Minutes

Public Transit Advisory Committee Meeting: October 17, 2006

4:10 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Public Transit Division Office
933 New Hampshire Street

Members present: Chair Marian Hukle, Alan Black, Marc Epard, Jessica Mortinger, Ann Foster, Richard Heckler

Members absent: Darlene Mortell, Danny Kaiser, Martin Miller

Staff present: Public Transit Administrator (PTA) Cliff Galante, Mike Sweeten, Emily Lubliner and Wendy Koerner

Public present: Saunny Scott, Marion Babb, Hazel Boggs, Norm Scraper, Dinah Lovitch, James Dunn

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Call to Order

Board Chair Marian Hukle called the meeting to order at 4:10 p.m.

Public Comment

Saunny Scott asked if a large, laminated route map could be provided to the community shelter.

Dinah Lovitch indicated she felt waiting times between buses were too long, and ridership may increase if people didn't have to plan their day around the bus schedule. She also suggested that to encourage people to ride downtown, that we may institute a courier service for patron's packages so they would not have to be concerned with transporting their purchases on the bus. At the end of the day, a courier could deliver the purchases to the patron's home for a small fee. She suggested we work with DLI or the Chamber of Commerce in this endeavor. In addition, she felt that we should encourage library patrons to use the bus, since parking in the area appears to be an issue.

Agenda Review

No changes were made to the agenda.

Approval of August PTAC Board Minutes

Jessica Mortinger moved to approve board minutes from August 15 meeting; Marc Epard seconded. Minutes were approved as submitted.

Public Transit Administrator Update

a. Ridership and Other Performance Statistics

PTA said a program for junior high school students, called Wednesdays at Liberty Hall, began in August. LTS is a partner in this program, encouraging and educating students to use the bus for transportation to the events. Ridership for August was healthy with a fixed-route increase of 13% over August, 2005. On-time performance was still good despite summer reroutes. September fixed-route ridership showed a slight decrease compared to September, 2005. However, he pointed out that in September of last year, ridership jumped dramatically after gasoline prices escalated following hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The fact that gasoline prices are finally starting to come down to the $2 mark may also be resulting in decreased ridership. However, ridership for the year is still up approximately 12.5% while APTA reports the national average increase is only 3.2%.

b. Ridesharing "Carpool Connection" Program

PTA shared that currently we have over 1000 people registered on the site and 221 are from Lawrence. MARC said that Lawrence has the highest percentage of people that have registered on the site and Kansas City, MO, is the number one destination. Staff will further investigate the commuting patterns of the Lawrence registrants. Alan Black asked if we knew how many matches had been made to date and PTA said we won't know this information until registrants are surveyed.

c. KU Park and Ride Service

PTA said the KU Park & Ride service, which began at the beginning of the school year, provided 21,300 rides in August, and 37,785 in September. Jessica mentioned that some times of the day are definitely busier than others, and that staff is working to identify peak ridership periods and patterns so they can provide adequate coverage during these high periods of demand.

Marketing Update

a. Communities in Motion

Emily provided an overview of Communities in Motion Day which is a national promotion held on October 5th. Dave Corliss assisted transit staff in handing out prize packs to transit passengers in appreciation of their continued support for the system. This year's prize packs included a t-shirt, coffee mugs advertising "Carpool Connection", in an attractive, useful tote bag sporting the "T" logo.

b. Public Outreach Activities

Outreach activities during the last couple of months included informational fairs at both KU and HINU, participation in the library's story time during their celebration of "Transit Week", the Home Energy Fair, Feria Hispana, and a presentation at Wednesdays at Liberty Hall's first event. For the Wednesdays at Liberty Hall event, Emily developed a fun transit-related game for the kids to play. Staff also gave a presentation to Gould-Evans Associates prior to their company's "Alternative Transportation Day" which challenged employees to find an alternate way to work rather than using their cars. This event turned out to be very successful and one person in particular has started using the "T" on a regular basis.

A travel training workshop was held in September, but it was not well attended. Another workshop is scheduled for November 4th, and if no one attends, we will re-evaluate the need for the workshops. Emily said she has flyers available after this meeting if anyone would like one to post at their office or pass on to interested parties. We have also had dialogue with HINU about us giving travel training presentations to dorm residents, since they are required to attend training courses each month.

c. Alternate Print Formats for Service Information

Emily announced that our surveys, route maps and schedules, and T Lift information have been translated into Spanish. Hard copies of the documents are available through our office and are also posted on our website. The city is currently looking into a program that will translate documents on demand. In addition to the Spanish documents, the Guide to Ride and T Lift information have been Brailled for our visually impaired passengers.

d. Commuter Survey

In October we will be sending out a survey in the water bills to collect information on commuting practices of Lawrence citizens.

