Today we are having a conversation with spokesperson Chris Simmons about the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority. It’s abbreviated AAATA, but in this episode we’ll use its most common nickname: The Ride. We’ll be asking her questions about The Ride after COVID; how our transit fits into the larger reason; and of course help you, Ann Arbor, follow along and get more involved.
In this episode, Chris Simmons of the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority gives us the past, present, and future lowdown on The Ride.
Links:
– The Ride
– following along with AAATA board meetings
– get elbow-deep into that sweet, sweet budget
– the Regional Transit Authority (RTA)
– learn more about the full service restoration planned for this coming August
Also: we’ve launched our first survey! Tell us what you think about the pod.
Transcript
MK:Hi, and welcome to this episode of Ann Arbor AF, a podcast for folks trying to figure out what’s going on in Ann Arbor. We discuss current events in local politics and policy, governance, and other civic good times. I’m Michelle Hughes and my pronouns are she/her, I’m Jess Letaw and my pronouns are she/her, and I’m Molly Kleinman and my pronouns are she/her. We’re your cohosts to help you get informed, and get involved. It’s your city!
JK: Today we’re having a conversation with spokesperson, CS about the Ann arbor area transportation authority it’s abbreviated AAA ta but in this episode will typically use its most common nickname right will be asking him questions about the right after coven how our transit fits into the larger region region and, of course, help you Ann arbor follow along and get more involved.molly’s going to kick us off with some questions.
MK: Yes, thank you so much, Chris for being here with us today. So the first question I wanted to ask is just about like what is the ride, what is the AAA to what what services does that encompass and and then how you know how does it relate to the various other ways to get in and out of that arbor.
CS: Somalian thanks for having me i’m, as I explained this to folks this is really your transit agency for the region, it is the Ann arbor area transportation authority on that third day matters there’s lots of people who’ve been around for a long time, who use double and that third a matters because.
MH: So all the bus the bus stop signs still say it.
CS: There are a couple we are we’re getting those as we go you’d be surprised how long certain things can take to change and we can talk about that a little later, too, but we’re an independent government agency we’re incorporated by the city of Ann arbor the city of ypsilanti in ypsilanti township. And the charge with that incorporation is to operate a mass transportation system as allowed under State law. And there’s lots of weird pieces under state laws to what you can do and can’t do and that’s probably too much for for your audience but baseline is if it’s involving ways we can move people that isn’t involving single occupant vehicles We probably have some relationship to it, even if we may not be the direct operator or owner of the system. We have a 10 number board eight members of that board are appointed by the city of Ann arbor so nominated by the mayor approved by the city council. Along with one from the city of ypsilanti and one from instantly any township and that’s one of the reasons why state that 38 matters. When our agency was originally formed, it was formed to just by the city of Ann arbor that’s no longer the case and we are an area agency and and our service area reflects that. Those three jurisdictions, the city of Ann arbor the city of ypsilanti and ypsilanti township are areas that we are automatically authorized to operate transit services in. In are required by the way we are incorporated and by our board to operate those services there, but our coverage area can vary.
We do have opportunities to contract for services so, for example, services running in pittsfield township in superior township in silo township are done under contract for service arrangement, and those are ones that are board has to approve, so our board really has a lot of say in how we structure where we provide the service or what types of services we provide. In order to meet their overall goals, so if I was going to boil what could be a really complicated 30 page essay into a transit agency structure that’s what I would boil it down to.
MH: i’m also thinking about like the Chelsea express and that there’s not a commuter bus, I think that goes to another say God that.
CS: The express rides to Chelsea in canton yeah so currently suspended under the covert reactions and those are services we’ve chosen to provide again in relationship to our board.
In order to handle computer issues with, especially with the University of Michigan employees coming in um we could talk a little bit more about this later from a planning process but we’re also in the middle of a public outreach process for how we come back on the other side of coven. And there’s all sorts of service adjustments that we’re proposing in the middle of that but, but we can save that for later.
MK: yeah so when when I think of the ride I think of buses like mostly I think the big buses that we run up and down, you know the the main transit quarters or transportation corridors, but I know there are other pieces of the puzzle right that the triple 80 days is actually more than two spouses.
CS: Well, correct arm so you’re correct and looking at the 40 foot bosses, you know the fixed route bus service is what we call that’s your standard on schedule routes that go on particular streets and you expect them to hit at you know 15 after the hour or departing the blake transit Center. there also are a ride service, which is our required service for folks who are physically unable to use the fixed route services. And that’s a federal requirement for us and what we’re happy to provide but that’s where you will see the a ride shorter buses traveling around town, because those are easier to maneuver in some of those places in places where people can’t reach her fix routes, those are lift equipped and so people with wheelchairs can certainly access those obviously are fixed route buses also have. That’s that equipment, but the a ride buses are able to maneuver in some places that we otherwise can’t start the show.
