RTS COA Technical Memorandum #1go-rts.com/files/COA/RTS_COA_Technical_Memorandum_1.pdf · The!City!of!Gainesville!Regional!Transit!System! ... Debbie!! Leistner! PW!PlanningManager!

Technical Memorandum #1 – Summary of Staff, Stakeholder, Public and Rider Input July 22, 2014

SSubmitted by: In Association With:

Comprehensive Operations Analysis (COA)

Technical Memorandum #1 RTS Comprehensive Operations Analysis

Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.0 Project Overview .......................................................................................................... 3

2.0 Summary of Public Engagement Plan ............................................................................ 4 2.1 Public Engagement Plan ........................................................................................................ 4 Technical Input ................................................................................................................................. 6 Public and Rider Input ...................................................................................................................... 6

3.0 Staff Input .................................................................................................................... 8 RTS Staff Input ................................................................................................................................. 8 3.1 Management and Planning ................................................................................................... 8 3.2 Transit Bus Operators ........................................................................................................... 8 3.3 Transit Supervisors and Customer Service ............................................................................. 8

4.0 Stakeholder Input ......................................................................................................... 9 4.1 Transit Steering Committee (TSC) .......................................................................................... 9 4.2 Key Stakeholder Input ......................................................................................................... 10

5.0 Public and Transit Rider Input ..................................................................................... 11 5.1 Public Involvement ............................................................................................................. 11 5.2 Transit Rider Input .............................................................................................................. 14

APPENDICIES (SAVED AS SEPARATE ELECTRONIC FILE)

Appendix A: Project Involvement

Appendix B: Staff Input

Appendix C: Stakeholder Input

Appendix D: Stakeholder Questionaire and Responses

Appendix E: Public & Transit Rider Input


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Summary of Public Engagement Activities

1.0 PROJECT OVERVIEW

The City of Gainesville Regional Transit System (RTS) is conducting a Comprehensive Operations Analysis (COA) to evaluate existing transit operations in comparison with a detailed technical analysis of travel market demand in the region for short-‐term and long-‐term transit needs. The COA study includes an on-‐board rider survey, driver interviews, field observations, and a transit propensity analysis. The study process is illustrated on Figure 1. The goal is to enhance the overall effectiveness of the RTS transit system and to identify short-‐term solutions as well as long-‐term investments. The COA study area is shown on Figure 2.

Figure 1: Gainesville COA Study Process


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2.0 SUMMARY OF PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT PLAN

Successful community engagement focuses on communicating with the public and receiving information from all interested persons, groups, and government organizations regarding a project. It communicates project goals and analysis clearly, provides a forum for input throughout the study, and integrates stakeholder input into the technical analysis. Moreover, it works to reach broad segments of the community by making information easily available. This requires a process that is characterized by technical competence, honesty and integrity, and good listening. This Public Engagement Plan outlines the process to be taken to ensure the appropriate level of public involvement is performed for this project in compliance with the Florida Department of Transportation’s (FDOT) Project Development and Environmental (PD&E) Manual, Part 1, Chapter 11, and Part 2, Chapter 9, as well as the FDOT Public Involvement Handbook.

Successful public engagement is about

2.1 Public Engagement Plan

Activities implemented as part of COA Public Engagement Plan allowed people living and working in the RTS service area, and other interested parties to contribute their thoughts regarding bus service. The goal of the COA Public Engagement Plan was to generate interest in the project purpose and meetings as well as create an awareness of the scope, schedule, and opportunities for public input. This supported the primary objective of ensuring that the community was given opportunities to review and comment on the findings of the COA Study and that concerns were addressed in the analysis. The COA Public Engagement Plan provided elected officials, students, business owners, the public, agency staff, and other interested parties with a two-‐way line of continuous communication, easy-‐to-‐understand project information, and readily accessible project materials. For example, the public information meeting format for each of the Gainesville RTS COA meetings presented the same information during the day at the RTS bus stops as was presented in the evening at an open house meeting in the community (see image at right). In this way, the community engagement plan was taken to passengers so those who were unable to attend or uncomfortable attending a traditional public workshop could present their opinion.


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Figure 2: Gainesville COA Study Area


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In addition, the COA Public Engagement Plan provided for:

• Availability of maps, technical analysis, and project information, • Input on RTS service characteristics, transit improvements, and evaluation criteria, and • Access to staff, consultant team members, and the decision-‐making process.

The entire project team participated in this effort (Connetics Transportation Group, Parsons Brinckerhoff, and Luke Transportation Engineering Consultants) and worked together to prepare presentation and handout materials and make presentations as requested by the RTS Project Manager, as well as prepare meeting summaries of all meetings.

