HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-07-05-AHTC-minMEETING MINUTES JULY 5th
Attendees:Joe P.Deepika ,Bridger,Howard,Sally,Susan,Varda
Unavailable:Carolyn Kosnoff,Sharon Gunda
Meeting began 9.01am
Deepika :Gave an update on conversation with TAC chair Vinita Verma,and mid week meeting
with Bridger.There we discussed the format and goals of the July 26th.The agenda sent to
team members is a result of that discussion
Bridger:Reinvited to the shared file,and got back in there and a lot of ridership data requires
the committee’s reflection and analysis.A lot of good content we can use
General discussion:on meeting logistics and planning.Deepika to send everyone a descriptive
para which Sean D will use to send out town wide outreach.
Varda:Like to get a little help,Susan and Bridger spoke with a Burlington person for business
economic development who used to be a Lexington employee.Mellissa Tintocalis (sp?)
However,she could not make that meeting and has not been in touch.
Susan will help get in touch with MT as she was on vacation and is now back from vacation.
Deepika:Should we send an invite to folks from other towns to the July 5th
Sally:Susan do you know actual riders from other towns,do they buy passes etc
Susan:can send out a news blast to current pass holders to attend those meetings.Majority of
people who buy passes are Lexington.Post the meeting on the buses so that we can capture
folks who we won't see otherwise
Sally:Send invites to passholders from people from 5 years ago.
Susan;a lot of passholders were youth who had graduated out of Lexington.However,it's best
for any meeting that people get to know about it from a variety of places.Then we can possibly
get a wider audience.
Howard:will send an email blast to members of Lexington At Home.Also going to send to the
contact person in Brookhaven,does a senior age demographic list that we can use.
Susan:For September date,July 19th is the deadline for the Sept-October issue at SAGE.It
gets sent out at the end of August.
Sally:We should have on this announcement the link.(webinar and town website).If people are
reading and they aren't online.
Deepika;Sally will reach out to you to find out how to better improve the readability and access
to the message so that the largest number of people come to our meeting.
Bridger:Sean is going to send out this message,Susan has already identified certain tactics to
do outreach widely.If everybody can put down which groups or networks we need to reach out
to for a more comprehensive outreach and send it to Deepika.
Sally:for people who are reading it and get a simple URL so that people can read it easily.
Susan:Some edits of July 26th agenda
Deepika:Will share the document on screen so we can all work on it together.Folks can also
send me feedback afterwards
Sally:talked about how to make the goal realistic instead of the same old routine wherein we
ask folks for feedback,but nothing changes in terms of the services provided.Majority of people
may give feedback but then revert to using their cars for most travel.We don't have much
money and we have to prioritize what gets funded.
Howard:How the senior residents are not feeling supported despite the many expensive
projects being built around town.Have descriptive language that talks about first mile and last
mile services for seniors.Seniors live in various different types of areas and accommodations
around town.Would on demand services be the better option for them?
Varda:Discussed the percentage of senior residents in town
Susan:If we have another listening session,should we make some prioritization
recommendations?
Recommendations:
Sally:Request,would like to know from people about the forward and back system or the loop
system.When it went through people were closer to it.It's a question that ought to be broached.
We haven't tested this system looped system vs forth and back system.Loops would still be far
from some people's houses.What is realistic going forward.
Deepika :Any policy suggestion shift the culture from mass transport
Bridger:NewMo and Via marketing materials etc came to Bridger,will send around to the team.
It hasn’t materially changed.Every 6 months for 2 years the same information seems to be sent
out.
Susan:has the new rates from the on demand service providers.1M (4 vehicles,1 accessible
and 3 that are not).Also spoke with the former CAO person
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
traffic congestion.Thus if bus funds have to be altered then it could be done by Town Meeting
again.Currently only Facilities is a shared expense.If mass transport were dealt with similarly
then it would be seen as a joint responsibility of town and schools.Especially if a solution could
be arrived at which made sense to the school committee and select board.However,once the
bus funds are allocated they would be the responsibility of the school dept to manage.In a
shared responsibility scenario the schools and municipality etc would have to have clear
responsibility allocations etc.Process and procedures would have to be worked out.
Bridger:don't have to include the Liberty ride,as tour guide,
Howard:its two different people,driver and tour guides
Sally:We could contract the lexpress and the school buses but the vendor would manage what
gets where and get better bids.
Susan:We could never actually serve the middle schools.It was hard to serve them when they
got out.
Sally moves to adjourn the meeting,Bridger seconds.The meeting was adjourned unanimously.
09:13:26 From Susan Barrett to Everyone:
She has been on vacation.I can reach back out to her.
09:21:28 From Susan Barrett to Everyone:
July 19 is the deadline for Sept/Oct SAGE which is a newsletter for people age 60+in
Lexington.It would be good to settle on your meeting date/time for Sept by July 19.You don't
need all the info,just a basic note of what the meeting is about.
09:37:10 From Bridger McGaw to Everyone:
Good points --we need to repeat some of these "attracting"words in the notice ….
09:40:27 From Bridger McGaw to Everyone:
I agree with Sally --this is the policy challenge --and maybe part of this is the various
impacts of "not having it"(traffic/environment impact/etc.)
09:40:44 From Bridger McGaw to Everyone:
I get it!
09:47:40 From Bridger McGaw to Everyone:
I agree with the Route Question.
09:47:51 From Bridger McGaw to Everyone:
That is feedback that aligns to the REPORT
09:48:10 From Susan Barrett to Everyone:
I think it is fine to ask a question about if people like the routes or not.
09:48:47 From Susan Barrett to Everyone:
The reason the routes were cut back is because we could not do as many miles as we
were doing and stick to a schedule.We also had complaints from people who hated riding so far
out of their way.
09:49:16 From Susan Barrett to Everyone:
We are at 76%of our pre-COVID ridership.Our biggest loss of riders is youth.That loss
of youth started in 2011.
09:50:20 From Susan Barrett to Everyone:
The loss of youth in 2011 due to Flexpass was the biggest downward trend in ridership
for Lexpress.The Flexpass was meant to support school bus ridership and it did so at the
detriment of Lexpress.
09:50:27 From Bridger McGaw to Everyone:
What year did the route change to its current configuration?
09:51:18 From Susan Barrett to Everyone:
We did the redesign in 2019/2020 and then it was approved,but COVID struck and we
shut down,so when we re-opened in 2021,we had the new routes
10:02:42 From Susan Barrett to Everyone:
The other thing to know about our ridership is now that we do 3 routes as opposed to 6
"interlined"routes,we have half as many trips.Riders are counted per trip.
10:11:12 From Bridger McGaw to Everyone:
I need to drop
10:13:27 From Susan Barrett to Everyone:
When our department took on the Safe Routes to School program,we wanted to do a
comprehensive survey of families at schools about their modes of transportation choice in
advance of the return from COVID.LPS did not want to do this at the time given so many
surveys from COVID and because they wanted to rebuild the school bus registrations.It would
be good to do this at some point.Last one was in 2010