MH: They read services, those are like you call ahead for them, and you go door to door, but you have to qualify as having some sort of disability and our.
CS: Direct you have to qualify as having a disability there’s an application process, but then, yes, it will provide a door to door service at that point for where you need to go. We also have van ride service, which is our sample program and that program is for servicing commuters who are actually coming into washtenaw county. And is for groups of seven to 15 individuals who are traveling from roughly the same place to roughly the same place frequently it’s a the same employer that they’re they’re traveling to. That service we’ve maintained, all the way through the pandemic, believe it or not, there’s lots of essential workers who are in those mantels. And they travel from all over the region flint the gross point area Toledo past Jackson really all over the area servicing latimer institutions those essential workers. Other ways we get all this computer services, we also participate in the regional carpool matching APP called commuter connect Am I calm and we can certainly put a link in the show notes for that’s where people who are interested in matching for a carpool or looking for assistance and how do I do this walk trip appropriately or how do I make this bike trip. They can do all of their their planning for bike buddies or walk buddies or carpool buddies there. And that connects with all eight counties in southeast Michigan so it’s really robust tool for people to be able to use. And then, from a walking biking infrastructure standpoint, you know we certainly engage with the city staff on. On where those projects are located and making sure that they are interacting appropriately with our bus stops all the fixed route buses are equipped with to bike bike racks on the front, so people can take a bike and get on the bus and then take the bike off and complete their trip and, frankly, if it’s something involving that level of connected transportation, it might not be ours, but we’re certainly talking to folks who who have something to do with it and want to make sure that all the systems are working as seamlessly as you possibly can in a fractured environment for these responsible for what part of transportation.
MK: That is really helpful so and I wanted to point out that you, you are officially here as a spokesperson for the triple A ta so we often talk about you know we’re speaking only for ourselves, we don’t represent our organizations, but you actually do represent your organization here with us today.
CS: So you’re getting correct i’ve got a number of roles people they recognize my name from the get downtown program that is certainly one of them um but i’m a part of our community relations team and happy to be here as as a spokesperson for the right.
MK: Great Thank you again, we are so happy to have you so then. So what you just described as the AAA CAA operating much more regionally than even I realized, and so, then what is the relationship to the regional transit authority the the RTA which I think is still theoretical mostly at the time.
CS: So um. Let me start a little bit with how the RTA structure is different um they’re actually chartered under a completely different section of State law where we at are allowed as an incorporated entity started by a municipal jurisdiction and apologies for the jargon there, but basically I local city. The RTA and its entire structure is actually laid out as a separate section of State law. This is something that lansing decided and their authority. If anyone’s interested it’s public act 387 of 2012 um they have their own 10 Member board and that 10 Member board is appointed by the governor the Mayor of Detroit the county executives of mccomb oakland and Wayne counties and the Chair of the watched it on board of Commissioners.
MK: OK.
CS: I will just point out that if you notice there’s a slight difference there in the level of executive between all of those different bodies appointing the members of that board. um.
MK: And didn’t call them vote not to be in the RTA.
CS: know what the comb voted on was the specific funding plans for the arch EPA service plans, so let me walk through a little bit of that because it is that confusing i’m the RTA is responsible for county level or cross county transit planning, as well as having a role in in. Making the allocations or setting the amounts for the Federal transit funding that comes into the region.What they don’t have is funding to provide direct service. What they have done is put forward service plans proposing what that service would be under a new property tax to the RTA. And so the previous votes that we’ve seen our votes in favor of a funding plan or against a funding plan to support a particular service plan. So what’s happened is there’s a service plan, but there isn’t any funding for it so until local funding is applied to a service plan the RTA role is in coordinating particular regional efforts to provide cross county transit service so for metro Detroit you would have seen this with smart in their fast service that’s what they brand it going down Woodward avenue and gratia avenue believe part of Michigan avenue to provide connections between the Coleman oakland county in downtown Detroit that’s an example of what they’ve done we’ve worked directly with the RTA to launch three weeks before the pandemic hit the dga aging service The RTA secured all the funding for it and we took the operational expertise and applied it to the contract and service that and we’re hopeful that, on the other side of the pandemic the RTA will be bringing that back forward, but you know we see it’s a regional responsibilities. Detroit or tf right to Ann arbor and no rubber didn’t hurt and introverted trades both ways. With the STOP off at dearborn actually and then. Allowing our staff expertise to help the RCA where it doesn’t camp, the staff for the funding to be able to work, the operational concerns, so the archie is really that cross counting piece um i’ll point out that none of the appointees for The Board of the triple H EA or the ride are members of the board of the RTA and I, the reason I pointed out the board of Commissioners piece for Washington county is none of our ride board members, the ride board members are appointed from anyone inside of Washington county so walk through there’s no overlap between organizations functionally both organizations care quite a bit about making sure that we’re making those connections for resonance to travel between those four counties and how do we do that inside of the circumstances we are currently serving in you know how do we gather this Community priorities so you’ll see a lot of staff interaction you’ll see a lot of joint committees or staff on on coordinating groups that the RTA or with the southeast Michigan Council of governments that allow those conversations to happen on a staff level but structurally we’re actually two completely separate organizations that’s.
