Members Present:
- Diane Bomar-Aleman, Chair Access Committee, Member MetroAccess Subcommittee
- Boone J. Blocker, Secretary Access Committee, Member Fixed Route Subcommittee
- Sandy Seekamp, Member Fixed Route Subcommittee
- Ann Nelson, Member MetroAccess Subcommittee
- Charles Shavers, Member MetroAccess Subcommittee
- Mary Ellen Sanchez, Member MetroAccess Subcommittee
- Queen Walker, Member Fixed Route Subcommittee
- Michael Zitz-Evancih, Reserve Member, Access Associate
Members Absent
- Dave Patterson, Vice Chair Access Committee, Chair Fixed Route Subcommittee
- Jane Lansaw, Member Fixed Route Subcommittee
- Malcolm Graham, Chair MetroAccess Subcommittee (Pat Bartel acting as proxy)
Capital Metro Staff Present
- Elaine Timbes, Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer
- Kirk Talbott, Chief Information Officer
- Randy Hume, Chief Financial Officer
- Dianne Mendoza, Director Business and Community Relations
- Inez Evans, Director of Paratransit
- Rafael Villarreal, Assistant Director of Paratransit
- Olivia Jones, Assistant Manager of Operations for Star Tran
- Jeff Denning, Transportation/Field Supervisor
Guests Present
- Carlos Aleman
- Pat Bartel
- Crystal Minner
- Patty Timmerman
- Kathy Jackson
Call to OrderThe meeting was called to order at 5:31 pm by Chair Diane Bomar-Aleman.
Citizen’s CommunicationCarlos Aleman commended the Access Committee members and Capital MetroAccess employees for their hard work and also said that MetroAccess was a useful tool. He recently scheduled on Friday for a Saturday trip and ran into some difficulties and lodged a formal complaint. When he received a call back from the supervisor, he had to re-tell the entire incident and feels that with better communication the process could work better. He said that he was still in favor of MetroAccess drivers having cell phones to better contact passengers to help with more efficient trip pickups.
Patty Timmerman also relayed her thoughts on communication. When she is scheduling a trip, she repeats the ride information with the reservationist to make sure she has given and received the correct trip information. However, even when doing this, she has still continually experienced some of the same problems. She comes to the Access Meetings to do her part and contribute to finding solutions, but she leaves the meetings feeling frustrated and angry. She received a letter from Capital Metro stating that her MetroAccess certification is due for renewal again, although her actual certification is not due for renewal until 2011. Several Access Committee members said that they would assist her in looking into this matter. She also stated that several times when booking a trip, she has requested a seat on the MetroAccess vehicle for a companion passenger. Although she makes the request and confirms it, some reservationists are not properly recording the request and are not doing what Capital Metro staff call “flipping the script.” Tony Palacios, a supervisor with MetroAccess, has told the drivers to accommodate these companion passengers if this happens again.
Crystal Minner stated that she has been experiencing the same problem with fixed route buses for over 9 months. The enunciators on the buses are not continually working and the drivers are failing to properly announce the stops in these circumstances. This has caused her to miss a job interview. She is a very independent person, but when this happens she is forced to use broken sidewalks in an unfamiliar part of town. She is still unconditionally certified for paratransit service in Delaware and wondered why she has only been given conditional MetroAccess certification in Austin, Texas.
Queen Walker reported that an 86 year old woman had a problem with a MetroAccess pickup at the Alamo Recreation Center, located at 2100 Alamo Street. On May 24, 2010 the driver did not come into the Recreation Center and consequently she was not picked up and she was given a no-show. Walker helped the woman and called the complaint line and the reservation line to report the problem and get the passenger picked up. The woman was only given a stand-by ride and instead got a ride home from an Alamo Recreation Center employee.
Approval of Minutes for March 3, 2010, April 7, 2010 and May 5, 2010Sandy Seekamp moved and Ann Nelson seconded a motion to approve the Minutes from the March 3, 2010 Access Advisory Committee Meeting. The motion passed.
Nelson moved and Walker seconded a motion to approve the Minutes from the April 7, 2010 Access Advisory Committee Meeting. The motion passed.
Walker moved and Seekamp seconded a motion to approve the Minutes from the May 5, 2010 Access Advisory Committee Meeting. The motion passed.
AnnouncementsMichael Zitz-Evancih announced that the Brain Injury Association of Texas’ Annual State Conference is Friday, Saturday and Sunday (June 4, 5 and 6) at 4415 IH35.
