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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-04-18 Residential Neighborhoods w a' N\P8 CE ` x % 1865 OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK KAREEMAH N. FOWLER, CITY CLERK RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBORHOODS APRIL 4, 2018 5:00 P.M. Committee Members Present: Karen White, John Voorde, Andrew Duncan (citizen member) (late) Committee Members Absent: Jo M. Broden, Regina Williams-Preston Other Council Present: Tim Scott, Oliver Davis Other Council Absent: Gavin Ferlic, Dr. David Varner, Sharon L. McBride Others Present: Kareemah Fowler, Graham Sparks, Bob Palmer Presenters: Amy Hill, Randy Squadroni Agenda: TRANSPO Discussion Committee Chair Karen White called to order the Residential Neighborhoods Committee meeting at 5:00 p.m. She invited all in attendance to introduce themselves. She stated, At the March 7h, 2018 Organizational meeting for Residential Neighborhoods, we went through and reviewed our previous year. We then opened the floor to members of the Committee and Council. There were some areas of interest with regard to TRANPO's bus routes,fares,ridership and bus stop locations. We want to work collaboratively as we know the City relies on public transportation for our residents. It was felt to be very beneficial to have this conversation. Our particular relationship with TRANSPO is fostered through the budget process as they come before Council to present their budget as well as their future goals and objectives. The purpose of this meeting is to really have a discussion about the routes,the bus stops and also any future goals and plans. TRANSPO Discussion Amy Hill, Interim General Manager and CEO of TRANSPO with offices located at 1401 S Lafayette Boulevard, stated,As far as the routes and bus stops,I'm sure most of you are aware we made the switch to designated bus stops last ye . We are just approaching our first full year with the designated bus stops. That was a very long process and took TRANSPO about five (5) years to get that done. From a ridership perspective, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. It has been great for our riders to know where they can wait for the bus. Before, we could get a lot of passenger complaint that highlighted the miscommunications. We continue to take feedback and have had several rounds of adjustments. We still have a sign on Portage that will be moved, too. It has really been a learning curve. What we've learned from other organizations that have gone through the switch from flag stops to designated stops is that, after the first few years you review, a lot of times they are actually able to pull out some of those stops. We wanted to be sure INTEGRITY1 SERVICE1 ACCESSIBILITY JENNIFER M.COFFMAN BLANcn L.Tn ADo JosEm R MOLNAR CHIEF DEP=/DmEaroR OF OPERATIONS DEPuTy/DmEcroR OF PoucY ORDINANCE VIOLATION CLERK EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1 227 W.Jefferson Blvd.I South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.92211 f 574.235.9173 1 www.southbendin.gov ®CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK we were overly cautious and, if anything, we had too many bus stops in there. That is something we continue to monitor. As far as our actual routes, we have not had any major adjustments since we made some route cuts back in 2012.That was in response to our last comprehensive operational analysis which was done in 2011. It is recommended for transit agencies to go through those every five (5) years so that is one (1) of our upcoming goals. There are several things that need to take place in order to really take advantage of that. Buses are typically equipped with automatic passenger counters so we know when and where passengers are getting on and off the vehicles. Our entire fleet does not have those. One (1) of our goals is to make sure all of our buses do have the passenger counter. That means we have about fifteen (15) to twenty (20) vehicles that would need to have those added. We would want to make sure all the vehicles have what we call the APCs prior to doing another comprehensive operational analysis. We want to make sure if we are going to invest in that, we are going to get the full scope of data. Going through that process will really help us identify and optimize routes. Ms. Hill continued,Just this past week we adjusted the timing to our route number seven(7)which goes from downtown, to Notre Dame, to the Mall. We found it improved our performance and reduced passenger concerns for their connection times. We are always looking at route efficiency. We do track feedback for areas not currently served by a route. Declining ridership is, unfortunately, a trend across the country right now. We are particularly challenged by it. We typically say our ridership is about eighty to eighty-five percent (80%-85%) transit-dependent. That means the passengers we are