MK: really helpful to to understand, thank you, so another question that I have, I guess, this might even be related a little bit to the RTA. Where the overlap of work, if not a structure is around what triple H EA has been doing to improve service to communities that are generally underserved by transit and often the ones who need it, the most.
CS: So that is looking at and, frankly, you could do college seminars on transit services and how they relate what the service design is so let me start at the beginning of this um you know, frankly, the ride may be providing some of the most equitable service inside of the county. Based on the fact that we are the entity connecting the East side and the West side of our major population centers are core routes are the trunk routes, we call them so rob 345 and six that run between ypsilanti in Ann arbor on a very frequent basis and, in fact, one sixth a full one sixth of our ridership.Generally comes from route for running from the ypsilanti transit Center through the university to the blake transit Center. So there is a a core emphasis in community service that relates around, how are we making sure that we’re providing that service equitably, and we embed the video core that’s been around for a very, very long time.Our quality standards aren’t any different whether we’re operating in ypsilanti or ypsilanti township or interval um. You know that the service standards for what we expect of our drivers what we expected performance what we expect of ridership what we expect of service community service and customer service all of that remains the same, regardless of where we’re talking about now. Where that gets a little tricky is in the what i’ll call the art of service planning and, and this is where we could probably spend three or four podcasts on just how do you make those determinations between different choices. One of the questions is how do you define underserved or how do you define community. And this is where it’s really a conversation that occurs with our planning staff and our stakeholders in the Community and members of the Community. So um is underserved based on coverage area, so do you have some service traveling to all of the geographic points of the Community, or do you been underserved in terms of how frequently that route is traversing a particular quarter. From a financial perspective in a perfect world, we could do all all the time, but we all know, the financial constraints mean you’re going to have to make a trade off between coverage and frequency. You know, on a service design level you design a system to meet individual needs so maybe there is more. There are more routes that surely server shorter spaces and maybe are less direct or do you design a system that survey transportation system need. Where you’re trying to remove congestion and you’re trying to create environmental benefits and you’re trying to create broader connections throughout the Community, you can’t do both of those at the same time, without making some trade offs there’s some trade offs, are you go, what does the data show, so what is the ridership data show what is it Community data show versus what’s the experience of the writer, or what is the Community experiences they they see the bosses um none of those are straightforward answers and you’ll hear us very frequently say we’ve tried to make a balance here and we are looking for your feedback. We very regularly go out to the public, asking for comment so currently we’re in the middle of a public input period on our August service restoration plan, and I really is a plan at this point it’s not final and we’re being very explicit about that, because that is our permanent service base moving forward, this is not another temporary pandemic plan, this is the service that we will be adjusting as we move forward. Well, see there’s a big there’s a big link in the front of the web.
MH: Page right now the ride that org that has that plan to look at.
CS: that’s exactly right and that’s why it’s that big link up front, we want to hear that Community feedback um you know lots of organizations and I won’t name names.But they’re all over the country and they throw something out there is provide us your public comment and nothing happens um we’re doing zoom public meetings now to have one on one conversations with folks on how does this plan, not work for you, because you are expressing this issue. What could we do to make that plan work better and it’s it’s something we need to look at now, or is it something we need to put on our list to look at in our long range planning process. But when we go out for our public comment periods we’re very upfront with what are we looking for, why are we looking for it and what could be the feedback we need in order to improve our own path and.
This is actually really connected to another set of questions that I think Michelle is going to ask about how AAA ta is approaching the current state with Kobe and then the sort of planning for the postcode period so i’m going to. So i’ll deal with that, when we deal with those questions, but I think, from an overall perspective when you talk about equity that’s one of the places where we’re. Asking for that feedback and why we asked for that feedback and also i’ll bring up a second piece of equity standpoint. Our board and I could go into the minutiae of our board operates and the policies and procedures and again that’s probably its own seminar but i’m our board has a very goal oriented relationship with staff. Our board is not one that is going to tell us exactly how we’re supposed to do, every little thing but they’re going to hold us accountable as staff for meeting the goals that the board sets so um when we hit. Those board points of conversation about what the Agency goals are supposed to be, and just quickly it’s equitable access to public transportation it’s a positive impact on our environment to positive impact on the areas. Economic prosperity it’s are we achieving high passenger satisfaction and do residents recognize the contribution that public transportation is making to their quality of life, we have to regularly check in with the board on those pieces that’s another place of Community interaction, obviously, the Community giving our board the feedback on this at the right goal does that need to be looked at differently um that’s another way that we did that we look at the equity piece of our board and it’s a pretty diverse board.Making sure that that we’re dealing with that and then just quickly because we receive all sorts of state and federal funding, we have all sorts of state and federal rules, we have to follow on equity So if you hear us talk about Title six or or limited English proficiency or Ada service requirements. Those are all the requirements that we have to comply with as a condition of how we are funded and we are regularly reviewed or audited for whether or not we’re we’re complying with those so it’s it’s another way, the equity is kind of baked your transit system.
