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Capital Area Metropolitan Transit Authority
Access Advisory Committee
March 4, 2009 Minutes Draft
314 W. 11th Street, Ned Granger Building

Members Present:


  1. Diane Bomar-Aleman, Chair Access Committee, Member STS Subcommittee
  2. Dave Patterson, Vice Chair Access Committee, Member Fixed Route Subcommittee
  3. Boone J. Blocker, Secretary Access Committee, Member Fixed Route Subcommittee
  4. Mary Ward, Chair STS Subcommittee
  5. Jane Lansaw, Chair Fixed Route Subcommittee
  6. Malcolm Graham, Member STS Subcommittee
  7. Sandra Seekamp, Member Fixed Route Subcommittee

Members Absent


  1. Will Brown, Member Fixed Route Subcommittee
  2. Amy Litzinger, Member STS Subcommittee

Capital Metro Staff Present


  1. Inez Evans, Director Paratransit
  2. Kirk Talbott, Chief Communications Officer
  3. Julie Martin, Access Committee Staff Liaison
  4. Rafael Villarreal, Assistant Director of Paratransit
  5. Nancy Crowther, Accessible Transportation Specialist
  6. Chad Ballentine, Superintendent Paratransit
  7. Bob Dunlap, MetroAccess Road Supervisor
  8. Meredith Highsmith, Planning

Guests Present


  1. Michael Zitz-Evancih
  2. Carlos Aleman

Call to Order
The meeting was called to order at 5:34 pm by Secretary Blocker.

Citizen’s Communication
Michael Zitz-Evancih reported that he attended the AT&T Disability Communication Focus Group in Dallas. There were 4 types of disabilities discussed at the focus group. AT&T offered to help with communication and to have prospective customers considering bundling different services they offer. Next month, AT&T may have another focus group held at the UT campus. Mary Ward asked Mr. Zitz-Evancih for contact information and Mr. Zitz-Evancih said that he would provide it after the meeting.

Approval of Minutes for January 7, 2009
Nancy Crowther explained that after reviewing her notes and listening to her recording of the January 7, 2009 Access meeting, there was no clear motion and approval of the Metro Mobility Working Group (MMWG) and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) resolution. Mr. Blocker recommended that the minutes from the January 7, 2009 meeting be approved without the resolution and that if the committee still wanted the motion to be passed, it be read and voted on at the current meeting. Mary Ward moved and Jane Lansaw seconded that the minutes from the January 7, 2009 Access Advisory Committee meeting be approved. The motion passed.

Approval of Minutes for February 4, 2009
Jane Lansaw moved and Diane Bomar-Aleman seconded that the minutes from the February 4, 2009 Access Advisory Committee meeting be approved. The motion passed.

Access Committee Reports
Jane Lansaw, Chair of the MMWG, stated that the group had finalized the no-show and late cancellation policy and that email responses would be needed from the full Access Advisory Committee. Secretary Blocker read the following MMWG/IVR resolution:

The Access Committee wishes its representatives on the MMWG to inform the entire MMWG that it is the clear understanding of the Access Committee that no changes in policy or procedures being contemplated or researched by MMWG can be recommended until such time as the IVR has been working for a period of 90 days.

The term working as used here means that the IVR is fully useful for the purposes for which it is intended. That an ordinary person using a telephone can make the themselves understood and can use the system to accomplish the tasks that the system itself invites the person to accomplish.

The resolution passed and will be read at the next MMWG meeting.

David Patterson, a member of the Customer Satisfaction Advisory Committee (CSAC), stated that their next meeting would be held March 11, 2009.

Capital Metro Staff Reports
Meredith Highsmith gave a presentation of the preliminary service changes for 2009. They included AISD rollbacks, traditional schedule changes, summer routes, evaluations of routes with regards to tax revenue, elimination of low ridership routes and rail updates. The full service change list is included as a separate attachment due to the length of the document. Access Advisory Committee Chair Aleman noted that she still needed a Braille copy of the handout for the public hearing. Access Vice Chair David Patterson stated that the #7 routes are very crowded and asked if service would be expanded in the downtown areas.

Kirk Talbott gave an IVR update. Before the presentation started, Mr. Patterson thanked Capital Metro and Mr. Talbott for the recent improvements in the performance of the IVR. Mr. Talbott stated that there are two types of updates to the system: improvements and callouts. For website reservations, there will be 2 to 3 days of testing with dummy trips which will then be expanded to a larger group, but there still are some logistical issues to work out.

The IVR “rebuild” of the hardware is finished: however, conflicts still exist between the hardware and the voice recognition portion of the system. There is limited vendor support for this area. A change in the software script and getting full control of the voice recognition portion of the software to achieve the necessary alterations is also difficult. A third party independent “audit” of the system will take place next week to see how fast these changes can be made, but peer-to-peer analysis of the IVR is difficult. Nancy Crowther mentioned that at the last Access Subcommittee meeting, several people asked about increasing the number of favorite destinations that each user can have in the IVR system. Chair Aleman stated that the ideal number of favorites would be in the range of five to ten. She also mentioned that Tell Me does a good job of handling this feature. The process of altering favorites over the phone is cumbersome and email and web input would be ideal. Access will be testing this feature first and then it would be rolled out to the general public.

Malcolm Graham asked about the Capital Metro blog and stated that audio Captcha is difficult. His blog is run through Google and he stated that other blogs he is familiar with are run through Wordpress. Graham stated that currently, the Capital Metro blog does not allow anonymous posting and that a form that asks questions would be better. Mr. Talbott responded that there is plan to remove these hurdles in the blog setup in the future.

Chad Ballentine gave a report about appointment time scheduling and on-time performance. He stated that Capital Metro does track this issue. He stated that in January 2009 the on time measurement was 88% for the pickup and 94.5% for the appointment time. Chair Aleman stated that getting someone to an appointment 30 minutes early or sooner was roughly the same thing as getting there late. She said that something needs to change about getting to appointments this early and using the Trapeze software overlay for ride times. Inez Evans stated that no additional software had been purchased. Several Access members said that a formal written complaint system is needed which would be cataloged and then followed up on later. Sandy Seekamp mentioned that sometimes the ride home from an appointment takes longer than the initial leg of the trip. Mary Ward asked if the Capital Metro schedulers make the appointments or if the computers do this. Vice Chair Patterson asked about getting estimated drop-off times for the ride home.

Inez Evans opened up a discussion about door-through-door service vs. curb-to-curb service. Mr. Graham mentioned that a rider named Robert Frank does not get picked up at his door. It was agreed that more information about possible steps, ramps or other barriers was needed to follow up on the issue. Chair Aleman inquired about the Whole Foods drop-off/pickup location. She stated that currently, the rider has to negotiate across several lanes of traffic in the parking lot and that this is dangerous.

Julie Martin, the new Access Advisory Committee liaison, gave an introduction presentation. She has been with Capital Metro over seven years in the north and northwest corridors, has worked with Inez Evans and Nancy Crowther to learn about MetroAccess issues, and will be trying to learn more.

New Business
The discussion of the service area was not addressed.

Adjournment
Malcolm Graham moved and David Patterson seconded a motion to adjourn. The motion passed and the meeting was adjourned at 7:32 pm.

The next Access Advisory Committee Meeting will be held April 1, 2009 from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm at 314 W. 11th, Ned Granger Travis County Commissioner’s Courthouse Building.


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