Technical Input

The Consultant team worked with a technical stakeholder group (see Appendix A) referred to as the Transit Steering Committee (TSC). The TSC reviewed and provided input into the study’s key deliverables, including: Public Engagement Plan, study goals, evaluation methodology, and each screening step throughout the study process. Before each public information meeting, this group reviewed the materials that were to be presented. The TSC met three times during the study to provide input. The TSC was composed of representatives from major stakeholder groups including1:

• RTS

• Alachua County

• City of Gainesville

• University of Florida (UF)

• Santa Fe College (SFC)

• Florida Works

Public and Rider Input

The public engagement plan used both non-‐traditional and traditional methods to reach the community. At each engagement, the Consultant team offered the community the opportunity to join a mailing list (see image at right) or suggest a community member of an organization to add to the list; there were other transit studies being conducted in the community and the consultant team cross-‐pollinated mailing lists with those consultant teams. On-‐board surveys, driver and rider interviews, and one-‐on-‐one reviews of study recommendations were conducted to allow for passengers and the public to offer comments on the COA study. Figure 3 provides a summary of a prioritization survey conducted at the Rosa Park Downtown Terminal, the Oaks Mall, Butler Plaza and the Public Meeting held on May 1, 2014.

1 When the COA study was later combined with the Transit Development Plan the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Organization (MTPO) and FDOT were also invited to participate in meetings.


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Figure 3: COA Study Prioritization Survey Results

FREQUENCY SPAN OF SERVICE

Rte # # Responses Rte # # Responses Rte # # Responses Rte # # Responses Rte # # Responses Rte # # Responses75 15 75 20 75 16 75 13 75 19 75 135 3 6 3 12 3 39 3 2 2 2 26 2 12 3 20 2 10 2 10 2 39 243 2 23 3 25 2 12 2 23 2 43 21 1 1 2 1 1 43 2 39 2 8 18 1 5 2 2 1 1 1 43 2 10 19 1 8 2 5 1 7 1 6 1 25 110 1 20 2 6 1 8 1 7 1 76 115 1 25 2 8 1 9 1 8 120 1 35 2 9 1 15 1 12 121 1 9 1 15 1 20 1 20 123 1 15 1 35 1 24B 1 25 124B 1 39 1 39 1 25 1 35 125 1 43 1 43 1 36 1 76 134 1 76 1 76 1 76 136 1 128 1 128 139 162 176 1

Weekday Saturday SundayWeekday Saturday Sunday


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Stakeholder Input

3.0 STAFF INPUT

RTS Staff Input

The community participation approach began with RTS staff input. Staff identified local issues and priorities as well as key areas of concern for inclusions in the public outreach process throughout the plan development. Key RTS groups engaged in the COA process included the following: Planning and Operations Managers, the RTS Director, Bus Operators, Transit Supervisors, and Customer Service personnel. The following is a brief description of the staff level outreach activities conducted as part of the COA Study. Comments received by each of these groups are documented in Appendix B.

3.1 Management and Planning

A series of meetings were held with management and planning staff throughout the course of the COA Study. The Project Management Team consisted of Eustache Mine, Project Manager, Jesus Gomez RTS Executive Director and Matthew Muller, RTS Transit Planner. Meeting with this team focused on project schedule, key milestones and products, outstanding issues and specific focus areas to be addressed during the study, as well as collecting desired outcomes, perspectives and insight from RTS staff that would assist the Consultant Team in completing the study. More specifically, the Consultant team conducted the following meetings with the Project Management Team over the course of the COA Study: initial Project kick-‐off meeting, study coordination and status meetings, Workshop #1 on Task 4 – Service Evaluation, Workshop #2 on Task 6/7 – Service Recommendations, TSC and Public Meeting preparation meetings, and coordination meetings between the COA and Transit Development Plan (TDP) Study efforts.

3.2 Transit Bus Operators

The staff that comes in contact with the customers each day can provide important insight on the customers’ experience. As ambassadors of the transit agency, transit operators have the most opportunity for and the greatest depth of contact with RTS’ patrons. This fact makes them a valuable asset both for vetting rider input on surveys and through other media, and for providing important insights into route-‐level and system network issues related to operations, safety, scheduling, etc. The Consultant team made use of this asset by spending time in the operator break room at RTS on September 30, 2013 (10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.), as well as onboard buses and at end-‐of-‐line locations informally interviewing operators about RTS services, potential enhancements, and often-‐heard rider needs and complaints.

3.3 Transit Supervisors and Customer Service

Transit Supervisors and customer service representatives interact with the RTS customers each day to resolve complaints, answer service inquiries, and respond to other operational issues. Meetings were held to get insights on this interaction on December 9th and 10th 2013 in the administrative office conference room of RTS.


