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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-08-09-AHTC-minThe meeting was called to order at 9.07 am. All AHTC members were present,including Joe Pato as liaison and Susan Barrett as staff. The minutes for July 26th were unanimously approved.Howard moved the motion,Sally seconded. Sally would like to send in some edits for the Public Forum minutes hence they would be approved in the next meeting. Deepika:did a small recap of some of the highlights from the public forum including the favorable reports by users of the courtesy shown by Lexpress drivers.The student’s point about it being summer and the lmajority of students not being aware of the fare reduction and the question about Lexpress financial viability was important.Major Takeaway -how do publicize the $20 asap at high school and middle schools Howard:got feedback from the senior citizens on the call who did not know how to get Bridger ’s attention to speak.So make the technology more accessible for the September meeting:in person and online. Other team members also reflected on the meeting. Susan -We can do a hybrid meeting and do so in Cary Hall Deepika -We all write sections of the report that are our responsibility come up with preliminary recommendations and then come to the meeting to discuss them.We can send our sections to Susan. Bridger -Howard what are we going to recommend -based on everything you have read and listed.That will Create artificial scarcity of parking and how that could effect lexpress usage. Sustainability of using buses instead of the many cars which go to Lexpress Sally -they dont have a representative in this community Have a this draft be looked at by certain experts in our community who can talk to certain needs such as our SPED. 1 Susan: The department has budgeted 10 hours of consultant’s time which can be spent to help on the report. These would be transportation experts who can help.2 Deepika Susan,is there a timeline?An expiry date to these 10 hours of help? 1 Susan Through the end of December?It's on a calendar year basis. 2 Deepika that dovetails nicely.If nobody sees any problem with us sharing these kinds of reports with this group, then we can definitely take the help,after we have done a decent draft,share it with them and get some feedback.Thank you,Susan.The team was okay with getting their help too.3 Bridger: Howard did ask a question about,what are we going to recommend?We're in a public meeting,this is a quorum,we can actually talk amongst ourselves about what are some of our thoughts,specifically,around the sections,around the specific asks that the Select Board has put in the charge,based on where we are now.Now,what we're writing,now,what we're going to write,not how we're breaking ourselves up to write it.But based on everything you've read,and listen to?Where are you on the big questions?I think that will help inform how we think about where we need to spend some of our time.And maybe where we need to go back and extract some of the salient points from the research. 2 Deepika Requested Bridger to model how we can start discussing what we are thinking as a team. 3 Bridger Is everybody okay with that?Because I'm gonna show the outline.And where we've positioned the bold italic parts are the things from the charge itself,based on the sort of narrative that we've approached,but I think we should try to get a sense of the group here on the topic. 3 Bridger Shares screen and goes over the report outline. The sections that we had in the report are the first one was a summary of the charge.And the challenge is really like the introduction to the report.And likely some of the executive summary right up front.The last ad hoc committee,I was on the we wrote the executive summary after we wrote the whole report.So something to keep in mind is that piece of paper eventually gets created.So that's section one.And we had Deepika playing a role there in sussing that out.Then we had a history section to sort of re baseline the Select Board and other audiences on the history.We have a lot of rate history documentation,but it's voluminous.And we need to pull the salient parts out.And we,Susan and Sally,we put your names against the sections.We have some Northeastern examples and the Interlaken story,and then there's the whole pandemic impact.So there's the history. Then as you can see,one of the charges that we have As to is about like where are we with current operations in ridership.So,we had some good tables and some documents that we could pull from that we used in the public meeting the pictures of the routes as they exist now,and then we as a group had discussed the bracketing our analysis as a pre pandemic 2019 and a post pandemic 2023 and not doing 15 years of route and ridership comparison because there was a lot of tweaking and then talking about capacity of the system versus utilization.And then looking at this,this is the bold question.So identify and review bus routes times in which LExpress buses are running routes with no