MK: that’s that’s good to hear that’s really reassuring Title six came up somewhere else, I was recently I don’t remember where but i’m going to have to do some more searching on that, but Michelle i’m going to hand it over to you and, after more questions.
MH: yeah so okay we’ve talked about how you know, things have changed, due to the pandemic and how we’re planning on recovering from that, and so I guess My first question is, why did things change from the pandemic was this alike. People aren’t using the bus anymore, it was this people shouldn’t use the bus anymore was this we can’t fund this because we have.
Because we have less fair income or something like that, so what why, why did, why did the services changed during the pandemic.
CS: So let’s start with if we knew now what or if we knew then what we know now boy would that be a different world, I think we were all in just immediate reaction mode and, frankly, our agency was no different whether it was in terms of what does transmission look like Is it safe to have people on a bus, at the same time are we putting our our drivers and our staff at risk just by having them interact with the members of the public or each other um I think.
MH: What would what turned out to be the answer to those questions.
CS: So the answer to those questions I think came out with one it is less transmissible on surfaces than we originally thought that was a good thing to it is as or more transmissible in aerosol as we thought that’s a bad thing and three people were given all sorts of orders to stay at home and we needed to find ways to encourage the Community to comply with that without stranding. Everyone who was absolutely dependent on having the bus, to be able to get to medical appointments the grocery store and their job, especially if they’re essential workers. So while we scrambled a little bit at the beginning, because there’s nobody riding the bus and what do we want to do about that. What we ended up doing was scaling back, but not removing service from the Community to try and meet what the immediate needs work so some risk to our drivers and our staff our administrative staff was all sent home and has been working at home, since the beginning of the pandemic. But, making sure there is this is where you’ll see the message on the bus essential trips online i’m encouraging people if you have to go yes we’re here for you. But if you got another way to do it, you know that that’s probably the better way to go. What we’ve done throughout the pandemic it’s then adjust where do we need to put more service back on the road. Okay now we’ve been able to install a barrier for our drivers, so that they’re not in the direct path of five people sneezing as they’re coming onto the bus so. You know, create more safety opportunities for reducing transmission there’s been airflow modeling done by the University of Michigan for their bus system in terms of you know how long can people be on the bus and what do you need to do to increase airflow to make sure that the virus doesn’t linger in ways that can make more people sick. So you’ve seen us do those pieces with the essential trips and reminders on on the buses and blocking off seats. I think our hope at the end of the day is that by the time we hit this august service restoration will be at a point where the Community has been vaccinated and i’m not sure what percentage that needs to be at you know i’m not a public health expert I don’t didn’t stay at a holiday INN express last night so i’m not going to pretend to play one, but you know we’re taking the lead of the county health department in terms of where those restrictions still need to be our hope is that we go back to 100% service levels at the end of August we’re supporting the university’s relaunch to in person classes, which to our understanding is also somewhere at the end of August. We support the Arab or public schools in the Atlantic community schools, if they go back to in person instruction. And we support businesses as people start coming back into the Office for whatever level of interaction, they need to have um I heard a great line today from one of our Community town hall sessions which was. Better to have something and not need it than need it not have it, and if that’s a place that our service ends up being for the beginning part of you know Back to School season 2021 that’s fine with us. We can make adjustments, as we go, but we got to start from someplace that’s a full full return and thankfully we’ve had very low transmission rates throughout. Our staff we we followed up a bunch of the research with said it is safe to go on transit, especially for short to earn trips and we aren’t doing the hour and a half. You know, on the train, with the same people sort of trips that you will see another metropolitan area so we’ve got a lot of bonuses going for us. You know gets warmer people will be out the windows are open i’m kind of hopeful we’re able to start to slowly come back to something that feels comfortable as we get there.
MH: So it kind of sounds like I was expecting to hear at some point during that people had stopped riding the bus and that meant the fair fair money wasn’t coming in, and so you had the scale back service but it sounds like like you only you only talked about it in terms of like choices that the ride made. You know kind of on behalf of people on that as a reaction to decreased funding was decreased funding, not an issue or.
CS: So fundings always an issue.
MH: i’m surprised you didn’t say it.
