better picture of the differences. PTA said we are likely to see a significant
cost increase in fuel in the new contract, since there is no fuel escalation
clause in the current contract. He also
feels the inadequacy of our current shared facility, and the age of our fleet
will be factors that increase the costs in the new contract. PTA feels any cost efficiencies realized by
consolidating staff will surely be negated by these factors.
8. Discussion of
Effectiveness of Newly Implemented T Lift Service Policies and Certification
Process
PTA said a couple of issues have come up since the new
policies went into effect. We have
received numerous complaints about dropping to a 3-day reservation window, from
a 14-day window. This was done to help
control our high cancellation rate which was resulting in false denials of
service. Mike Sweeten said shortening
the reservation window has helped to reduce the number of cancellations by 20%. Committee discussed increasing the window by
a couple of days.
Richard Heckler moved to extend the reservation window to 5
days as soon as practical. Marc Epard
seconded. Motion passed.
PTA said the second issue is that he has received complaints
from doctor’s offices about the length of Part B of the T Lift
application. They feel it is too long
and takes too much of their time to complete.
PTA said he and Mike Sweeten would look at streamlining the forms.
9. Sub-Committee Updates
No updates presented as no sub-committee meetings have been
held since the last update.
10. Public Comment
None provided.
11. Tentative Next
Meeting Date: Tuesday, February 12, 2008
12. Adjournment
Meeting was adjourned at 5:25 p.m.
Submitted by Wendy Koerner Approved at 2/12/08 PTAC meeting