passengers.So we need of the answer the question of which bus routes and which bus times are not utilized.So there's no passengers.So that question is,we want that fact.And we want to write it here.So we should get that from the bus companies. Review residential riders needs.Susan has the heat maps based on the demographics,let's surface those. And Howard,Sally and Sharon had talked about the different demographics were called out here.Now, Howard,and the group we'd talked been talking about these various,a potential recommendation around on-demand services.So it's here.And it probably flows out of the conversation on residential rider needs. But actually goes at the end for where like,where we'd make the recommendation.But we talked about making a recommendation about this.Deepika,you talked about schools.So here's that and then Carolyn was digging into the school bus contract and the school bus operations to see around a potential recommendation there.Because we really have no parent requests for LExpress expansion. Current funding,so this is a straight financial section. 5 Sally We do have a lot of requests about expansion.I mean,a lot of people even spoke up at our meeting, 3 Bridger Where are they?Where are the parent requests,i.e.where is that information documented?Be able to identify the data,here's where it's actually one parent saying,like,you know,I need to pick up for my kid and this one place doesn't equal we should add a bus in that area. 5 Sally Okay,all right.It wasn't specific.It was like we need different scheduling and a different attention toward XYZ but okay,when we all need to debate right now. 3 Bridger But if there's a volume of it,like it's come into the school that this would close this gap,then we should surface it.All right.Carolyn,I have had a bunch of sidebars on this Carolyn,this is our burden to bear and here.And there is some opportunity here to go into the route 128 Business Council and really look at not on having a charrette about transportation,but actually look at service delivery and what's the difference between changing up the model.Alright,so here's this is a requirement of the report,summarizing ridership.And I believe Susan you have this ridership table of routes.I believe it is in a couple of route 128 Business Council documents but and this is our cost per ride.And then there's the fare analysis and new fare recommendations.Now.We have to revisit this as painful as is we have this fare that Select Board approves.But we need to take a position formally in the report about whether or not that's something that should continue or,you know,stop or have a different approach.Some one has to write this section. All right,cost passenger analysis in relation to other things.So this was the northeastern research.And Sally,I think you talked about,you have a great primer on this as well that you were writing. 5 Sally and I also am expecting data back from the 128 Business Council.They're supposed to get it to be tomorrow,and the T about their statistics for the same things we're looking at.What are their figures for the routes in Lexington of the MBTA and the shuttle services that have to do with Lexington?So that'll fit right in there,I hope. 3 Bridger Ideally,the service not be contracted that does not come in house (i.e.be owned operated by Lexington). And then here are the other recommendations.Now we move these all down here because all the information up there should sort of inform these recommendations.But this is where I was hoping we could maybe spend some time today debating and discussing these topics.So there's the big one,provide a recommendation on whether the service should continue and if so,so if the answer is yes,it should continue.What should it structure routes and fares?Do we have a recommendation around if we decide to continue the service,maybe a more conscientious effort needs to be made to add outside funding sources. We have a recommendation to review the school department bus and contract for savings opportunities and a lot of this has to do with our discussions around safe streets and inefficiencies within a half mile or quarter mile and that people should just walk and that it that can generate less school buses that would be less costs on the school buses and then the Select Board can identify through budgeting. Whether the savings gets allocated L'Express or gets banked for other purposes. Then we've all acknowledged this,there's no formal marketing strategy for L'Express.There's no communications plan for L'Express.And there's no currently no public information officer so but that there's also no budget for funding marketing.So our recommendation there was about there should be a,if the answer is still yes,we should continue L'Express,then,yes.You need a marketing budget.And yes, you need a communications plan and yes,yes,yes.All right. Then there's the risks and transition planning.So,this was identified if the answer is no,we should not consider continuing L'Express.Then there's a recommendation around risk management and