CS: Sunday funding is a really important part of the puzzle but it’s not the only part of the puzzle, so let me talk about this two ways and maybe one of the ways we can unpack this a little bit is to kind of understand how our budget comes about. Again, I can do a three hour seminar I won’t. But.
JK: I will note that in the early talks on planning this conversation we realized that we could do a whole Ann arbor and season on the right we’re not doing it, but we could have. And that’s good because I don’t need to hear myself that much it For those of you who’ve heard the 20 minute audio on the August service plan i’ve now heard that 25 times the imagine how sick I am of hearing my own voice of that but i’m funding was an issue ridership absolutely wasn’t an issue, but what we were trying to drive was Community health things. We have to be on the road in order to serve those people who don’t have another option, but our services. So at a baseline it wasn’t going to be a financial decision up front that was going to drive this was going to be a public health decision but it’s going to drive what we were going to do now, from a funding side.
i’m live lots of people think that our funding is derived from the fairs that they pay at the fair box and the property taxes that they pay. it’s way more complex than that. Unlike most civic organizations were required to have two separate budgets, a capital budget, so those things that go into the equipment and buildings and maintenance. That has to be separate budget from our operating budget, which is all the other stuff that we have to do on a daily basis, so from a capital budget standpoint now i’ll just give some numbers as an example and again this is all coming straight from our public information. We have a capital budget for fiscal year 2021 which, for us, runs from October 1 2020 through September 30 2021 i’m at a about a six and a half million dollar capital budget and those that go for that’s buying the buses that’s maintaining our facilities that maintenance on the buses that we purchase 59% of that funding comes from the Federal Government so when you’re paying your gas tax at the pump. The 18 cents that goes to the federal government, a part of that comes back in terms of your transit funding.
So that’s the capital funding stream 25% of that capital comes out of state funding, so the state gas tax that comes back to transit and then about 15% of that is that local funding which is mostly the application of the property tax. We also have an operating budget, so what is that that salaries that’s utilities that’s fuel that services, we have to pay for. Everything from pens and pencils up through. Our micro transit FLEX ride service being performed by an outside contractor all that falls into operating. That gets even more complex i’m the majority and I don’t want to say vast with actually I should say, but for morality. Of the funding comes from the local property taxes again that’s about 38% of about a $43 million budget in 2021 24% of that operating budget again comes from state gas tax. And normally fares, so the part you were referring to the show makes up somewhere between 16 to 19% of our overall operating but. That depends on the year depends on ridership um but this year we’re planning on it being only about 8% and we’re making up that funding, with the Federal relief funding that we’ve received as an agency.
MH: next question. Both between.
CS: cures act funding and krista funding for those who are way down in the weeds on the stuff. We are able to the technical term is called FLEX some of our federal money into operating assistance. Even though, and again this is probably too much detail but, even though we are urbanized area receiving urbanized transit funding. Because we’re area of less than 1 million in population, we are allowed by the Federal Government to flex a particular percentage of our capital budget into operating funding, you see how that goes um but, again, we use about 12% of our federal assistance for operating needs and then there’s kind of an all other 5% pop in terms of funding, we received um that’s going to vary year to year. We started a practice a couple years ago where we actually go out to the public for commentary on our our annual business plan and our budget.Before it’s approved by our board like traveling roadshow in the past, but we can do that zoom meetings today, but to give people a sense, but we, this is literally one of the more complex things fairs don’t directly support the majority of the agents. Property taxes, support the majority of the Agency and that’s the reason why we come back to the Community on the millage and why we emphasize what we are operating with that money because it’s not just benefiting the people who ride it’s benefiting all of the property owners within our services.
MH: Okay, so then Okay, so my next question is that, like so I guess like you know we’re talking about restoring. The service after that you know after the pandemic and i’m just kind of like i’m worried about how we’re going to do that because I think a lot of people have it drilled into their heads, now that it’s they’re scared of coming of going on transit and it’s safer to drive a car and that’s kind of the exact opposite of what the entire world needs right now is to be told that and and yet that’s kind of been on and on everyone’s mind and then you know, I was worried about the funding, but it sounds like that’s more under control, and I was thinking, but like just how, how are we going to recover from this. So that’s honestly a part of that is my daily work.
