City of Lawrence

Public Transit Advisory Committee – Special Meeting

February 9, 2010 minutes

 

MEMBERS PRESENT:

Jim Canaday, Lyle Hettinger, Derek Meier, Alan Black, Marian Hukle, Mark Hurt

MEMBERS ABSENT:

Howard Hill

STAFF PRESENT:

Robert Nugent, Wendy Koerner, Mike Sweeten

PUBLIC PRESENT:

Todd Girdler, James Dunn, Patrick Hangauer, Saunny Scott, Jeremy Nesbitt, Mary Weeks, Stanley Halbert

 

1. Call to Order

Vice-chair Lyle Hettinger called the meeting to order at 4:10 p.m.

 

2. Public Comment

James Dunn said he is concerned about the number 6 route and the proposed reduction of service on 9th Street.  If service is cut on 9th Street, it will eliminate service to a lot of low and moderate income housing, which has been provided since the inception of public transit in the city. Mr. Dunn has rental property west of Emery along 9th Street and most of his tenants work in the community and are not students.  If service to 9th street is cut, people will have a hefty walk to access service on 6th Street.

 

Patrick Hangauer said he is a North Lawrence resident and is disheartened by the decision to go to on-demand service because of low ridership. He said he knows for a fact that the construction going on and the change in the route have made it extremely inconvenient to ride the bus so he doesn’t think it’s fair to base any decision on low ridership numbers collected during construction.  He said the reroute adds a good 45 minutes, at least, to a trip since you have to catch it northbound and  there is no good place to catch the bus southbound. He said that lower income and elderly persons in the community are completely reliant on the bus.

 

Committee member Mark Hurt asked PTA to give a brief explanation of the call and response system proposed since he feels it will actually be more convenient for many people in the area, depending on where they live.

 

PTA said the proposed demand response (DR) service is basically curb-to-curb service that would serve the entire North Lawrence area. The current Route 4 only serves a portion of North Lawrence, and forces people to walk to a bus stop, sometimes many blocks, to access the route.  The proposed DR would require people to call in advance to schedule a pick up. 

 

Mr. Hangauer felt the demand response would discourage people from using it by making them go through the extra step of making a reservation ahead of time and decreases flexibility for users.  He asked why North Lawrence was the only area of the City where demand response is proposed.  He also asked that his issue about low turnout because of the construction be addressed.   Committee pointed out that Route 3 also had demand response service proposed during off-peak times.  PTA added that ridership data was not collected during the construction period, and therefore not considered.  All ridership data came from prior years.

 

Mary Weeks said she lives at 901 Maine, and the current bus stop is in the grass and can be very slippery. A contractor replaced the curbs and gutters, but didn’t back fill well and took out the grass that was planted. Now it is not only an incline, but a mudslide as well.  She said she didn’t pay too much attention to the bus stop until they changed the grade.  She is concerned about passenger safety and would like to see people picked up closer to the intersection.

 

3. Approval of Minutes

October 2009 meeting minutes were approved.

 

4. Agenda Review

Jim Canaday requested the issue of bus stop accessibility in times of heavy snow be added to the agenda.

 

5. Election of Officers

Lyle Hettinger was voted in as committee chair, and Marian Hukle was voted in as vice-chair for 2010.

 

6. Public Transit Administrator Update

a. Ridership and Other Performance Statistics

PTA said he would not go over the ridership statistics since we are running short on time.  However, copies of the December and January ridership reports have been distributed and if anyone has comments, they are welcome to contact him.  Alan Black asked what contributed to the ridership increase in August and September and PTA replied that it was a direct result of the coordinated Route 11.

 

b. Joint Maintenance Facility

PTA said KU put out a request for proposals (RFP) on a maintenance/operating facility and received the RFPs back in October.  A contract has been negotiated with Advanco to build the facility off of Timberedge Road which is off of North Iowa.  The City plans to lease part of the property from the University so both systems will operate out of the same facility, pending City Commission approval. The project is expected to commence in March or April and be completed in December 2010, which is when MV’s lease at the current facility expires.  At this point, everything is on schedule.  Mark Hurt asked how the City’s leasing would work.  PTA explained that both parties are working on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).  Once approved, a lease agreement will be developed.  We already have a cost allocation plan for the current facility, which will basically be the same for the new facility. The only difference is that MV passes the cost of their current lease through to the City, but at the new facility, the City would begin paying KU directly. PTA will be at the City Commission meeting tonight to give an update on the project’s progress.

