2023-05-03-AHTC-min - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

mentioned by Howard,specifically Salem and Newton.There was some information in the readings that they tended to be very expensive. Howard will be talking with the Brookhaven ‘Carless’group on May 18th.As well as the other senior citizen groups that he knows.There is a lot of interest for micro transit.The Ride and te Taxi require booking 24 hours in advance and if a coupon is to be used to pay for the travel then the taxi vendor often will not want to drive the senior citizen.Perhaps there is a possibility of a process improvement here. Talk to Nishi about the student survey. Explanation of using school buses:Deepika expressed great reluctance to having strangers on a school bus given the security concerns.And also explained that our student and family demographics are changing which may mean that attitudes and comfort levels with mass transport are changing.Ie parents may not be comfortable putting kids on mass transport especially those younger than middle school.She gave some history of the school bus use for dropping off students at after school programs in town and how it had been stopped due to liability reasons and concerns about dropping students off in non certified spaces (not certified by Department of Early Education and Care (EEC)) Sally explained Susan’s point that it's not putting strangers on buses but just taking a more holistic view of mass transportation in Lexington.Perhaps Lexington Public Schools vans etc could be used during down times. Ms.Kosnoff explained how we dont own any vans or buses except for a food service vehicle that is actually owned by the school dept.It is a very expensive and weighty proposition to take on the capital costs and the personnel to manage such an operation.Not something that the town of Lexington would likely want to do.Looking at the budget,some of the issues started in mid 2000s when our revenue allocation model was put in place.The muicipal side has the lexpress and the schools fund their bus vendor service.We would have to look at this model to figure out a shared service to pool resources for transportation. Bridger -outsource busing and not internally employ.End up being more expensive to the town. Joe reminded us that the Select Board was still waiting to hear from the AHTC about the TAC recommendation.Members were polled for their viewpoint. TAC recommendation feedback- Howard -take no position,neither approve or deny as we really dont know what is the outcome for fiscal year 2025, Sally -this is a trial and an experiment so no harm in doing it Varda-would like to support it Ck -not a risk from the financial standpoint as such small amounts of revenue are coming in anyways.However,if we make a change in a year it can cause confusion.Not opposed to it.If TAC feels strongly and has weighed the risk.