CS: um you know how do people getting to and from jobs. Get back to whatever normal was for them in terms of their commute and I think some of it’s really dependent on the Community and the vaccination levels. If the Community is vaccinated, to the point that we all feel comfortable that we have some immunity to this, then I think we can be in a position to be comfortable sharing spaces um another part of this is to acknowledge that things like telework is probably going to be here to stay, for a number of jobs that can work from home and that doesn’t mean it needs to be permanent that doesn’t mean mean needs to be all of the time. But we certainly have to acknowledge that that’s going to be there. You know walking and biking to work for those who live close enough to their jobs to be able to do that that’s something we encouraged prior to the pandemic is a big focus to get downtown programs specifically. that’s not going to go away, and I think for those people who have you know gone out and bought an electric bike or who found out that that walk to downtown to pick up a copy to walk home to break up their work from home and not me isn’t a bad thing I don’t think any of that’s going to go away, so I think we’re going to going to find some different ways that we’re looking at this i’m that’s not where we, as an Agency are right, the second we’ve got to find a new baseline and that’s what we’re doing with the service restoration for August. But what the Community will hear is right on the back side of that is we’re going to be going up for public input on a long range plan and that long range plan is looking at 2045 as a planning horizon where we’re going to throw out some concepts and some ideas and ways things might look different.
MK: and tell us about any of those now.
CS: So I can tell you a little bit because the Boards that a couple retreats and our consultants are just getting started on this, but um you know does a 40 foot bus, by all means you know we’ve been experimenting with micro transit that’s what pittsfield township has contracted for with the FLEX ride service and that’s what ypsilanti township.
MH: Micro transit, what does that mean in this context.
CS: So micro transit is basically something that is more on demand, so you book it with a phone call or an APP. On it’s generally not the 40 foot boss, or even the 20 foot boss it’s literally a normally a 15 passenger passenger ban generally also with a wheelchair left. And what it does, is it doesn’t have a set schedule on much like a wide healing company that I will not name for copyright infringement reasons. um you can book your trip on that APP that it will schedule your transit pickup and then depending on the service, it might connect you to a fixed route. On in our case with FLEX right East, it will connect you directly to the ypsilanti transit Center and so that is one way where you could serve. Less dense areas that maybe don’t have the ridership to support you know 40 foot buses with the the cost of the bus, you know, half a million dollar buses, the cost of the driver. You know the cost of maintenance on that bus there’s there are other ways to provide service that that meets the needs of those those communities and then allows us to to reform and how do we do, maybe. More frequency on more rounds, or how do we shorten up a particular route in a way that still needs community needs, but then allows us to provide that route, more frequently than we were able to do it today.So those are the sorts of trade offs that you might be looking at and you might be looking at um you know what do we have a a real desire to see higher density forms of transit so like a bus rapid transit line where it is separated by.
MH: i’d like to know, for the record that molly molly molly wiggled.
MK: And been whispering like it was thinking. That I was hoping I would hear the words the bus rapid transit.
CS: came out of my mouth so i’m glad I was able to grant that wish.
MK: yeah.
CS: So that that’s one of those places where. You know, could you see a lot of very rapid transit running between ypsilanti and in arbor probably in Washington avenue now there’s been a lot of planning on that for a long time there’s also a lot of costs associated with that is that something that we want to put as a community as number one on our wish list.
CS: Those are the sorts of things that that you’re looking.
MH: At.
CS: In terms of have a longer. You have to make some difficult choices when you’re kind of jammed into a box, I know you can’t choose both you have to choose one or the other Okay, what does that really mean. I think. Is in deciding, you know how hard you come down on one side or the other. And the other advantage with that long range planning processes, we can then break it down into chunks and staff, we can come back and say okay. Then we know for the next five years, this is achievable on that long range plan and you the Community can support us as we’re with wire, to come back to the Community, for your property tax renewals, this is what we’re going to do with that property tax money it’s not just the operations but here’s what we’re going to do to improve ourselves.
MH: So we’ve said a lot of things that you know, bring up some opinions in all of us here and we’re talking about trade offs and so forth, I believe, just had a question about what we should do about this opinions.
JK: Yes, I always have questions about opinions and opinions about questions and so with this podcast we work really hard to help folks understand how they can be a part of changes that they’d like to see Chris you’re one of those I think you described yourself earlier as a longtime listener first time caller which I completely love, thank you for listening to the podcast, by the way. So how can, how can folks who are listening, how can they be a part of talking to the ETA AAA ta how do they connect with you you’ve talked about the service restoration in August, you talked about the long range plan. Are there opportunities for folks to speak at board meetings, how do we talk to you guys.
CS: So let me give you.
JK: A couple of the easy ways of this.