serving rely on us as the only mode of transportation. As soon as you see the economy improve,people get better jobs,they are able to purchase personal vehicles and we tend to see that ridership fall down a little bit. We are also seeing our ridership decline with St. Mary's and Notre Dame. I think a lot of that can be contributed to Uber and Lyft. Our regular passengers are not able to afford that Uber ride, whereas a student may be able to afford that on a more regular basis. We did just launch a pilot program with Holy Cross College. They had not been on the sweep route since 2009 or 2010. We were able to make a minor adjustment without changing the timing of the route in order to serve Holy Cross. Committee Chair White stated, I know during our organizational meeting, someone had indicated that the route you have that goes through the west side was eliminated. That impacted a number of individuals in terms of where they have to go. There were also some concerns about the placement of stops and I don't know if you plan to go back. Ms. Hill replied, That was our route one (1), the Bendix Route, which was eliminated mainly because it was inefficient and had low ridership. They were able to make adjustments with other routes,mainly the Western Ave Route, so a lot of that area that was served by route one (1) is still served by other routes. When they made that change,the ridership actually went up a little too. We can always still look at that and maybe we can add more stops. Any time we can get feedback is good because we can look at that immediately. We take time to talk with our operators because they are the ones directly speaking with our riders. Genevieve Crum, 916 S. 31St Street, asked, What are the main ways you receive feedback? Is it typically through surveys, in person conversations or drivers themselves? Ms. Hill replied, Our operators are always our best source of feedback. We have not done a comprehensive ridership survey. It has probably been six (6) or seven (7) years since one (1) has been done. It is our plan to conduct one (1) soon. We do consistently ride and talk to passengers. EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1 227 W.Jefferson Bvld I South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.9221 If 574.235.9173 TM 574.235.5567Iwww.southbendin.gov 2 CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK That is typically the best way. We also encourage passengers to submit feedback. They can do it through social media, through our website, they can call in, and that is where we get most of our feedback. We also have our information booth at South Street Station which is staffed twelve(12) hours a day. Committee Chair White then asked, Where are the discussions to address extending service hours later and as well on Sundays? Ms. Hill replied, We have talked about piloting Sunday service. We do have some grant dollars allocated towards it but it would not cover the full amount. That is definitely a goal for us. We know 2nd and 3rd shift can be a challenge. A lot of the times TRANSPO may be able to get you to the job but not get you home so that is something we are looking at too. It really comes down to having the funding available. We also work really closely with the City from the Innovation standpoint with a transportation working group to see if there are opportunities to pilot some micro- transit or on-demand type systems. That is all stuff we are looking at. It is really about identifying where those needs are and then seeing how to meet those needs. Suzanna Fritzberg, Deputy Chief of Staff to the Mayor of the City of South Bend with offices on the 14th floor of the County-City Building, asked, Are you aware of any communities that you think are particularly good models for the interface between traditional transit and things like Uber and Lyft? Ms. Hill replied, There are a lot of larger transit systems that are integrating with Uber and Lyft. Dallas is one (1) of them. I have not come across a comparable city size-wise that is doing that. When you are looking at Dallas,they are running twenty-four seven(24/7). It is great to hear what they are doing. Kansas City is doing a lot of unique things with piloting some of that on the para- transit side. Our para-transit service continues to be one(1)our biggest challenges. We charge two dollars ($2) per ride but the cost of that ride is thirty-seven dollars ($37). That is where some organizations are piloting working with Uber or Lyft. Kansas City is looking at that. We are very involved in the American Public Transportation Association and they are a great resource for us in sharing ideas. As far as a model city that is close to us,we haven't found that yet. Councilmember Tim Scott handed out photos (available in the City Clerk's Office). He stated, Thanks for those improvements you made by my house. The snow pictures here are of me snow blowing the bus stop myself. This stop