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Stakeholder Input

4.0 STAKEHOLDER INPUT

4.1 Transit Steering Committee (TSC)

At the inception of the COA Study, RTS established a TSC consisting of representatives from organizations like the City of Gainesville, Alachua County, and UF. Table 4.1 lists the TSC members for this study effort.

Table 4.1: COA Study Transit Steering Committee (TSC)

First Last Title Organization -‐ Department

Email Phone

Naima Brown Sociology Department Santa Fe College [email protected] (352) 395-‐5300

Michael Fay Development Program Manager

Alachua County [email protected] (352) 374-‐5245

Scott Fox Director Transportation and Parking Services

University of Florida -‐ Transportation & Parking

[email protected] (352) 392-‐8048

Jesus Gomez Transit Director City of Gainesville -‐ RTS [email protected] (352) 334-‐2609

Jeffrey Hays Transportation Planning Manager

Alachua County [email protected] (352) 374-‐5249

Debbie Leistner PW Planning Manager City of Gainesville [email protected] (352) 393-‐8412

Bob Miller Associate Vice President for Finance and Administration

University of Florida -‐ Business Affairs

[email protected] (352) 392-‐1336

Eustache Mine Transit Operations Manager

RTS [email protected] (352) 393-‐7852

Matthew Muller Transit Planner RTS [email protected] (352) 393-‐7890

David Price History Department Santa Fe College [email protected] (352) 395-‐5300

Bill Reese Associate Vice President for Facilities

Santa Fe College [email protected] (352) 395-‐5521

Kim Tesch-‐Vaught Executive Director FloridaWorks ktesch-‐[email protected] (352) 244-‐5148

As stated above, the TSC assisted the COA Study Team and RTS with review of analyses results, input and perspective based on the entities they represented, review and comment of draft and final COA service plan recommendations, and prioritization of future year service improvements. The TSC met three times throughout the COA Study, with the last two meetings being held jointly with the TDP Consultant Team (Tindale Oliver & Associates). TSC Meetings were held on the following dates and times:

The following TSC meetings were held through the course of the COA Study:

• TSC Meeting #1: October 22, 2013, 10:00 a.m.-‐12:00 p.m. at Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) Multi-‐purpose Room

• TSC Meeting #2: February 3, 2014, 10:00 a.m.-‐12:00 p.m. at GRU (Joint COA / TDP Meeting) • TSC Meeting #3: May 21, 2014, 10:30 a.m.-‐12:00 p.m. at GRU (Joint COA/TDP Meeting)

Appendix C contains the PowerPoint Presentations for each meeting, including copies of any additional materials presented.


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Stakeholder Input

4.2 Key Stakeholder Input

To get a better understanding of the perceptions and attitudes of the community, the Study Team offered one-‐on-‐one interviews with City Commission members. The Consultant team developed an interview script and reviewed it with RTS staff prior to conducting these interviews. The Consultant contacted the City of Gainesville Commission members through their staff representatives to schedule these one-‐on-‐one meetings. The following three methods of interaction where offered to the Commission to gather their input:

• E-‐mailed surveys (sent to all Commissioners on March 9, 2014), • Personal face-‐to-‐face meetings, and • Phone interview meetings

Two of the City Commission members chose to participate in this input collection process, Commissioner Hinson-‐Rawls and Commissioner Hawkins. The remaining Commissioners did not respond to the offer. Commissioner Hinson-‐Rawls was interviewed on March 18th at 1:30 p.m. and Commissioner Hawkins was interviewed on March 18th at 2:30 p.m. Additionally, Commissioner Hawkins completed the survey e-‐mailed to all Commissioners on March 9, 2014, and is attached in Appendix D.


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Public and Transit Rider Input

5.0 PUBLIC AND TRANSIT RIDER INPUT

5.1 Public Involvement

Community engagement meetings were held on October 1, 2013 and on May 1, 2014. The format for both public information meetings was similar. The consultant team met with passengers at RTS stations during the day and held an open house workshop in the evening. The same materials were presented to both groups.

The October 1, 2013 meeting was duly advertised in the Gainesville Sun and the Florida Administrative Register. Notices were also posted using bus cards on buses. Flyers announcing the meetings were distributed to the UF Campus, SFC Campus, downtown Gainesville businesses, social media, and a broad email list of community organizations. The Consultant team met with passengers at the Oaks Mall in the morning and afternoon, at the Rosa Parks Downtown Station in the morning and afternoon, and at the Historic Gainesville Depot (across from Rosa Parks) in the evening. Altogether, the Consultant team interacted with 73 members of the community on October 1, 2013. The open house/workshop attendance included nine persons who signed in. Those who attended the workshop stayed for about 45 minutes on average and conducted all workshop activities. Some stayed to ask additional questions or offer personal insights. Meeting materials and photographs are included in Appendix D. A Survey was conducted of the participants of this meeting, asking them to prioritize spending priorities as well as types of services. The survey was also conducted with the Transit Steering Committee (TSC) at its first meeting. Table 5.1 summarizes the results of these survey efforts.


