Meeting Notes of the
Transportation Coordination
Workgroup Meeting of
Monday, October 24 2011
BVCOG
Cameron Muhic
Clay Barnett
Regional Representatives
Bart Benthul – Bryan-College Station Metropolitan Planning Organization
Trish Buck – Workforce Solutions of the Brazos Valley
Bettye Bullock - Texas Department of State Health Services
Karen Garber – Brazos Valley Community Action Agency
Peggy Kay - Texas Department of State Health Services
Crystal Leon – Area Agency on Aging
Ron Steedly – Texas A&M University
Darla Walton – Texas Department of Transportation
Meeting Notes
1. Welcome & Introductions
Cameron called the meeting to order at 1:31 pm and started introductions. Cameron introduced Clay Barnett, a new BVCOG staff member who will be specializing in GIS. Introductions were done around the room, with all participants giving their names and their areas of interest and expertise.
2. Discussion of current Fiscal Year work plan according to TxDOT contract.
Cameron began with describing the activities that were planned for the current Fiscal Year.
Task 1 will be looking at ways to achieve savings through economies of scale. Hopefully being able to identify cost savings will encourage inter-agency cooprtation.
Task 2 is continuing to identify transportation service gaps in the Brazos Valley. While there is a concensus that transportation is a critical need in the region, there is little data that tells when and where people need to go. Most of the research will be done with agencies that are already in BVCOG, and workgroup members will be asked to assist with input and collecting information from clients when possible.
Task 3 involves the use of social media for collecting information about transportation needs and increasing citizen participation in the planning process. Some cities and regions in the US are using social media to make citizen participation easier. The idea will be to investigate best practices and put together a demonstration project that will collect information, allow for citizen participation, and could be used as a model for other regions.
Task 4 will look at identifying ways to provide expanded transportation opportunities for residents in the Brazos Valley and to look for funding sources that could be tapped to make these improvements happen.
Task 5 will involve developing a plan to do a demonstration project that would address one or some of the needs identified in Tasks 2 and 4.
2a. Added Last Minute Item
Ron Steedly presented on a computer program he had been working on that could track rides given by various agencies. This could be very helpful in identifying duplication of services, vehicle requirements and other information necessary to identify client needs. In the future the information could be opened to the Rideshare program to allow for agencies to plan group trips.
Bart suggested that the destination addresses should be as specific as possible.
The Workgroup will discuss how to make use of this tool at future meetings. Cameron suggested it could also be combined with GIS and mentioned that Clay might be able to provide some input with that idea.
3. Discussion of “How to Ride” videos
Cameron then spoke to the Workgroup about the work plan for the upcoming fiscal year. He mentioned that there would be a change of focus from planning to actually trying to put some of the plan into action.
He mentioned that one area he was going to be focused on was tracking down the amount of money spent by the various agencies on providing client transportation. He asked for input from the group about activities that they were either interested in helping with, or if there were activities the workgroup thought should be included.
Camilla and Wendy volunteered to work on the “How to Ride” video. Albert raised some questions about the Brazos Valley Transportation Partnership activities. Cameron assured him that these would be done after discussion, and in coordination with himself and Camilla and the other Health Resource Centers. The principal idea is to look at ways that BVCOG can help bring additional service to the Health Resource clients.
Albert mentioned his concern that there are no other Health and Human Service agencies currently involved in the workgroup. Cameron replied that he was hoping to encourage more HHS interest in two principal ways. 1). through identifying potential cost savings that could be made through better transportation coordination with other agencies and 2). Using the Transportation Coordination Plan as a guidebook to give to HHS agencies to show what we are trying to accomplish.
It was suggested that as component parts of the plan come on line—things like the Provider webpage would give other agencies an indication that things are actively moving forward and would encourage them to participate.
Cameron mentioned that the workgroup would be taking the next month off and he’d send out an e-mail asking people to think about other actions that people wanted to work on during the next Fiscal Year.
4. Discussion of future agenda items
Darla mentioned that Bob Appleton (TxDOT) has some concerns about the fiscal sustainability of the group. Cameron asked if we should ask Bob to come in and talk to the group about his concerns and ideas. Darla spoke about the original idea behind the transportation coordination effort and reminded the group that the original idea was to develop and idea of how the area could sustain transportation services if there was no state or federal funding. Cameron responded that he would ask Bob to come to the next meeting so we could benefit from his input.
Darla and Wendy also spoke about the need for the Workgroup to become more involved in the Transportation Committee activities. They felt that the Transportation Committee isn’t familiar enough with what the Workgroup is doing and that this could be achieved by more interaction between the two groups. Cameron promised to work on finding ways to get more information to the Transportation Committee about the transportation needs of the area.
Albert also reminded the group that he had suggested that the Brazos Valley Health Partnership be added to the Transportation Committee. Cameron promised that he’d talk with Mike Parks about what could be done to add them to the Committee.
There was then a discussion about the make-up of the Transportation Committee. The workgroup asked a number of questions about how people became members of the Committee. Cameron explained how the members of the Transportation Committee were selected.
There were no other future agenda items discussed and Cameron asked that workgroup members e-mail any additional items to him.
5. Proposed next meeting date: 1:30 pm, Monday, November 14, 2011
6. Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 2:17 pm