SMART Advisory Council

SMART Advisory Council

June 20, 2014 - Minutes

Oakland Terminal

Conference Room

2021 Barrett Street

Troy, MI 48084

The meeting was called to order by Chairman James Cole. Excused absences: Clark Charnetski, MaryEllen Randall, Denise Drodt.

Motion was made and seconded to approve the agenda with the following changes: move up item #9 (Dan Whitehouse) to the beginning of meeting and add new item (Beth Gibbons). Agenda was approved as changed.

Motion was made and seconded to approve the March21, 2014 minutes with the following corrections: Under Service Updates, “14 buses from DDOT” should read “40 buses from DDOT.” Under Council Business, the following sentence should be added: “Major intersections should be included in the automated announcements on buses.” Minutes were approved as corrected.

Those in attendance introduced themselves.

SMALL BUS RIDERSHIP GUIDELINES – Dan Whitehouse

Dan Whitehouse suggested to Council that language be added to the guidelines to mention the 2-year rolling record of violations. A violation would “fall off” a passenger’s record after two years. Motion was made and seconded that action will be taken at the September meeting. Motion passed. James Cole will appoint a sub-committee to work out the new language.

There is a 17% decrease in “no shows.” 50-60 passengers a month are being suspended. Most are first violations.

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Clarification of “door to door” service: door to door is federally mandated. Only ADA provides door to door service and is available only to someone whose disability requires it; i.e., severe dementia, inability to self-propel a wheelchair. SMART has a staff member who will evaluate a ramp for ADA compliance.

Boundaries for Connector and ADA: Connector covers a 10-mile radius; ADA covers anywhere that a fixed route bus travels.

EDUCATION CAMPAIGN – Beth Gibbons

Beth Gibbons presented a video of SMART television ads. They are presently being aired locally on channels 2, 4 and 7 and on some cable networks. There are also some internet and Facebook banner ads.

SERVICE UPDATES - Jim Fetzer

August 5 is the millage increase vote. The priorities that will be affected by the outcome of the vote are: general costs, balancing the budget, and replacing old vehicles. It is not known how passenger service will be impacted.

Lathrup Village has decided to “opt in” to SMART.

There are 12 fixed route buses on order. There is funding for another 59 buses.

Audio and video cameras are now installed on all fixed route buses. They will soon be installed on all Connector buses.

New buses will have “sandpaper-textured” flooring that will more securely “hold” a wheelchair in place.

Mike Ford has been offered the Director position at the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA). His decision is expected by the end of July. No staff has yet been hired. RTA is relying on its committees for now. The service standards are posted on the RTA website. The SEMCOG website has an RTA link. There is improved communication between Ann Arbor Area Transit and SMART. DDOT and SMART are meeting together monthly. There is better coordination between the two companies. Work is being done on a joint system map.

A new transit center is being designed by DDOT at Northland Center.

PRESENTATION OF SERVICE/FARE STANDARDS AND POLICIES – Andy Thorner

Andy Thorner explained the information in a report that he distributed to the Council about the system-wide service standards which include vehicle load, vehicle headway, percentage of trips on-time and service availability. The report also contains the system-wide service policies which include distribution of transit amenities and vehicle assignment. He went on to explain the Title VI program policies which include disparate impact (minority), disproportionate burden (low income), fare change disparate impact (minority), and fare change disproportionate burden (low income).

OLD BUSINESS

Union representatives are always invited to SAC meetings. Representatives from DDOT are also always invited.

COUNCIL MEMBERS BUSINESS

A question was asked about providing SMART service to downtown Detroit for special events. Because of how SMART is funded such specialized service cannot be done.

A small bus ridership guidelines committee has been formed consisting of James Cole, Frank Cunningham, Chris Ruzzin and Michael Patten to review the proposed language changes noted earlier in these minutes.

Tony Vinson reported that phone servers were upgraded for small bus service. The system is not working properly yet. The reminder calls from the night before have been stopped. It is only sending the call to the passenger without the message. This situation will be studied on Monday. The goal is to have it functioning properly by the end of next week.

A request was made that the fixed route automatic announcement system should announce more transfer points and main intersections. It was also noted that the announcements are sometimes made after the bus has passed the stop.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

If the millage passes, Jim Fetzer asked council members to be thinking about the desires of the SAC.

There will be an online scheduling presentation at the September meeting.

NEXT MEETING - Friday, September 19, 2014 - 9:00 a.m., Buhl Bldg., 6th floor, SMART Boardroom.