CS: um first of all, when we go out for a public comment period and give you a length of time. To give you the subject we give you the materials they’re all there, people need alternative formats, are the new print versions. We will bend over backwards to make sure that those those materials getting their hands on that is a really prime way. To communicate with us as an agency, because when we’re doing those Community input sessions it’s really when we’re still formulating what those decisions are going to be or how that final decision was going to get made, I know, through the pandemic we’ve heard some Community to responsive oh your decisions have already been made well to pandemic response we’re all responding just as quickly as we can and it’s not going to be perfect when everyone’s responding to an emergency well moving past and emergency into what those those pieces are so we really strongly encourage people to communicate with us whether it’s. The emails for those process, whether it’s the phone number, we give whether it’s literally sending us a letter in the mail and, yes, we have received a letter in the mail. Regarding this current outreach period i’m all of those really do matter and they all get responded to so that’s certainly one way and I would say that’s probably the most important way, you can have an influence on what we do. And the second way is we do have a dedicated customer service officer that officer, is responsible for responding to all of the question comment complaint concerns that come into our agency and that’s a contact us form on the website or again call us.Either enter information line or business line and that information, then goes to our customer service officer, she is responsible for triage in that information and getting the right answers to the right people, and I can tell you. She is phenomenal she runs those answers to the ground, you cannot escape or even if you try that that I tried this, I want to keep on my good side but. We will get back on all of those I might not be immediate it might be a little more complex, but we will always get back on those questions. And then the final pieces, you know we are our own jurisdictional entity in a way, and so we still have to follow all of the rules and mandates of the open meetings that. So all our board meetings are open to the public, there is a an opportunity to comment on the items on the agenda or provide general public comment, both before the meeting and after the meeting. And I can tell you, and this is coming direct from our chief executive officer matt carpenter that, especially when it comes to our agencies goals. Our board is very interested in hearing from members of the community, especially when they’re talking about making changes to those. Those goals or tweaks on those goals to be able to make sure that they’re accurately reflecting what the Community wants of the agency their public servants in that that format, just as much as any of the rest of us and they. Frankly, care a lot about that and and want to make sure they’re doing a good job for the Community.
JK: And we will drink drop links in the show notes to the public engagement that you’re talking about for the August service restoration if it did you say that the long range planning that feedback is being sought for that now or that’s coming later.
CS: That will be coming later in let’s call it late 2021 early 2022 we’re going to be doing a lot of internal conversations and conversations with many of our organizational stakeholders. You know whether that is to blow the civic, mind you know whether that’s the city’s involved or Washington county or the road Commission or watch the watch and our area transportation study, whether that is the southeast Michigan Council of governments, whether that is. Looking at funding forecasts from the Federal transit administration or the Michigan Department of Transportation and all of those pieces kind of fold into the mix and so when we go out to the public, we like to make it so that the public has something that they can reasonably comment on. So we’ll be boiling it down yeah you may hear of talking to different folks.
JK: Different Community organizations.
CS: For that, but there will be a formal public input period i’m best guess right now is is later in 2021 or 22.
JK: Okay that’s super helpful Thank you and we’ll also drop the contact information for the customer service officer. I will go ahead and make a comment I didn’t expect to get to do it on the podcast i’m going to do it. The first four or five years, but I lived in Ann arbor I didn’t have a car, and I was almost 100% reliant on the bus because I wasn’t at that point, a very competent street bike rider still not super confident on the streets, but the bike lanes are helping anyway. I was and remain shocked at how kind and helpful all of the bus drivers always where I assumed that they would be abrupt and mean I don’t know where I got that from some kind of mistaken stereotype from movies about cities with buses I don’t know, but the Ann arbor bus drivers have always been super Nice, and when I had questions for them, they were actually genuinely helpful, so thank you in our best drivers, I appreciate you.
CS: We value our motor coach operators it’s our internal term for them very highly. um there is a cultural. He goes that every member of the organization should be able to respond in a way that is kind and helpful on as we do our planning processes, we don’t just reach out to technical experts. We ask the on the street experts, so we asked all of our operators, give us your opinion on our planning, what are you hearing from the riders. What doesn’t work in this or what do you think is going to cause a problem for individuals, because. You know, we know we can’t see everything everywhere, all the time it’s just physically impossible and so. We value that interaction across our organization and we value that interaction with our writers and I will tell you i’ve been in the industry for 15 plus years now, and in arbor in general, and I will use the area because it’s also absolutely and ypsilanti township really does a phenomenal job of what I call punching above its weight class terms of the amount of service that is on the road, the irs has and coverage for the Community and in the interaction and the pride the community takes in interaction with its with its transit provider i’ve been in Seattle i’ve been in Pennsylvania, I used to lobby all across the country to different transit agencies this frankly, is a rare gem of an organization across the country and in the area should be proud of it.
JK: All right, well on that happy note we’re going to move to a new section that we dreamed up just for this episode, which is why soliciting. Michelle and molly and I all of us have really strong ideas about where we could go so Chris since you are hostage, I mean our guest today we’re going to tell you what we’d love to see miley himself, what do you guys want to start.
MH: We didn’t claim these ones, it just has we just have a list which one is which one do we get.
JK: Those were just ideas that we talked about before honestly, I think we could talk about anything.
MH: Okay i’m gonna i’m gonna let molly safe bus rapid transit.