Sandy Seekamp stated that Capital Metro would be hosting Fiscal Year 2011 Budget meetings across the city in the coming days. The remaining budget meetings will be as follows: Thursday June 3, 2010 at The Little Walnut Creek Library- 835 West Rundberg from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm, Friday June 4, 2010 at the Capital Metro Transit Store- 323 Congress from 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm, Saturday June 5, 2010 at the Spicewood Springs Library- 8637 Spicewood Springs Road from 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm and Monday June 7, 2010 at the Carver Public Library- 1161 Angelina from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. In addition, Access Chair Bomar-Aleman will work with Dianne Mendoza of Capital Metro to arrange the logistics for a MetroAccess specific budget meeting.
Access Committee ReportsSecretary Boone Blocker reported on the last meeting of the Urban Transportation Commission (UTC). Secretary Blocker has continued working with Commissioner Dustin Lanier, also of the UTC, on taxicab issues and they will present their recommendations to the Austin City Council by September 2010.
Secretary Blocker updated the group on the May Austin Mayor’s Committee For People With Disabilities (AMCPD) Meeting. Sheila Holbrook-White and Secretary Blocker presented the AMCPD information on a resolution coming from the Urban Transportation Commission recommending that the City complete its ADA Compliance portion of the Sidewalk Network first. Secretary Blocker and Holbrook-White also talked about the Strategic Mobility Plan in which comments on local transportation issues were taken in by the Transportation Department. The pair also told the AMCPD that on Monday June 14, 2010 the proposed November 2010 transportation bond package would be released by the City of Austin and on Thursday June 17, 2010 an Open House would be held at City Hall to receive comments on the proposed package.
There was a discussion about the last Metro Mobility Working Group (MMWG) meeting and the upcoming meetings. The MetroAccess application and the format of the document were discussed. In addition, a discussion was held about the pros and cons of holding in-person interviews when evaluating one’s eligibility for MetroAccess services. In trying to keep with the Board of Director’s resolution recommending that the MMWG finish their work by the end of June 2010, the group scheduled meetings for June 8, 10, 15, 17 and 24, which will be held at the Capital Metro Transit Store located at 323 Congress Avenue.
Chair Bomar-Aleman talked about the May 2010 Capital Metro Board of Directors Meeting. She stated that the Board passed a resolution concerning the MMWG recommending that the group finish its work by the end of June and bring forth their policy proposals. She stated that with the workload of the MMWG and the required public hearings for any proposed MetroAccess policy changes, the end of June timeframe was overly optimistic.
Capital Metro Staff ReportsKirk Talbott gave an update on several information technology systems that Capital Metro is currently working on. First, Talbott talked about the MetroAccess ride arrival/call notification system. For the March timeframe the success rate of the system was only 70-80% for the calls that actually went out. He stated that this rate is far below what the IT Department of Capital Metro finds acceptable and they are currently trying to find the exact cause of the problems. Whether it’s human error, system corruption issues or computer design issues, the IT Department is still looking and will continue to try and figure out the causal reasons for the problems. Several Access Committee members mentioned that while they receive the ride notification calls sometimes, the time before the ride and the distance from the pickup location varies. Talbott doesn’t know if the computer and dispatch are not communication properly, but whatever the reason, the problem evaluation process takes a while. To find out the cause of each ride arrival/call notification failure, the IT staff has to take the GPS readings from each problem trip and work backwards to assess the incident in question. He stated that at some point, the cost to evaluate and examine each trip becomes prohibitive.
Several Access Committee members asked about the deadline and the time at which the problem evaluation method becomes too costly. Chair Bomar-Aleman stated that back in October of 2009 the time quoted to make the system work to the Capital Metro Board of Directors was 6 months. As of June 2010, 8 months have passed, which is 2 months past the April 2010 deadline. Talbot emphasized that Capital Metro was committed to making some form of the ride arrival/call notification system work. The outside company that the Capital Metro IT Department has been working with on the system is not delivering as they promised. Talbott stressed that these challenges are not the fault of the Capital Metro IT employees and that his department had been working continuously to solve the problems.
Talbott then talked about the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system and the challenges with it. Two Access Meetings ago, at the April, 2010 Meeting, he stated that he was technology agnostic in regards to the IVR. The technology behind the system is itself ok, but the vendor support Capital Metro has been receiving is lacking. He said that in the Preliminary Fiscal Year 2011 Budget that Capital Metro is releasing, there is $500,000 for a new IVR system that will serve MetroAccess, Fixed Route Bus, MetroRail and MetroRapid. Talbott stated that the industry standard IVR uses some kind of touch-tone passenger input method and that Capital Metro was looking at similar systems.