the transition that town should go through to when is the right time to sunset L'Express and what do you transition to? And start and looking at that problem?Now that recommendation,the group has we've talked about has led to the lively and engage in conversations around mobility options for the demographics we're trying to serve.So if L'Express needs to be modified and changed in some way or the funding needs to be put towards supporting residents of Lexington differently than our recommendation is,you know,our debate has been like,what does that on demand service improvement looks look like?How does the Ride flex or the LEX connect or these other mobility options?What's our recommendation or thinking about moving funding to that approach instead.And then the group has also,at some point,brought up saying,maybe we should have a recommendation to say,look,even if we want to end the service,and we don't think it's effective,and our recommendations to end it,for our recommendation is to save it that a transportation review,maybe to look at statistically valid approaches and route planning and operational planning to support the demographics.We’re,looking for specific to the fact that we could have a lot of multifamily residential housing going up in town.And since none of them can be required to pay into a TMA or into a transportation system,pursuant to the law,that were maybe setting ourselves up for failure by not really taking a hard look at that question.So there you go. 2 Deepika Quickly,I was just wondering if there could be a section maybe not in recommendations,but prior to recommendations,which is sort of like,looking to the future,I'm thinking about the high school renovation and what that traffic patterns are,whether there's going to be a need of busing kids from a different parking lot,or whatever.So those are completely sort of blue sky,we don't know exactly what that would mean.Factors to note,suggest the multi family housing that's going to come up and,you know,so on and so forth.If you want to put it somewhere,all we could just embed in our sections,you know,futures sort of considerations to keep track of. 6 Varda Yeah,it seems like somewhere in here,and I'm not volunteering to write it.But somewhere in here,there should be something about embargo,environmental consequences.May,we're right now there's,like infinite amounts of parking at Lexington High School,you can have,you know,100 students driving in individually and parking along with an avenue or whatever.And there's no restriction on that.There's no sort of thought about the consequence of having all that car traffic that's going into one spot,and so forth. All the congestion and so forth.So one thing that a lot of people spoke about at the community meeting was the environmental needs of having,you know,public transportation available.And that I don't think that's showing up anywhere in this report. 3 Bridger This is why I think it's important that we start debating this because if you're running,I'll start.If you're ready.Are there other recommendations that we didn't capture before we start? 6 Varda There's also a special needs community.I'm very familiar with that.These are people who in general, don't drive/can't drive.And know what do they do have L'Express goes away? 5 Sally Representative on this committee?They don't have a representative in this committee.And so you speaking up for them.That's good. 6 Varda Yeah,my son is one of them.So it just,you know,this is really important.It is. 2 Deepika It think Sally and water bring up a good point.Because maybe before we even have this report,draft report,go to anybody else,we should take certain people that we are known experts in our community and have them look at it. 5 Sally So I've written a lot of parts of this just because I got started and I just kept going so I can submit what I've written and whether you use it or not,you know,we'll wait and see but I did write a section on on the because like,spread started during the gas crisis.And in the late 70s,and now we're in a whole planet crisis.I did write a little section on that. 3 Bridger And it's a good I think it's a good example of a debate we should position which is environmental resilience and climate change is both a factor or a justification for doing something. So it could be the reason we refuse to cancel the L'Express is because we're committed to continuing to try it is painful and hard and as expensive it is to move people out of single occupancy vehicles and,and use mass transit differently.Great.But running empty buses around in a circle doesn't move people anywhere and may not be removing the cars from the volume of cars that we want to under its current configuration.Therefore,you either have to and we've talked,you know,the standard talking point you either add more buses,increase routes,increase headways,so other people can change their lifestyle and it's a change management challenge and it costs a lot of money.But that's how that's why it's either a factory to make.Where's that leaf blower ordinance when you need it.Bridger,I think decibels.Joe the decibels. 