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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-04-20 Transit Advisory Bd Meeting MinutesCommittee Name: Transit Advisory Board Date: 3/20/19 Location: City Hall, Room 406 1 1 1 Attendees: Absent: Jim Collins, Transportation Director Troy Monday, Vice-Chair Karl Buelow, Board Korbin Figg, Operations Manager Deb Allison-Aasby, Council Mike Norton, Board Marlene Binder, Secretary Lynnsey Erickson, Board Evelyn Meuret, Chairperson Philip Marshall Topic Facilitator Discussion Actions Meeting Started Evelyn Meuret Evelyn Meuret called the meeting to order at 4:10 p.m. The January 16, 2019 TAB meeting minutes were accepted. 1st: Lynnsey Erickson 2nd: Troy Monday Agenda Items Introduce and welcome new Board member Philip Marshall Jim Collins Jim Collins said Jane Cryan resigned from the Board due to her hearing loss, which she felt was a distraction. He introduced new Board member Philip Marshall. Philip Marshall said he is the principal of Webster Stanley Middle School and a 25 year resident of the City of Oshkosh. He said he has seen transportation issues with the school district and is looking forward to serving. Jim Collins explained this Board meets the third Wednesday of each month. He said if there are no agenda items, the meeting will be cancelled however; this Board will meet a minimum of one time per quarter. Committee Name: Transit Advisory Board Date: 3/20/19 Location: City Hall, Room 406 2 2 2 Topic Facilitator Discussion Actions Evaluation of overall ridership since the fare increase Jim Collins Jim Collins told there is a monthly Revenue and Ridership Report included in the Board packets. He explained that when the fares increased in January, a decrease in ridership was expected. He said the January 2019 Revenue and Ridership Report showed ridership decreased over what it had been in January 2018 but school was cancelled a few days this year and students are a large part of ridership. Jim said the Route #9 was a low performing route that was tweaked in January 2019 to get more ridership. He explained the Route #9 ridership also decreased over what it had been from 2018 but that this could have been due to school being cancelled several days, lots of snow and frigid temperatures. He said it is too early to tell if changes made an impact on ridership for this route. Philip Marshall inquired about the fare increase. Jim Collins replied that even after the increases GO Transit fares are still among the lowest in the state. He went on to explain that it had been 10 years since the last increase. It was pointed out that funding from the state and federal government is less every year and fares had to increase or service would be cut. Committee Name: Transit Advisory Board Date: 3/20/19 Location: City Hall, Room 406 3 3 3 Topic Facilitator Discussion Actions Staff Statements Video equipment update Jim Collins Jim Collins said our seven new buses have the new Apollo video equipment installed. He explained other buses in the fleet have older video equipment and the hard drives are failing. He told it is becoming more and more important to have recordings of incidents and accidents. Korbin Figg said installation of the new system was completed this afternoon at 2:30 p.m. He told the old equipment had 480 p and the new equipment is 1080, which is full HD. He said the old system had 5 cameras and the new has 7 cameras, one of which shows the curb side of the bus. Heavy duty bus procurement update Jim Collins Jim Collins said staff attended pre-production meetings last week and the buses are scheduled to be in production in July. He told we will be receiving three new buses and it will take 2 to 3 weeks to build. He said the process of building a bus is not as automated as auto manufacturing because each bus build is customized and thus built from scratch. He announced that GO Transit just received a grant for one additional bus. A video of a bus build was shown. Snow removal Jim Collins Jim Collins said GO Transit clears snow from the transit center, office/garage, bus shelters and benches. He told it is the property owner’s responsibility to remove snow from the sidewalks and carriage walks. He said our shop runs 12 hours, six days a week, with four employees so they do what they can but, they cannot remove snow from 230 stops. He explained the city hires a private contractor to clear sidewalks that owners have neglected. He said this winter the city was inundated with complaints and the contractor was back logged. He told if the bus stop is not shoveled the driver will stop at the next safe location, which is often within a bus length. Committee Name: Transit Advisory Board Date: 3/20/19 Location: City Hall, Room 406 4 4 4 Topic Facilitator Discussion Actions New Flyer Calendar Jim Collins Jim told New Flyer is the manufacturer of our new buses and they selected a picture of one of our new GO Transit buses to feature in their 2019 calendar for the month of July. A copy of the calendar was distributed to each Board member. Future Agenda Items Jim Collins Jim Collins said next month he plans to have a representative from East Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (ECWRPC) present on a grant funded pilot program called Winnebago County Catch A Ride. He explained this program pairs residents outside the bus service area or hours with volunteer drivers to get to them to their jobs. Lynnsey Erickson inquired about how the new governor has impacted the budget. Jim replied GO Transit is a member of the Public Transportation Association and they will hold a Legislative Day in early April which GO Transit plans to attend. He said he will share information from this meeting with the TAB at the next meeting. Adjournment Evelyn Meuret The meeting adjourned at 4:50 p.m. The next meeting will be held April 17, 2019. 1st: Deb Allison-Aasby 2nd: Philip Marshall