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Table 5.1: Public Meeting #1 (October 1, 2013) and Transit Steering Committee Meeting #1 Service Prioritization Survey Results

Public Meeting ResultsSpending Priorities with $17 to spend ($10, $5 and $2)

Improvement Type Investment Priority Service Type Investment PriorityFrequency 65.00$ 1 Fixed Routes 64.00$ 1Better Connections 51.00$ 2 Limited Stop Routes 49.00$ 2Passenger Amenities 19.00$ 3 Express Routes 42.00$ 3Operating Hours 14.00$ 4 Flexible Routes 9.00$ 4More/Different Routes 12.00$ 5 Demand Response 6.00$ 5Weekend Service 9.00$ 6 Circulators -‐$ NRSafety Improvements -‐$ NR

170.00$ 10 voters 170.00$ 10 voters

Transit Steering Committee Meeting ResultsSpending Priorities with $17 to spend ($10, $5 and $2)

Improvement Type Investment Priority Service Type Investment PriorityBetter Connections 26.00$ (2.2) 1 Fixed Routes 40.00$ (2.2) 1Frequency 25.00$ (2.4) 2 Circulators 20.00$ (2.4) 2Passenger Amenities 22.00$ (3.5) 3 Express Routes 24.00$ (2.7) 3Operating Hours 15.00$ (3.5) 4 Limited Stop Routes 16.00$ (2.8) 4More/Different Routes 12.00$ (4.2) 5 Demand Response 2.00$ (5.2) 5Weekend Service 2.00$ (5.3) 6 Flexible Routes -‐$ (5.4) 6Safety Improvements -‐$ (5.4) 7

102.00$ 6 voters 62.00$ 6 voters


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The May 1, 2014 meeting was advertised in the Gainesville Sun. Notices were also posted using bus cards on buses. Flyers announcing the meetings were distributed electronically and posted manually around Gainesville in the same locations outlined above. The Consultant team met with passengers at the Oaks Mall in the morning, at Butler Plaza in the afternoon, at the Rosa Parks Downtown Station in the morning and afternoon, and at the GRU Multipurpose Room (across from Rosa Parks) in the evening. Altogether, the Consultant team interacted with 62 members of the community on May 1, 2014. The open house/workshop attendance included seven persons who signed in. Those who attended the workshop stayed for about 25 minutes on average and conducted all workshop activities. A few stayed to ask additional questions or offer personal insights until the end of the meeting at 8:00 p.m.


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5.2 Transit Rider Input

Transit Rider input was received through a number of methods. Below is a list of ways the Consultant team interacted with the transit riders throughout the COA Study.

• On-‐Board Passenger Survey – September 16-‐20, 2013 • 1st Public Meeting – October 1, 2013 • Rosa Parks Transit Center – October 1, 2013 (7:30 a.m.-‐9:30 a.m., and 2:30 p.m.-‐4:30 p.m.) • Oaks Mall Transit Stop – October 1, 2013 (7:30 a.m.-‐9:30 a.m., and 2:30 p.m.-‐4:30 p.m.) • Field Analysis and bus tours – September 16-‐20, 2013 and November 17 – 19, 2013 • 2nd Public Meeting – May 1, 2014 • Rosa Parks Transit Center – May 1, 2014 (7:30 a.m.-‐9:30 a.m., and 2:30 p.m.-‐4:30 p.m.) • Oaks Mall Transit Stop – May 1, 2014 (7:30 a.m.-‐9:30 a.m.) • Butler Plaza Transit Center -‐ May 1, 2014 (2:30 p.m.-‐4:30 p.m.)

Input sessions held at Oaks Mall, Butler Plaza and Rosa Parks Transit Center allowed the Consultant team the opportunity to distribute and discuss the same materials and handouts presented at the Public meetings held on October 1, 2013 and May 1, 2014. Meeting materials and comment card responses from these events are included in Appendix D.


Page A-‐1

Appendix A

Appendix A

Project Involvement Saved as separate document


Page B-‐1

Appendix B

Appendix B

Staff Input Saved as separate document


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Appendix C

Appendix C

Stakeholder Input Saved as separate document


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Appendix D

Appendix D

Stakeholder Questionnaire and Responses Saved as separate document


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Appendix E

Appendix E

Public & Transit Rider Input Saved as separate document

Documents

RTS COA Technical Memorandum #1go-rts.com/files/COA/RTS_COA_Technical_Memorandum_1.pdf · The!City!of!Gainesville!Regional!Transit!System! ... Debbie!! Leistner! PW!PlanningManager!