2 Deepika Howard,Howard and Sally have points to make. 7 Howard I just?I mean,does.Does anybody feel that L'Express should just be flat eliminated?I mean,I don't. I mean,let,if nobody is in favor of just eliminating L'Express.Let's just acknowledge that and so that it isn't even part of the discussion.So then the discussion is what should be changed,if anything,but we're not going to get rid of it.Is that fair? 2 Deepika I would just speaking for myself,I don't like what I feel,and what the data will tell maybe will two different things.So that's just that's something we have to keep in mind.And again,then the decision will be the Select boards.But we have to give them all of that information and say,this is the data and the data says even if we hate it,eliminate L'Express or this is the data and we love it.And it says No Keep L'Express.But change it thus.Sally,and then Varda.Sally did you have your hand up? 5 Sally Um,I did.Because one of the things that I came to when thinking about all this as I was writing,because I wanted to see what bubbled up.And one of the things that bubbled up is you know,whether we need to think about the car culture.And if we do,it's certainly not up to us alone.To address that.I mean,it's a school thing.It's a big thing,but I think it needs to be mentioned.And just just for a very small example,I suggested that any kind of town thing that happens during the day,whether it's a meeting of a town thing or a committee or an organization that's in town,like the League of Women Voters anything,a recreation thing after school,it should always have with its announcement how to get there on L'Express,just as an example. And that's the kind of thing I think and I think the schools need to tackle this car cultural thing..But I think one of the big one of the huge things that we're facing,and we're all facing it,and we're facing it individually is:Do we just jump in our car and go where we want to go?Or do we plan a little extra time? And,and take the bus?And,you know,I think that has to come under this whole thing about sustainability in the whole climate business.And it's not for us alone to solve that problem.But I think it definitely needs to get included,and maybe some suggestions of,you know,other groups that need to,to partner on this and not even partner just take it on.I mean,it's real.It's you know,it's a very real issue. And we have to address it not strangle the one of the few things that maybe helps address it,which is public transit. 6 Varda I think I want to continue somewhat in that vein, The right now the town has a very I would say call it a very laissez faire attitude toward you know people being able to use their cars or you know,if anything promote it.You can just see that by the parking along Worthern road during high school,there's no reason that that should be tolerated,but it is.So that's basically encouraging a lot of students to jump into their cars and drive to school.And as opposed to using public transportation. Other cities,for instance,New York have limitations on the cars that can come into the city center.During the day,there's basically no public policy in place to discourage car use and Lexington.So then you have empty buses riding around because there's no reason for people not to use their cars.There's no disincentive to using their cars.But one of the things that came up at the meeting is,I mean,like there was the crowd from Grant Street who said,you know,there used to be a bus that came.There's people who really don't in Lexington who really don't have access to L'Express because of the routes. So if we want L'Express to be a factor for people being able to get out of their cars.We're really restricted in that,by the way that,you know,the routes are currently designed and the fact that they don't run on Saturdays and so far,one of the things that people were saying in that meeting and I thought it was really interesting,as the reason that the ridership has gone down,is because the routes have gone down.And the accessibility of L'Express for large sections of the town doesn't even exist. So we can't look at this in a vacuum.We can't,we can't look at this as well,people aren't using it.So we should get rid of it.Or,you know,it's not an effective system,we have to look at the whole picture.The whole picture is or at least part of the picture is that the town has essentially put no restrictions on car ridership in any way and to the contrary,basically seems to promote car ridership.And secondly,the decrease of the service of L'Express means that there are many people in town who don't even have access to it and can't use it.So we have to look at all that.That's all. 2 Deepika So the next person I think had their hand up.I would like to have Sharon go first because she hasn't spoken yet.If you don't mind.Sharon,you go ahead.8 Sharon I was just gonna say as far as high school.Yeah,I do agree.It's,you know,there are a lot of students that drive to school,it's impossible.I've