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Home My WebLink About2023-05-24-AHTC-min AD HOC TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES May 24th 2023 Attendees: Deepika Sawhney, Bridger McGaw,Varda Haimo, Sally Castleman, Howard Cloth, Carolyn Kosnoff, Susan Barrett and Joe Pato Sharon Gunda was unable to attend Meeting began at 10.05 We first discussed the fact that Bridger McGaw's sister was a part of the Grammy winning band - The Alphabet Rockers. And how we might get them to come to Lexington, maybe to headline a fundraiser for Lexpress. Report out by the various committee members: Howard - attended the Brookhaven meeting. Only 10 people were interactive even though 70 attended. So I did not get much feedback. The two leaders of this group - called `Carless' -were surprised. Last Thursday they had a lot to say but today they are mostly silent. What Howard found out: Lexpress is not particularly used by the residents - need to call up in advance, and then the Lexpress does a pickup. Who does the calling, the resident or the front office - question arises. Susan - It could be either. Lexpress doesn't pull up every hour because it's a huge deviation from the route. Only when called. Howard - Uber and Lyft is being used mostly by the residents. The residents expressed difficulty getting back to Brookhaven sometimes after doing their chores. Some of the people have been left waiting. The uber pulled up diagonally across the intersection from where the senior resident was waiting. Once, Uber took a resident to Concord prison instead of Brookhaven and they had to give the driver instructions on how to get back to Brookhaven. Brookhaven residents need a lot more training. Whether it's on Gogo grandad service or Rideflex. The residents need a lot of training. Susan -was there a month ago and made a presentation of these matters. The concierge account could be used. It still ends up with Uber drivers. Brookhaven needs to do much to make this more user friendly. Howard what to do with mass transport and other Brookhaven and waterstone Question for Joe What other senior living centers exist Susan - From Lexington Housing run senior citizen resident groupings. Such as Greeley, countryside, vine brook - these are senior citizens living in less expensive senior villages. Waterstone and Brookhaven have their own transportation services and were not interested in accessing Lexpress services. Varda -What Deepika said older immigrants are riding the bus Susan -We have translated materials in one foreign language mandarin Sally - looking into comparing Lexpress into their systems. Trying to find some of the smaller transit systems. Most of them have way more vehicles than we do. Looking further into financials and also into micro transit systems to figure out their costs. Most of them have a fixed route and one demand response. And demand response for frail or disabled folks who can't get on buses. Until the RIDE came about Varda - the FLEX program. Very complicated and difficult to navigate the program. It's very hard for a disabled person. Couldn't make it work. Set it up and switched to Lyft but it doesn't serve everyone. Susan - Ride Flex town does not operate it. RIDE Flex can be improved it.Ways Varda - very partially subsidized Susan - rider pays a bit, MBTA pays about 40 dollars, and they only give a certain number of rides for free. If you work you may get many more rides, initially they give a few and see how many you use and need. Varda and Susan to connect and understand how Ride Flex works. Maybe better sharing of this information will Varda - did an introduction to the former Lexington town economics person, Bridger and she are meeting with her next week to talk with her about Burlington vendors. Seeking support viable option Mellisa Tinktackless (sp?). Susan - Met with Josh, New Planning director for Newton, We have been tracking micro transit. Have seen the data from Newton. It takes about 550 rides a week on their VIA turnkey solution. Much longer hours of service. 