Finally, Talbott talked about the MetroAccess web-based reservation form and the Automatic Vehicle Locator (AVL) system. Pat Bartel said that on the web-based reservation form there are only 3 checkboxes to note trip specific information. Bartel said that he didn’t see the point of having both an arrival time at destination checkbox and an appointment time checkbox. He also said that on the web-based reservation form there is no place to put in a plus-time ride request or to note that the passenger will be bringing a service animal. Several Access members also had some questions about the AVL system. The members wanted to know whether the AVL system was the end-all-be-all way of trip scheduling or whether a driver could re-route a trip if he or she felt it necessary. Sandy Seekamp stated that if a person made a trip reservation early enough, this MetroAccess passenger should have priority in not having their trip re-scheduled or re-routed. The Access Committee is also still waiting on reports that have been previously requested analyzing the reliability of the AVL system on a daily and monthly basis.
Dianne Mendoza gave a presentation on the Capital Metro Fiscal Year 2011 Budget process. She stated that the new Board of Directors had made some changes to the budgeting process and that this year’s public input period would be much more interactive. In conducting the public meetings regarding the budget, the Election Audience Response System (EARS) will be used for citizen input. The EAR device is a hand-held clicker that will allow the user to vote on various budgeting issues, but only counting each person’s vote once. In using the new budgeting procedures, the process is broken up into 4 sections: revenues, expenses, sustainability and priorities.
Mendoza mentioned that in the Preliminary Fiscal Year 2011 Budget, there are several proposed policy and budgetary changes recommended by the Sunset Advisory Commission in their April 2010 Capital Metro Report. In the preliminary budget, the total Capital Metro expenditures are listed at $229.6 million, with MetroAccess services listed as a $32.4 million single expenditure. MetroBus accounts for nearly half of the Authority’s expenditures coming in at $114.4 million, MetroRail at $9.0 million, MetroRideShare at $1.1 million, Freight Rail at $11.9, Capital expenditures at $48.5 million, Commitments at $11.0 million and Reserves at $1.3 million.
According to the Preliminary Fiscal Year 2011 Budget, the specific Sunset Review Recommendations are to increase revenues, reduce costs, implement a 5 year capital improvements plan and to build reserves. At the end of Fiscal Year 2010, the projected balance of the reserves is $14.7 million. The Fiscal Year 2011 projected balance of the reserves is $16.0 million or 35 days of operational funds, although the Sunset Advisory Commission recommended that the Fiscal Year 2011 reserves be built up to $28.0 million or 60 days of operational funds.
The public will be presented with the following choices for increasing revenue: increase the base fare by $.25 and all passes proportionally, increase the cost of passes only, eliminate free fares, increase MetroAccess fares to amount allowed by the ADA (from $1.20 to $2.00) and/or increase fares for UT & ACC students. The public will also be asked to rank in order of their preference for increasing revenue from the choices above.
The public will be presented with the following choices for reducing costs: reduce bus service, reduce MetroAccess service as allowed by the ADA, contract out more service at lower costs and/or reduce capital spending (savings net of grant income). The public will also be asked to rank in order of their preference for reducing cost from the choices above.
The public will presented with the following choices for building reserves: reduce bus service, reduce MetroAccess service as allowed by ADA, freeze capital projects, increase fare revenues and/or contract more services at lower cost. The public will also be asked to rank in order of their preference for building reserves from the choices above.
The public will be presented with the following choices for current and future capital projects: bus stop accessibility, shelters and benches, MetroAccess scheduling system improvements, Freight Rail, safety and security, new transit centers, bus replacement or no additional capital projects in Fiscal Year 2011. The public will also be asked to rank in order of their preference for current and future capital projects from the choices above.
Several Access Committee members had questions and concerns about the proposed policy and budgetary changes regarding MetroAccess. Some on the Committee questioned the $32.4 million budget for MetroAccess and where exactly the proposed policy and budgetary reductions in service would come from. The members also stated that it was highly unfair and unjust to be recommending a reduction in service for MetroBus and MetroAccess passengers because most of the riders using these methods of transportation are transit-dependent. However, most of the passengers on MetroRail are choice riders and have other options for their daily transportation needs, yet this method is never up for service reduction and is continually funded both in the regular budgeting process and in any cost overruns it experiences.
Old BusinessNo old business was discussed.
New BusinessChair Bomar-Aleman stated that the full-committee July Access Meeting needed to be moved and suggested that instead of having a sub-committee meeting in July, only the full-committee meeting be held. Ann Nelson moved and Vice Chair Patterson seconded a motion to move the July Access Meeting to July 21. The motion passed.
AdjournmentSandy Seekamp moved and Mary-Ellen Sanchez seconded a motion to adjourn. The motion passed and the meeting was adjourned at 7:29 pm.
The next Access Advisory Committee Meeting will be held July 21, 2010 from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm at 314 W. 11th, the Ned Granger Building- Travis County Commissioner’s Courtroom, 1st Floor.
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