gone to meetings there,it's possible to get in and out,especially at the end of the day.But I think if we're going to recommend taking something away,you know,from the students or,you know,limiting them being able to drive their their cars in any way,which in some of them might be just luxury.But I think for students,they really do need it,you know,to get to sporting events and extracurricular activities.So I think if we made any kind of recommendation surrounding the the high school,student usage of cars,we should there should be some kind of increase in services from L'Express to,you know,to help the student gets to get to where they need to get to,because I think from what we've heard the feedback was that that wasn't in alignment,like the routes were not in alignment with what students needed.So I just wanted to put that out there that if we recommend limiting the number of cars of the high school,then definitely they should we should have something from L'Express to replace that. 2 Deepika really just gonna make a quick point.Very good point.And just piggyback off of what Sharon was saying, since my kid is now learning how to drive a car,post graduation.I mean,we also have to acknowledge that sometimes the kids who are driving to and from school,this is their driving practice.And,you know, to some extent,having kids learn how to drive within the safe environments of Lexington,there is some value to that.Not saying that's the only thing that should inform our thinking. The other quick thing is that there was a policy recommendation,I think,in what I was saying at some point.And I was like,Bridget,I don't know if you captured that that they should be because there will be in the end some policy recommendations:she was talking about changing the car culture in Lexington,or sort of restricting the number of cars per family or something she was talking about no mistake.Whoa, that's a policy recommendation,which should be flagged as that to be discussed,but should be flagged as that. Varda:Peak load rules.Many cities have that eventhough Lexington is a small town Bridger:We should discuss that because this isnt London where we tax people if they have three cars.I’d love to see the AG to weigh in Sally:People who park in Lexington have to pay and all teh people parking on Worthern road have to buy a pass.That could be a significant amount of money.Now students are driving their own cars and not paying a penny.Earlier we used to get parking meter money for many years the Lexpress budget,then at a town meeting it was decided that parking meter money eventhough it's meant for transportation could not go to Lexpress.It should be a recommendation for substantial money maybe a tax that goes to Lexpress. We need to get it right so that money should come to the right place. Bridger. Its inconsistent because people who can afford to buy a 300 dollar pass will buy one to park on Worthern. But you cannot fund the $1.6 million required to fund Lexpress (as it should be,not current state - clarification on Varda’s question)on the back of a parking pass Sally:we have to look at all possible solutions and that is low hanging fruit Varda -most students would not pay 300 for a parking pass Sharon:their parents will,if it helps them not to drive them everywhere Bridger:Somebody will pay for it but you are not getting that change that people are switching to buses so you keep increasing the price,eventually you are not doing either thing.Not funding the buses by getting people on the buses and not getting the cars off the streets.Lets go back to Howard question -is the current state not effective so are we just going to maintain the current state. Deepika:Bridger just asked a crucial question.Howard give us a second. Bridger:I am not of the opinion that Lexpress should continue in its current form Deepika -take a deep breath and think through that point.I agree with Bridger that in the current state its not sustainable.Its not doing the work that its supposed to do which is transport people and its expensive. I am not ready to say that some future form of Lexpress should also not exist. Howard:Some form of lexpress type transportation system is needed.What that looks like we are going to have some recommendations about.How much it's going to cost and where the funding is going to come is a different matter.If money was not an object who would we serve and how would we serve them.And once we get an idea of what it looks like then we can see what it's going to cost.We should have a wholistic approach of lexpress lexington going forward.What is that going to be like.Who we are going to serve it,how we are going to serve,and who are not going to make happy.Forexample Students. Take your bike,walk.Lexington is not that big a town.Go with some friends,carpool.Make a habit about doing what is environmentally friendly way to get from place to place.Get into a habit.Once its a habit its easy to do. Carolyn Kosnoff: Am not convinced that Lexpress in its current form is really doing what it needs to do .Its not