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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11 17 21 Minutes TRANSIT ADVISORY BOARD MEETING MINUTES November 17, 2021 Attendees: Evelyn Meuret, Chair Agnes Payne, Board Jim Collins, Transp. Director Lynnsey Erickson, Council Steve Tomasik, Ops Mng. Karl Buelow, Co-Chair Jane Boucher, Secretary Absent: Troy Monday, Philip Marshall, James Price CALL TO ORDER – Meeting Chair Meuret called the meeting to order at 4:10 p.m. Approval of Minutes – Karl Buelow made a motion to approve the minutes from the September meeting, seconded by Lynnsey Erickson. Motion Carried. Old Business – N/A New Business 1. Route 10 RFP Results – Jim Collins stated they only received one proposal for Route 10 so it was decided to continue with the current vendor (Kobussen) as they did meet the RFP requirements. The Route 10 ridership continues to be under performing so it will give time to research other options before the next RFP. 2. Paratransit RFP Results – Jim Collins stated although they anticipated more vendor interest, the only two that submitted a quote were the two existing providers (Running Inc. and Oshkosh City Cab). An evaluation team was formed to give a fair evaluation that consisted of a member of the county, peer Transit Company (Valley Transit), Lutheran Social Services and Go Transit staff. Everyone was in agreement that both vendors met the criteria and both would be sufficient to handle the contract. The big difference was cost so it was determined that Oshkosh City Cab was the best value saving almost ½ million throughout the duration of the contract. Jim feels there would have been additional interest if the 24/7 service wasn’t part of the expectation. The County is interested in additional discussion if the additional hours are being used and are needed for the future RFP so Jim will be closely monitoring the program. One additional note that Jim wanted to mention is that the office did receive TAB AGENDA ITEMS 2 Nov. 17, 2021 several complaints from ADA members that were very nervous that City Cab would be taking over the contract. The office will log any complaints after the change as it may be people nervous for change. Jim stated that expectations have been clearly communicated with City Cab and Steve plans on conducting quarterly vendor inspections. City Cab assured Go Transit that they will be ready to take over the contract as of January 1st, 2022. Karl Buelow said one concern he heard is the current vendor only has one rider but City Cab will have multiple riders in one vehicle. Jim addressed the concern by stating that it has always been a “shared” ride, therefore no guarantee that more than rider will be transported. Steve stated it may be the size of the van that determined if they could handle multiple wheelchair passengers. Karl understood and said he was just curious what the actual contract requirements were. Jim stated another misconception is the 30 minute window and that prescheduled rides always take precedence over same day requests. Most other Transit peers only handle prescheduled rides at least a day in advance or on a subscription type set-up if the person has specific appointments the same time every week (ex: dialysis). Also, Jim wanted to mention that Steve looks into all complaints and they are formally logged into the database. Agnes asked if City Cab will be hiring drivers from Running; Steve said he wasn’t sure but City Cab is looking for about 8 additional drivers to handle the increased volume. Jim stated in discussion with City Cab, they started to recruit and plan on offering increased pay. 3. Agency Fares – Jim said with the increased fare in the new contract, another concern is the current price of agency tickets. The current price is very low and there are no regulations as to what to charge. To avoid putting an extra burden on the City, he feels the ticket price should be raised to $17 for yellow and green tickets. In comparison, a private ride would be about $25 per trip. He researched other Transit programs and this will still be lower than what they are charging per ticket. The agencies that request these tickets for their members are federally funded so there shouldn’t be a direct effect on the end user. Evelyn asked if he is requesting a vote from the board or if this is just informational. Jim said he would appreciate a vote so he has the Board’s support when the Annual Fees & Charges are updated to reflect the change. Karl Buelow made a motion to increase the Agency Ticket price to $17 as discussed, seconded by Evelyn Meuret. Motion passed. TAB AGENDA ITEMS 3 Nov. 17, 2021 Staff Statements 4. Ridership Updates – Steve Tomasik said student ridership was at 12,314 for October, and has given 63,794 year to date. These rides have not gone without incident as there have been an increasing number of behavior issue and fights with these student riders. Go Transit is working with the Oshkosh PD and School District in an effort to reduce incidents as it is very distracting for the driver and other paying passengers. Another concern is bus capacity during the school routes. Jim & Steve are researching the possibility of adding a jumper trip bus at North to avoid students waiting an additional 30 minutes for the next trip. Unfortunately not just students are inconvenienced, if the bus is at full capacity leaving North High, any riders at the stops on the way to the Transit Center are also being missed. Jim received a citizen complaint when the bus had 40-50 people during the school run. Evelyn asked what the policy is with Covid; Jim said seated to full capacity and standing in isle if needed. Jim said there are two options for North (Route 2 and Route 4), however many try to utilize Route 2 because it is faster. The same is true with West, both Route 3 and Route 6 are available, but Route 6 is faster. Agnes rides the bus often and has witnessed first-hand some of the issues mentioned. She is concerned about the distraction for the bus driver as well. She said one passenger was so aggravated that she refused to continue on route and immediately got off when the students were causing issues. Agnes asked if the student can be kicked off the bus. Steve said it is difficult suspending a student from public transit because their identity is protected due to being a minor. The City Attorney is working on a possible policy to assist. He said is working on other things that cause safety issues as it is important to keep the drivers looking in front of them, not behind. The office receives daily masks complaints and people searching for lost-n-found items daily. Karl said he heard of a program that volunteer fathers signed up for shifts to ride the bus; however Steve doesn’t think that seems like an issue as the driver supervisor has been on the bus several times and there seems to be no fear of an adult. Jim said OPD has increased their presences at the Transit Center for the past week so that may be helping. Jim Collins also wanted to mention that UW-Oshkosh ridership has changed drastically. Only current students are allowed a monthly punch card through the UWO Parking Office compared to prior years when Staff & Alumni were also given transportation options. Jim also gave a procurement update stating that the new Fuel Tank should be done soon. The final step is the monitor which should be installed within a few days. He said Cardinal Constructions from Fond du Lac was awarded the downtown Transit remodel project which is expected to be complete by November 1, 2022. Agnes asked if Greyhound TAB AGENDA ITEMS 4 Nov. 17, 2021 and Lamers will be going back to the EAA stop after the remodeling is complete. Jim stated there hasn’t been an issue if their bus stops and picks up in the road, but often people drop someone off and the cars are in the way of the Buses if they pull into the lot. Future Agenda Requests Chairperson Meuret asked if there were any additional questions or topic requests for future Board meetings. Karl said now that he accepted a new role in charge of the local Food Pantry, he did observe a situation he wanted to ask about. He said they decreased the number of pick-up times, therefore a lot of members want to take as much food as possible when they visit. He said it causes an issue on Transit as the drivers often tell a member they can only take on as much as they can carry in one trip. Steve said the reason to be strict with that policy is for safety. He stated recently they had a woman that wanted to board with too many bags so a fellow passenger offered to help her. The problem became an issue once that extra person wasn’t available to help her the rest of the trip. She tripped getting off the bus trying to handle the extra load, plus a 2nd time getting on the next bus. Karl said he understood, and hopes to eventually offer a delivery option but that is in the early stages. Adjournment Karl Buelow made a motion to adjourn; seconded by Lynnsey Erickson. Adjourned at 4:53 p.m.