City/KU Transit Service Coordination Feasibility Update

PTA said Dan Boyle will be in town next week to hold two public meetings, one scheduled for Monday at the Lawrence Indoor Aquatic Center, and one on Tuesday at the Kansas Union. Then Dan will also give a presentation to the City Commission Tuesday night with proposed routes, schedules, costs, and the results of the passenger surveys. The surveys indicate that the majority of passengers are satisfied with our current service. In addition, 48% of passengers surveyed use the "T" to go to work, and 18% use it for transportation to school. Many of the comments and suggestions received include Sunday service, increased frequency, and service later in the evening, all of which will require additional resources. The consultant will be back in town November 14th & 15th with his final report to the City Commission and KU. Based on direction received from the city commission and the provost, the study management team will then proceed with determining the best course for implementation of the recommendations.

Proposed Bus Stop Locations

PTA said staff has compiled a complete list of existing and proposed bus stops. This information was made available on our website, the city's planning department, the transit office, and the Lawrence Public Library for a two week period, to allow for the public to comment on it. At this time we've received feedback from 15 people, and the responses have been mixed. For the most part, people understand what we are trying to accomplish by moving towards a designated-stop system, in terms of on-time performance and efficiency. However, a couple of people with disabilities expressed concern about having to walk farther to catch the bus at a bus stop. PTAC discussed the idea of issuing a placard to disabled individuals that they could use to hail a bus at locations that are not designated bus stops. The PTA will pass on the few specific suggestions for stops to both the sub-committee and the consultant.

Marian said that at this time, the committee will need to vote on whether they recommend moving towards a designated-stop system and the elimination of the wave-down system, which will then be forwarded to the City Commission.

PTA said that switching to designated stops would not be immediate. All new bus stop signs would have to be installed, and the public would have to have sufficient notice of the changes, before the transition. It is also unclear as to whether the city's traffic division would install the signs for us or whether we will need to contract out the work.

Alan Black moved to eliminate the wave-down system and proceed with moving towards a designated-stop system. Ann Foster seconded. During public comment, James Dunn asked when the designated stops would be finalized. Marian said the sub-committee would meet in November to review the information received during the comment period, and would determine if any changes to the current list is needed. Mr. Dunn also asked if we considered the demographics of the locations for the proposed stops, and PTA said that we had. Mr. Dunn also suggested that we contact those folks who submitted suggestions, with the sub-committees determinations.

Saunny Scott asked what percentage of the new stops would have covered shelters. PTA explained that it will take some time to determine which new stops may warrant a bus shelter. The motion passed unanimously.

Schedule November Standards Sub-Committee Meeting

This will be done after the meeting.

Public Comment

James Dunn pointed out that proposed bus stop number 27, on Route 6 Clockwise does not have a sidewalk and he feels both a sidewalk and shelter are needed. Alan Black said the Pedestrian Safety Committee has identified this location as their highest priority in the city. Mr. Dunn also said that every year KDOT puts out a road map and visitor's guide, and neither includes any rail or bus stops. He also said that Lawrence is one of two cities in the entire state that has both rail and bus service (Greyhound Bus Lines). He feels that Lawrence should notify KDOT and try to get this information included in their publications, as well as listing the cities that have intra-city bus systems.

Saunny Scott said city policy requires brick sidewalks must only be replaced with brick, and she thinks we should be able to over-ride that requirement along bus routes, and replace sidewalks with concrete. Bricks are more expensive and harder to walk on.

She also said she feels the T-Lift half-hour pick up window is too large and it is an awfully long time for people to be ready and waiting. When she asked people why they don't take the T Lift, they say it's too hard to schedule and they don't know when the bus is really coming. It seems it could be reduced to 10 minutes, which would make a lot of difference to her and a lot of people. Saunny also said that there are several local sign companies, and we should look into using them to install the bus stop signs. She also thought Independence Inc. should have a copy of our Braille route schedule. She also said we need to make sure we notify the public in advance of the transition to designated-stops.

James Dunn added that there is nothing welcoming at the Amtrak train depot, maybe we could at least take maps there for people to pick up.

Tentative Next Meeting Date

December 19, 2006

Adjournment

Meeting was adjourned at 5:35 p.m.

— Submitted by Wendy Koerner
Approved at the November 21, 2006 meeting