 

7. Discussion of Public Comments – Recommendations for Coordinated Transportation Services

PTA said seven public meetings were held over a two week period to collect public comments on the proposed changes. The meetings were held open-house style, and we set up tables where we could talk to people one-on-one about any issues with the recommendations.  We also accepted public comments in writing, e-mail, and comment cards provided at the meetings.  PTA showed the committee the book with all the collected comments/suggestions.  PTA summarized the comments received per route for the committee.

 

Most of the comments about Route 1 involved concern about losing service to Prairie Park, interest in adding service to the jail, and the new location for the Lawrence Community Shelter.  PTA said at this time there is no safe way to incorporate service to the jail into our existing service or routes, but we can revisit the issue if and when the Lawrence Community Shelter is relocated to the area.

 

The majority of comments were supportive in the splitting the current 5 into two separate routes.  People have been requesting a north/south connection on the west side of town for many years, and this will be accomplished with the new Route 5 West. With three routes serving the area and the multiple transfer opportunities, 6th and Wakarusa will become a mini-hub for the system.  Both 5’s will connect at the southern hub of 31st and Iowa Street. Route 5 West will most likely be renamed Route 9.

 

PTA said Route 3 is one of the areas where demand response (DR) service was suggested and only one negative comment was received about the proposed change. PTA said most people wanted to make sure service to employment areas was preserved, and curiosity about when the “peak” times would be.  PTA told them he believes they will be from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m., and 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., and people seemed comfortable with those times.  PTA said there will be many ways to operate the DR service in this area, and the committee proceeded to discuss many of the different options.  

 

For North Lawrence, PTA received a lot of negative comments about the proposed DR service, with only a couple of comments supporting the recommended change.

 

PTA said he spoke to as many people who were for the new Routes 6 and 12, as were against it.  The proposal is to split the current Route 6 into two separate routes, 6 and 12. Some people were concerned with the elimination of service on 9th Street, between Downtown and Iowa Streets.  The 6 will now drop down to 9th to preserve service to the Merc, especially since they sell our bus passes.   Route 12 is intended to link 6th and Wakarusa to the main KU campus.

 

As for Route 7, the most frequent concern was losing service to Lawrence High School. Increasing the frequency to 60 minutes received favorable comments.

 

All comments received on the proposed Route 26 changes were good.

 

Other comments received during the open houses generally pertained to the desire for increased service such as Sunday service, service later in the evening or earlier in the morning, service to the jail and homeless shelter, and service to schools. 

 

PTA said PTAC members are welcome to come in and look through the book of comments if they would like.  We are still accepting comments, and PTA and staff are working through the main issues that have been raised in the process.   PTA expects to bring the final recommendations back to the committee for approval in about a month, after which PTA will present them to the City Commission for final approval. 

 

9. Public Comment

Mary Weeks asked if a route isn’t safe, how do you let people know?  PTA replied that he understands Ms. Weeks has been working with Public Works on her bus stop issue, and that she should be hearing from them shortly.

 

James Dunn said he likes the fixed-points in the proposed DR service. 

 

10. Snow and Bus Stops

Jim Canaday said this may not happen every winter, but he understands that after the Christmas Eve blizzard, there were several weeks when many stops were completely inaccessible because of snow piles made by the snow plows. PTA said that the heavy amount of snow made it difficult for everyone, drivers, buses, and pedestrians alike. Jim said some people needed transit more during bad weather than other times of the year.  He suggested Lawrence Transit look at developing a policy to help provide the public with information on what to do during those circumstances, such as, “If the bus stop is blocked by snow, do this.”  PTA said it would be very difficult to come up with a policy that encompasses the many types of stops we have, (i.e. wave down, designated stops, bus shelters) but he will consider the request.

 

11. Tentative Next Meeting Date

Chair Hettinger called a Special Meeting for Tuesday, March 9, 2010 to discuss final staff recommendations on the proposed route changes.

 

12. Adjournment

Meeting was adjourned at 5:45 p.m.        

 

Submitted by Wendy Koerner 

 

Approved via e-mail