Everett Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC)

TAC MINUTES Aug 18, 2016 In attendance: Members Staff Guests T.J. Fournier Tim Miller, Public Works Keri Moore, Snohomish County Victor Harris George Baxter, Transit Health District J.T. Dray Jeffrey Marks, Public Works William Weber Sabina Popa, Transit Robert Strickland Scott Bader, City Council Tom Hingson, Transit 8:00 a.m. Robert Strickland, acting as Chair, called the meeting to order.  M/S/P for the July Minutes. Announcements & Requests to Add Agenda Items  J.T. stated he would prefer to discuss the Strategic Plan rather than the Transit Development Plan. He understood there were some things the TAC is not capable of discussing, but he felt that these issues with the transit plans weren’t part of that. He stated that policy decisions by the City Council need to be informed by the committee.  J.T. requested a running tally of issues the committee members request for agenda items should be prepared. Citizen’s Comments  Keri Moore, Snohomish County Health District, briefed the committee on how her team has been working with schools in auditing their walking routes and putting together walking route maps for parents. Engineering Report  Tim reported that the Hawthorne school project will be done before school opens.  Tim announced that a Polygon model home will be opening in September off 41st Street on Riverfront Boulevard. This event is driving the removal of the gate on 41st St east of S 3rd Ave that presently closes the area to the public. The roadway and roundabout will be striped and signed to meet current standards before the roadway is opened to the public. Police Report  No police representatives were present. Tim mentioned this was due to schedule conflict related to assisting WSP reconstructing a fatal motorcycle crash on SR 526.  Former attender Sgt. Mike Braley has been reassigned, so a new officer, Sgt. Kevin Allen will be joining TAC. It was also mentioned that officer Mannie Garcia has retired.  J.T. raised concern that police officers were sitting through portions of the TAC meeting that may not be important to their duties. Victor mentioned that any traffic changes discussed can impact enforcement, so it was important for them to be here. Transit Report  George announced that services changes go into effect on Sunday the 21st. J.T. noted that Community Transit will also be incorporating changes, but they would be holding off until September. George stated how ET prefers to make changes that work before the commencement of a new school season, that way parents and students are not having to deal with changes in transit service a few weeks after school has started. Additional discussion ensued about contract language of drivers choosing their routes in combination with service changes.  George mentioned the strategic plan (long-range plan) will be getting underway shortly. ET is currently analyzing RFQ’s from consultants who will be helping with the plan. J.T. asked how the consultants were being evaluated. George explained that they were being evaluated on qualifications and experience, not cost. He stated that the RFQ was advertised nationwide. The consultants were to propose how they would accomplish the long range process, which was forecasting the next 20 years. The primary focus needed to be consistent with the City’s comprehensive plan, especially in areas related to population growth areas. The plan is strategic in nature for the future, but is not meant to provide an operational analysis. The plan will also take into account things like Uber, etc. It is expected the plan will be completed in 2017.  Tom Hingson reported that Transit was buying property south of Everett Station for an operations base. He stated that demolition of the property was underway, and it should be cleared by Labor Day. The new lot will be configured to park 45 buses, 30 paratransit buses with room for an additional 15 buses.  The head of Propeller Industries met with Tom and Sabina as they are building an airport terminal at Paine Field. Propeller Industries declared their interest in building a site that ET can serve. Some discussion ensued about the building of the Seaway Transit Center and how it will reconfigure south county routes in the future. The Seaway Transit Center will be a hub for all transit agencies. Agenda Items: Item 1: Smart Bus Technology – Sabina Popa  Technology systems exist on all ET buses, both fixed route and paratransit. They help in collecting and providing information.  One system is comprised of video cameras. They don’t provide a live stream, but record the activities in and around the bus on a DVR. This information is used for incident investigation and customer complaints, as well as federal reporting surveys every three years. The video also contains audio. Fixed-route buses are equipped with eight cameras, with both interior and exterior views. Storage of the data is typically 30 days, or until it is overwritten by new recordings. If needed for an event, the recording will be retained for the life of the event’s investigation.  Other technology systems include automatic passenger counters (APCs), automatic vehicle locators (AVLs) and stop announcers. The stop announcement system announces the stop while on approach, an ADA requirement. Passenger counters include sensors placed at doors that detect boardings and alightings. Until now, ET has been using manual counts to fulfill federal reporting requirements. When the new APC data validation process is accepted for National Transit Database reporting, ET will be able to use the APCs instead of the driver counts. The vehicle location systems are GPS-based, and report the location and time of the vehicle in route. It is used for service planning, tracking trip length and travel time between  points. It can also be used for complaint investigation and provides a real-time view of active buses shown on a map for supervisors.  The Everett Transit Arrivals (ETA) system is tied to the AVL system, and operates via phone or text only – it is not available on as a desktop internet service. It provides real-time trip information, based on the customer’s stop location. The ETA system processed over 80,000 texts and 200,000 calls in 2015. ET’s traveler information is also made available through the OneBusAway regional application. It was explained that Strategic Mapping (vendor) sends the data to Sound Transit for the OneBusAway app. George stated that the technology came to ET only a few years ago, and they were not really familiar with it. Now after having used it for a while, Transit is more prepared to handle the evolution of the technology and what questions to ask vendors when it comes to working with it. In response to JT’s question regarding the failure of the ETA system to account for a dropped trip, George mentioned that when a trip is dropped, the driver needs to log off the AVL system in order for the system to know the bus is stopped and will no longer finish the trip. However, there may be instances when a driver may have failed to do so. Sabina reported that according to last year’s data, only 43 trips were dropped due to incidents, which is quite low when noting that on weekdays, ET operates over 370 trips.  All ET buses are equipped with radios. Fixed-route buses also have ORCA readers. Para transit vans are equipped with mobile data terminals.  The ORCA system is in the process of being upgraded at a regional level, and the new generation ORCA readers will be on our vehicles in the next five years. Item 2: Transit Development Plan – Sabina Popa  The TDP update was started earlier this year, when feedback was requested on the content of last year’s report. The report is required to be submitted to the State every year. The updates are based on current conditions. This year’s draft was provided to TAC members for their opinions, and follows a format the State requires.  Attention was brought to Section 5, which outlined main activities in 2015. The next section was also discussed, which lists proposed action strategies for the next 5 years.  George stated that the report is a snapshot in time at the time it is completed. It is a flexible plan, that changes based on grant revenues, and currently its primary purpose is that of reporting activities and overall intentions of the agency in the short-term. The State uses it in conjunction with other agencies’ plans for legislative purposes.  Some discussion surrounded the nature of public outreach when it came to creating new plans.  The TDP will be presented at the next City Council meeting. Adjourned at 9:42 a.m. Next Scheduled Meeting: September 15, 2016 at 8:00AM