HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-01-13-TAC-min
Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) Minutes
January 13, 2014
Members Present
: Elaine Dratch, Sara Arnold, Peter Levy, Michael Boudet, Sally Castleman, Matt
Zhang, Francine Stieglitz
Members Absent
: Bill Levison
Staff Present
: Jeanette Rebecchi, Transportation Manager; Charlotte Rodgers, Human Services
Director
Guest
: Bijan Afshartous
1.Student Representative. Matthew Zhang, a LHS freshman, was introduced to the Committee as the
new Student Representative to TAC.
2.Minutes. Minutes from meeting of 12/2/13 were approved.
3.Transportation Services Updates. Ms. Rebecchi provided the following updates:
On January 15 from 6pm – 9 pm there will be a meeting for input about parking.
Carl Valente and Rob Addelson approved the idea of having GPS units in the buses. Pending
Town Meeting approval the Transportation budget for FY16 will include $4020 for the
hardware and for a yearly subscription.
A $900 grant from MArtap for GPS units will be applied for.
GPS-based bus tracking service would:
Allow riders with apps, viewers of website, and the Lexpress office to track the location of
any bus. Ms. Rebecchi said that most customer service calls ask where a particular bus is.
Help Ms. Rebecchi track headway times for better route planning.
Possibly provide a monitor to show when the next Lexpress bus is arriving at the new
Community Center.
4.TAC email address
The TAC address is transportationcomm@lexingtonma.gov.
Only about 10 boards and committees have email addresses currently – TAC is part of the pilot
study.
Lexpress has its own email address, as does Transportation Services.
Mr. Levy volunteered to track and respond to emails received at the TAC web-mail address.
5.Lexpress routes
Ms. Rebecchi had prepared pros and cons for three options for the new route 4. The Committee
chose option II, which includes Winchester Drive and Sunny Knoll. The committee also decided
to try the new routes for a full year before adjusting them to accommodate new destinations
such as the Minuteman National Park Visitor Center. The idea of changing the routes seasonally
was discussed, but no decision was made.
Route 5 will need to be revisited in the future.
6.Lexpress Storm Operation Policy
Each storm decision will be made by Ms. Rebecchi.
School closings will be used as a guide. The Lexpress schedule is not tied to school closings, but
is likely to follow suit based on road conditions. If schools close early, however, Lexpress will
still continue running if possible.
If school is closed for a second day (for cleanup), Lexpress can operate if the storm has passed
and roads are clear.
Ms. Rebecchi will continue updating the website and the office voicemail recording concerning
Lexpress operations.
7.Town Meeting Warrant Article. Lexington resident Bijan Afshartous has a warrant article about
increasing public transportation in Lexington. A few years ago TAC supported MBTA weekend
service and our Representative, Jay Kaufman, facilitated a meeting for us with the MBTA. We
explained to Mr. Afshartous:
The MBTA made it clear that it has two priorities: safety and Reliability. It is on those bases that
it adds or adjusts routes.
Every two or three years the T comes up with a service plan based on net cost/passenger and net
subsidy/passenger.
Both 76 and 62 are poorly performing routes. These results affect requests for changes.
We assume that if there were Sunday service, it would be as poor as Saturday.
In asking for added service we need to consider if our request would take service away from
current routes and times.
One can request changes that do NOT affect the T budget.
The T is currently looking at night service for all subway lines, but not buses. There will always
be subways running later than suburban buses.
The Committee agreed to discuss this topic again after the official Warrant for the upcoming
Town Meeting has been published.
In the past we have looked at a few of Mr. Afshartous’ requests that were local items that we
could accomplish, e.g., changing the location of a stop, adding two stops
Meeting adjourned at 4:45PM
Materials Used at the Meeting:
Agenda
Draft Meeting Minutes, December2, 2013
Memo from the Transportation Advisory Committee to the Community Center Advisory
Committee
Alternate Lexpress Routes, with maps and Pros and Cons, prepared by Ms. Rebecchi