serving everyone equally.Reflected on some of the takeaways from the forum.We can all envision a system which would have all the functionality that we want.Financially hard to get to that ideal system. Reluctant to say that we dont need any transportation.Even with all the information we have been given dont feel equipped or have the expertise to say elemniate Lexpress and this is what we should do instead. Struggling with that because the Select Board is looking for a recommendation from us.Dont know that even after another 6 months if we will feel comfortable making that recommendation. :The Select Board does need that recommendation because we are in no position to make thoseJoe Pato decisions alone.If you dont feel you have teh expertise to come to that bottomline then partial recoomednations or what you feel is missing or what talent set is missing to be able to develop a full recommendation would be hgelpful to the Select Board. Sally:Committee was created based on who we represent,not transportation experts.Agreed with what Joe said.We can put together the ideas and missing pieces.Nothing of us think its a great system.It has been whittled down to a not a great system. Varda -Grover Norquist:Let's shrink the government to a point when we can strangle it in the bathtub. We shrink the system which probably did have quite a lot of utilty till its not viable and then we look at it and see its not viable. What we saw in the forum,that lexpress has a history in teh community and some credibility in teh community.If you start with a new system or close it down you lose all that.We look at gaos and try to figure out how to fill them.We should be elevating the tax burden on teh community by finding other sources.Public transportation is important,that is why we look at the big developers and ask for payments on a regular bais as opposed to one time payments.Bridger tak about how Watertown does it.They dont require the transportation to serve the complex for the benefit of developing large tracts of land.New funding sources etc we should be talking about. Susan:agreed with Howard’s wholistic thinking,and consultants thinking too.Save money if kids go Ridership of lexpress is increasing post covid everymonth.Fixed route service always moves more passengers than any micro transit or in demand service.A full elemenination of fixed rouet and put everyone on on demand we would not be able to do it for the price that we are currently doing it.If we say we are not going to sevre the general public we are only going to serve the seniors.That would be one way to reduce cost.There are people who are not seniors and also need that transpostaoipn and even people with cars need that flexibility. Howard:A week or so ago the globe had an article on the ride and Ride flex on how inefficient it has become. Deepika:Next steps between now and next wednesday.Get something written and send it to me or Susan, who can then forward it. Meeting was adjourned at about 10.11. Varda made a motion to adjourn the meeting,Sally seconded,and it was adjourned unanimously. AHTC Meeting again next wednesday. SAVED CHAT: 09:20:18 From Susan Barrett to Everyone: we have 10 hours of outside assistance that can be used to assist your planning, perhaps.I will discuss when appropriate.Thanks! 09:20:34 From Deepika Sawhney to Everyone: Thank you 09:21:46 From Deepika Sawhney to Everyone: Folks I am recording this meeting ok?Can’t do minutes concurrently 09:46:55 From Bridger McGaw to Everyone: I don't think we can solve the car crisis 09:49:08 From sally castleman to Everyone: no,we can't solve it,but I think it is a factor that we must include in our report.it is much larger issue than our committee or TAC can tackle alone.but it remains a HUGE issue for ALL OF US. 09:51:03 From Susan Barrett to Everyone: For your next meeting,perhaps you would like to consider setting aside some time so that I may explain all the challenges/constraints that had to be considered and why routes/schedules were changed.This background will also help you as you think about what it would take to enhance service (if that is what you choose to recommend). 09:58:18 From Susan Barrett to Everyone: Pricing parking (which gets more into Planning Board topics)is considered an essential tactic for reducing congestion,emissions,and is a way that one can help fund transportation demand management.Some great books on this topic are The High Cost of Free Parking by Donald Shoup and Paved Paradise by Henry Grabar. 10:00:51 From Deepika Sawhney to Bridger McGaw(Direct Message): Hey Bridger can you make me host again so I can save the char etc 10:00:58 From Deepika Sawhney to Bridger McGaw(Direct Message): chat 10:08:08 From Bridger McGaw to Deepika Sawhney(Direct Message): how do I do that 10:08:21 From Deepika Sawhney to Bridger McGaw(Direct Message): I did it.No worries 10:08:22 From Bridger McGaw to Deepika Sawhney(Direct Message): it says you are host 10:09:41 From Bridger McGaw to Everyone: that's right..... 10:14:10 From Bridger McGaw to Everyone: I have to jump!