will actually be moved south. It is actually getting moved back to where it used to be. One (1)thing about the rest of the photos is that the stops are in places that just make sense. What are we looking at for the impact of where the bus stops go? Some of them are on private property and there are some where someone with a wheel chair would have no access. There are also some stops that are right after a light and that is just unsafe. Ms. Hill replied,All the bus stops are supposed to be on public right-of-way. TRANSPO did have some consultants that started that process. There was a lot of feedback. Unfortunately it is very challenging as there are not many sidewalks. That is one(1)of the things.This was our first winter with the designated bus stops. There was additional training knowing that some bus stops were not accessible with snow. During the winter months it is a challenge. There are a lot of bus stop locations that are not ideal and we need to address and monitor that. I can speak to why these decisions were made because of my recent appointment. We did make a lot of changes prior to the implementation to make sure we are getting it right. We are going to continue learning. There are EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Bvld I South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.9221 If 574.235.9173 1 TM574.235.5567 iwww.southbendin.gov 3 ®CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK also some areas to stop on a far side of an intersection from a safety perspective. There are a lot of factors to bus stops and if people aren't telling us, it is hard to know. Kareemah Fowler, City Clerk with offices on the 4th floor of the County-City Building asked, Do you have an engineer? Ms. Hill replied,No,we do not. Clerk Fowler replied, That is probably what you need. Ms. Hill stated, That is what we contracted out. We are a very lean staff. We don't have engineers and we don't even have transit planner on staff. We work very closely with MACOG. Councilmember Scott stated, Maybe the City should look at TIF funding to help some of these issues. Committeemember Andrew Duncan arrived at the meeting at 5:25 p.m. Councilmember Scott continued, We need to be working with you to see how we can help. Ms. Hill stated, We are moving into a second phase of this. We are adding another twenty (20)to twenty-five (25) bus shelters as we have grant funding for that. We just got the proposals for the shelter designs. We will then go out for bid and we expect them to go in soon. Those locations are already predetermined as that is part of the Federal grant. We can send that list via email but it is based on ridership and income populations. For example, Western Avenue by the KROC Center. We are replacing the one (1) by Walmart on Ireland Road. We are really excited about that. The third phase will add additional amenities. We are still within this first year. We are also looking at adopt a stop programs where we can partner with local organizations in the area. Ms. Fritzberg asked, How do you interface with the City and our work on curbs and sidewalks? What does the communication line look like? Ms. Hill stated, There has not been good communication and that has improved significantly. We weren't even getting street closure from the City. We addressed a lot of those issues. There are always ways to improve that communication and it has made leaps and bounds this past year and a half. Councilmember Oliver Davis asked, Could you speak more to the transportation working group? Ms. Fritzberg replied, That is an internal group that has met three (3) or four(4)times. It consists of myself, Jitin, the Mayor and have had some traffic engineers. The purpose is to put heads together with past and current TRANSPO leadership and to see how the City can support them. Ms. Hill interjected, It is really to improve the communication. It has been really beneficial. It is very informal. Councilmember Davis followed up,Are there any creative ways to clean up around bus stops? EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.9221 If 574.235.9173 1 TTD 574.235.5567 lwww.southbendin.gov 4 ®CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK Ms. Hill restated, That is what I mentioned with the adopt a stop program. We are fortunate there are DTSB Ambassadors maintaining the shelters downtown right now. That will be another challenge is maintaining shelters. Moving forward,there are advertising relationships and that will include maintenance. Committee Chair Karen White left the meeting at 5:34 p.m. Committeemember John Voorde presided over the remainder of the meeting. Committeemember John Voorde asked, Has the propane conversation worked well? Ms. Hill replied, That is actually CNG which stands for compressed natural gas. Twenty-two (22) out of our fifty(50)fixed-route vehicles are compressed natural gas. That transition has been great and they are continuing to