2023-07-05-AHTC-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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Howard:On demand facilities,Susan and Howard can work together to look at the current on demand services available in other towns,especially as Susan has the financial costs etc info and then report back to the AHTC. Susan:In response to a question from Varda.Ridershop Drop began in 2011,the town introduced a Flex Pass for about 50 dollars and bus fees were reduced per student to 350 per year.People bought it but that ridership group doesn't ride it anymore.The ridership in the mornings and afternoons used to be students but they formed the bread and butter of the system in terms of revenues.The ridership kept going down and covid hit so we weren't able to discuss l'express as an option. Varda:look at the total cost for the town if we went back to the old system.Would it be less overall or more overall if kids went back to lexpress.One of the mass transports is successful if there are more ways to get revenue.Do a comprehensive transport study of the whole town needs and funding. Susan;traffic congestion was so bad that is why that was liked (to reduce the bus fees and bring up ridership).Apparently families sign up but don't use it.Daily ridership isn't captured and registration is only captured. Sally:return trips can be empty buses as children go to other places or stay after school.Money that goes to transportation is this much and Lexpress only gets this much.School bus budget is really big but L'express goes down. Susan:Get kids within walking and biking distance.Get more ridership JoeL We are going to add a million or so more in the school budget ,as a TMM line item.We believe transportation needs to be done differently.Facilities is a shared an expense and one way to town meeting -transportation expense s could be set that way/ We decided on a budget summit process.The shared expenses are taken and then the remainder is split in that other bucket.By state law the school bus budget has to be managed by the school dept,so a shared transportation budget would need to be SB and SC. Varda -in order to do that we would need ridership data on school buses Deepika:explained how the sum of funds requested at Budget summits is one number and bus transport funds are not necessarily viewed as a separate bucket.Funds saved in one area could either be deployed to fulfill other school needs or returned to town coffers for use as Free cash. Joe:what are the transportation services on aggregate:Liberty ride,where can we combine the drivers and take on the responsibility personnel is fungible.Maybe contracting it out,managing it as an aggregate as opposed to silos.In response to Deepika’s points about how municipal and school budgets work -the bus funds were allocated by the Town Meeting to reduce the