11.5 hours a day every Monday to Friday. And has weekend service as well. And 8-10 vehicles, so about 10. Approximately 554 hours a week, originally in 2019 they were paying 500k just for the senior riders and when they added the others so per ride price went down. Their cost is about $58 or$62 per hour. Their drivers are being paid $42- per hour, with $10 for renting the vehicles so take home about 32 dollars an hour. Via quoted about $90 per vehicle hour, minimum 4 vehicles as a solution for Lexington. Bridger -feedback on goal statements, Susan's document -there is a lot in the doc is not directly relevant to what we are not trying to solve. We are trying to think about who we are trying to serve and also the financial burdens we operate under. Focus on what is in our charter. Thinking about the fare structure is also on our charter. The town added other solutions suggested- such as parking minimums etc. but something could be further studied, a zoning policy. Etc. we could make suggestions but not actually create those policies etc. We can't look to regional solutions without regional partners. Looking at the business committee and looking into routes into Burlington etc. We still have to focus on who we are serving, why we are serving and how the money gets directed into how it gets solved. Sally - The public being able to use some of the private shuttles set up by companies in Lexington. Has anyone looked into that. Some of the company shuttles can pick up town residents Bridger has to connect with Kelly A. Talked to other TMA but there are some insurance blocks. We don't have the insurance and nor do tech companies want to pay for those routes. It's a risk acceptance Carolyn - MOA with Waltham if they did have a shuttle they would pick up some of the town residents/255 Waltham building not opened yet. There is an express stop over there as well. Interesting to see if people will use it or not Sally - how much does the insurance cost Bridger- it's a whole business model on how insurance is purchased and then folded into contracts. Insurance fluctuates all the time. It's a risk acceptance Unanimously Accepted Meeting Minutes. Susan - Uses many channels when she reaches out to seniors, advertise it through the senior services and using the town info. Use it to promote. The July August issue has already been developed. Get the word out. Work with the Housing Authority. etc. The age friendly study with over 1000 respondents is there in our shared file. Sally - get on the newsletter. Wouldn't have heard from other Susan - September October issues of the newsletter we could get information out. Varda - Mavens Howard Lexington observer. Bridger - try for hybrid meetings with town senior residents to understand their needs. Deepika, Howard and Carolyn to work together to figure out logistics. Howard - is a health coach for a wellness program. Last year members can be in Cancun and they can reach us. So liked the hybrid meetings. Susan - question on grant deadlines which are coming through at the end of June. Apply for the grants and get funding for Lexpress fixed service, which would be on demand within Lexington. Would give us greater flexibility and ability to try out on Demand services with the bus. Advice needed- grants to be asked for not, Joe - go up through the management chain. Budgetary challenges with status quo, so any and all grants can only help - defer to Carolyn and to Jim. Varda - beef up our Burlington route, get more support. One of the problems is there is no weekend service. If we are looking to ship people off to the mall and have the stores advertise. Are there any opportunities in the grant writing service and extending service to the weekend Susan - unfortunately since we are not an RTA we don't get funding every year. So it's a few years of funding at a time, hence the importance of grants Senior citizen gathering more work needs to be done figuring out a summer date to do it. Howard will reach out to Sudhir Jain and John Zhao to connect with senior members IN Lexington. Meeting dates and chair responsibilities discussed. Our next three meetings are • May 31 st - Bridger to run it • June 7th- Bridger to run it • June 14th- Bridger to run it • June 21 st - homework, everybody ride the Lexpress (Susan's suggestion now and after school is over) and get a sense of the ridership experience. • June 28th - share out on ridership experiences. Meeting adjourned 11:05 ZOOM CHAT NOTES The senior housing villages are an important group, too. Greeley, Countryside, Vynebrook If you follow Lexpress on Twitter (@LexpressBus), you will see some of the "People of Lexpress" that we have profiled and how they use the service htt�s://www.lexin�tonma.gov/358/Lexint t�_c�rt_�.. e-Friendly-Report We have RIDEFlex in Lexington. TDM relates to Lexpress as that is how we can get funding for transportation. No matter what transportation services we have, we want to have funding for the transportation. Susan Barrett to Everyone (May 24, 2023, 9:53 AM) Please make sure to read the AGE FRIENDLY study as that had extensive outreach. Again, that link was: https://www.lexiagonma.c�ov/358/Lexie. 'toe-Ache-Friendly-Report Bridger: I will follow up with Rt128BC; Greatland commitments (EDO); and School/Town funding (Carolyn)