save just over one dollar($1)per gallon which is huge when you figure what we go through.Unfortunately,we still have thirty(30)vehicles that need to be replaced which means they are past their useful life. The useful life of a bus is twelve (12) years or 500,000. We are operating buses that are fifteen(15)years old. We have excellent mechanics but it ups the cost. We rely heavily on federal grant funding. The conversion has been very smooth. Ms. Crum asked, Where does your number of ridership dependence come from? Ms. Hill replied,It comes from past surveys and talking to our passengers.And that is dependence in general that includes work and school. Clerk Fowler asked, When will you be doing the next report? Ms. Hill replied, It will probably be 2019 at the earliest. We want to get the passenger counters and better data. Committeemember Voorde asked, Who do you represent, Randy? Randy Squadroni, Chair of the TRANSPO Board with offices located at 1401 S Lafayette Boulevard,replied, Mishawaka Council. Alkeyna Aldridge,Director of Engagement and Empowerment with offices on the 14th floor of the County-City Building passed out handouts (available in the City Clerk's Office). She stated, This is what we have done since our creation last November. There is a lot and one (1) of which is a transportation project. I'm happy you spoke to Innovation with the transportation working group because we won the Mayor's Bloomberg Challenge to do a pilot related to on-demand transportation. She then passed out a press release (available in the City Clerk's Office) that explained what they are doing with that. She continued, We represent at least half of the people working on this project. Genevieve is the project manager of this project. Ms. Crum stated, We are looking forward to working with the community and bridging the gaps of transportation. We want to bring this to the forefront and we will be the key contacts moving forward. Sue Kesim, 4022 Kennedy Drive, stated, From Michiana Disability and Advocacy, I come here because of the transportation, they can't get here. They have issues with the para-transit that they EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1 227 W.Jefferson Bvld I South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.9221 If 574.235.9173 1 TTD 574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 5 ®CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK wanted to make you aware of. One (1) lady got dropped off at the mall and she is like partially paralyzed and they just dropped her off and things like that. There are issues they want you guys to review. You should change your para-transit buses to propane. I know you lose money on para- transit. Ms.Hill replied,We are always looking into alternative fuels. One(1) of the challenges with para- transit is the difference between curb to curb and door to door. We are curb to curb so, unfortunately, dropping someone off at the curb is all we do. We do not take people to the door. Ms.Kesim interjected, One(1) of the big complaints was it wasn't reliable enough. They get there and it was too late and they miss their doctor's appointment. It is not accurate enough and it causes more problems because they already have a problem. I am saying this for them and I am just trying to represent them. The buses don't even go to the TRANSPO office building for them to go to the board meetings. My suggestion to them as a group was maybe there could be a church bus to pick them all up and bring them to a meeting with you. Maybe you could have a google hangout or something? Ms. Hill replied, There are a lot of challenges with para-transit. We do about three hundred and fifty (350) to three hundred and eighty (380) rides a day for para-transit. There is always a thirty (3 0)minute window. Sometimes it runs late but it just depends. Ms. Kesim stated, There needs to be place, a whole screen, on your website, for people in para- transit to leave feedback. Committeemember Andrew Duncan asked, Does TRANSPO provide bar crawl services? Ms. Hill replied, Most of our service during the week ends around 10:00 p.m. We do have our Seven-A (7A) midnight express which runs on Friday and Saturday night which runs during the academic year.Notre Dame and St. Mary's pays for that service. That runs between the campuses and Downtown South Bend. That is the only late-night service we have that this time. If there was demand and funding available, that is certainly something to look at. The trends now are cutting back on that service because of the Uber and Lyft. With no further business, Committeemember John Voorde adjourned the Residential Neighborhoods Committee meeting at 5:56 p.m. Respe fully Sub tted, John Voorde, Committeemember EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1 227 W.Jefferson Bvld I South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.9221 If 574.235.9173 ITTD 574.235.5567 I www.southbendin.gov 6