MK: Oh right obviously yeah I really would brt bus rapid transit, especially between in our brand ypsilanti I I really excited for the Detroit and our bus, to come back. But, especially, I think. We like it would be so great if we could speed up that commute for people and to have the have the bus be faster than driving with make a really big difference, I think, on i’m just like addressing commuting trips and congestion in that quarter.
MH: And I feel like, even if it wasn’t like strictly bus rapid transit with its own separate lane, and so forth, I think it would be, it would be a boon even just to see kind of an express version of the number for that had fewer stops. Even if it was in, even if I had to stay mixed with normal traffic some way to speed it up so it’s not like Oh, do I drive for 20 minutes or take the bus for 40 minutes, you know that kind of thing.
JK: uh huh. So one of the things that I would love to see would be. Less hub and spoke and more direct connect so what I mean by that is right now, if you’re going to go from one place in Ann arbor to another place in Ann arbor a lot of times, you have to connect to like transit Center. To get from your starting point to your destination and that can get really cumbersome, especially if you’re trying to layer on TRIPS like if i’m trying to run to the grocery store and pick up something for my dog and get to work on time that’s that’s really challenging with the hub and spoke, the way that it is. Chris your comments earlier about the trade off between coverage and frequency, is it is a point well taken I do understand that there are trade offs, but since we’re dreaming i’d love to see more coverage.
MH: And more like cross town type of bus, so you can do to aarons in the same day. And then one one more thing I wanted to add with. I’d like to see an end to the hostel architecture we’ve seen some of the you know some of the bustle well where were their benches at all.
JK: that’s more benches.
MH: benches and and when we have the benches I want them to be the non hostile kind where you can you can lay down on them or set stuff across if you want, or you can be a different size than expected to be that sort of thing. I just it just makes me feel uncomfortable to be around those things, even if I don’t eat specifically intend to lay down on the bench right now.
CS: So I can tell you from an agency perspective Those are all wishlist items that we’ve talked about internally as well and that’s why we’re doing another long range plan figure that out on the bench issue comes up frequently and I will tell you there is a policy, believe it or not, for where a bench should be placed and how soon and why um and we have a capital plan inside of that the capital plan, where a portion of that you know six and a half million dollars in fiscal year 2021 gets a portion to say how do we replace bad bunch of bus benches or shelters and where do we put the new ones in so we.
JK: We you know and Chris do you know offhand how many stops don’t have benches.
CS: I need that number offhand.
MH: shelters, there are.
JK: How many shelters, there are. How many there aren’t yeah.
CS: I don’t have that information directly on hand and it would take me a little bit to dig up. I can tell you that we have been working with the city and the city’s non motorized efforts. To also prioritize that sidewalk construction also encompass where there are bus stops, because we do have bus stops in areas where there are enough sidewalks. And so there’s there’s a there really is some thought given to wear those placements happen the bus rapid transit piece, you know the the study and watching us to go on for a long time we’re hoping that that we hear more from the Community, in the long range plan on that hub and spoke versus let’s call it the i’m going to use the wonky turn the jerk Walker connect everywhere model um.
JK: Well we’re on our podcast so i’m going to call it the chesley talk connect everywhere model. Naming stuff I won’t tell Mr Walker if you want.
CS: That is a one of those things that really requires a lot of staff upfront work in terms of how do you get the equipment to operate the way you need it to in order to be able to provide all that coverage that you need um when in. With the expansion village that.Really pushed a lot of capacity out there and gave a lot more of those routes that are now in that hub and spoke model um you know what would it take to go to something that would be next I think that’s one of the things we’re going to be asking is is that a priority of the Community to look at. How do we do more of that that direct connection versus a hub and spoke model Those are all those are all great questions they’re great wishlist items. And they’re all trade offs and I think that’s what makes that’s why I get excited to come to work every day.
CS: These are all things that can make improvements in people’s lives and there’s always that wish list of boy i’d love this next next improvement. yeah, and so I think as an agency, we carry that forward yeah so i’m hoping that that all of you participate in those plans and your audience also gives us their their ideas, whether it’s now or in our republican for processes on what they’d like to see next.
MH: likes to US public input.
JK: Processes yeah all right well CS from the AAA T, I thank you so much for coming and having a conversation with us, we are going to move into pod keeping and winding ourselves up today. A reminder to folks if you have not already signed up with the Washington county health department for your vaccine get on that it is time to get inoculated and get that herd immunity going.
MK:Thanks to those of you who have supported us on our kofi. If you’d like to send us a few dollars to cover hosting, you can find us at www.ko-fi.com/annarboraf. Thanks for listening to Ann Arbor AF. We’re your cohosts Molly Kleinman, Michelle Hughes, and myself, Jess Letaw; and thanks to producer Jarod Malestein. For questions about this podcast or ideas about future episodes, you can email us at annarborafpod@gmail.com. Get informed, then get involved. It’s your city!
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