Transit Bd Minibus Capacity Constraint
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MEMORANDUM
March 14,2005
TO:
The Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM:
Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
SUBJECT: Transit Board Recommendation to Address Minibus Capacity Constraint
In December 2004, the Transit Board and Transit Manager Mark Munson had
recommended a fare increase to address capacity constraints on the City's minibus
service. The City Council rejected the fare increase and sent the issue back for further
study.
The Transit Board and Transit Manager Mark Munson are now recommending
addressing capacity constraints on the minibus service through productivity
improvements in ride scheduling, especially in the area of real-time dispatching of return
rides and a change in scheduling protocols to reduce the need for multiple customer
phone calls. These system improvements are made possible by two recent technology
improvements, with the installation of automated vehicle locators in the minibuses and
the full implementation of Route Match dispatching software.
I concur with the recommendation and respectfully request Mayor and City Council
approval.
(1~J L~flL
Michael C. Van Milligen
MCVM/jh
Attachment
cc: Barry Lindahl, Corporation Counsel
Cindy Steinhauser, Assistant City Manager
Mark Munson, Transit Manager
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Key Line Transit
2401 Central Avenue
Dubuque, Iowa 52001-3302
(563) 589-4196 office
(563) 589-4340 fax
(563) 690-6678 TOO
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March 11, 2005
TO:
FR:
Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
Mark Munson, Transit Manager M.,tJ\
Transit Board Recommendation to Address Minibus Capacity
Constraint
Subject:
PURPOSE
The purpose of this memo is to summarize the process followed by the Transit
staff, minibus stakeholders and Transit Board and to recommend alternatives to
address capacity constraints on the minibus service following the City Council
public hearing December 6,2005.
BACKGROUND
On December 6, 2005 the City Council conducted a public hearing regarding the
Transit Board's recommendation to raise minibus fares to expand capacity on the
minibus service. The matter was referred back to the Transit Board for further
review. In addition to this, a suggestion was made by the council to seek input
from a committee of minibus stakeholders already studying ways to improve
public transit services for persons with disabilities under a grant administered by
ECIA. The council also expressed a desire to have more detailed information on
the demographics of the minibus ridership.
During the month of January, transit staff researched the minibus ridership
database, updated more than 700 records and determined that many of the
current minibus riders had never completed an ADA Eligibility Application as
required under the ADA during the time the City subcontracted the minibus
service with Project Concern. A mailing list was developed and 655 applications
were mailed to riders who had either never completed an application or who's
application was more than 10 years old. As of the date of this report, more than
455 applications had been completed and return and 200 applicants were sent a
second notice to complete and return an ADA Eligibility Application. The following
is a brief summary of the 455 applications received during this recertification:
· 66% of all applicants are over age 75
· 54% of all applicants are over age 80
Service
People
Integrity
Responsibility
Innovation
Teamwork
. Less than 8% (33) of all applicants identify themselves as over age 65
with no disability (age-only eligible)
. Of those 33 age-only eligible applicants, two thirds are over age 80 and 4
are over age 90
Based on the information gathered to date on the recertification process, it
appears that the percentage of age-only minibus riders is significantly smaller
than first thought and not consuming the minibus service to the constraint of
service to ADA eligible riders. Also, the overall age of these riders likely makes
them ADA eligible based on their frail condition and limited mobility.
During the course of this research on the ridership demographics, staff also
closely examined the performance of the minibus service from 2004 to the
current rate of performance the service was operating in 2005. The following data
was gathered from this research. The findings suggest that productivity is
declining in FY 2005 as is supported by the following analysis:
. FY 2004 rides per hour system wide were 3.8 and were declining to 2.84
in FY 2005
. FY 2004 miles per hour system wide were 12.22 and declining to 10.09 in
FY 2005
With driver productivity on a pace of being 25% down from the prior year, staff
further examined the system performance and determined that the productivity
was significantly better on the outbound rides controlled by schedules created by
the dispatchers and significantly worse on the return rides not controlled by
schedules created by the dispatchers. Staff also determined that productivity fell
to below 2 rides per hour when the higher productive subscription rides to Area
Residential Care, Stonehill and Tri-State Dialysis were taken out of the
calculation. Staff concluded that there was considerable room for improvement in
the area ride productivity that in turn would increase capacity on the minibus
service.
In early March, automated vehicle locators installed in all minibus vehicles under
a FTA grant went on line allowing dispatchers real-time location capabilities of all
minibus vehicles. In addition, software technicians from RouteMatch software
made significant progress in resolving software issues that had been preventing
staff from utilizing the computer assisted dispatching software purchased with an
FT A grant to improve efficiency of the minibus service.
On March 10, 2005 staff reported to the minibus stakeholders committee the
findings of both the recertification process and the productivity review and
concluded that there was no need to revise the eligibility policy on the minibus
service and that there was strong evidence to support staff recommendations to
address capacity constraint through increased productivity.
Later that day, the recommendations by the transit staff and the minibus
stakeholder committee were submitted to the Transit Board at their March board
meeting. The Transit Board concurred with the minibus stakeholder opinion of
the recertification and productivity findings and moved to recommend staff
establish specific productivity benchmarks and monitor individual driver
productivity within these benchmark. The board agreed with Transit Manager
Mark Munson's goal of increasing productivity by at least 1 ride per hour system
wide (approximately 16,000 rides per year) through increased real-time
dispatching management of return rides.
The Transit board further motioned staff to change phone protocols to allow
dispatching staff more time to real-time dispatch drivers on return rides. Currently
a typical minibus ride generates 3 phone calls to the dispatch office that is
receiving more than 100,000 calls per year. The first call is to schedule a ride.
The second call is made to the dispatch office the day before the rider's
appointment to receive their pick up time that is usuallv a half hour or more prior
to their actual appointment time. The third call is for the return ride after the
minibus rider's appointment is complete. While staff had researched the use of a
V-tree feature currently available on the city's phone system, the board preferred
deferring the use of the automated voice answering system in favor of eliminating
the need for riders to call the day before for a more specific pick up time.
The Transit Board motioned to direct staff to eliminate the need for the second
call for a pick up time and to instead advise passengers to be ready for pickup an
hour prior to their appointment. This policy still falls well within the two hour
window required under the ADA.
RECOMMENDATION
The Transit Board is recommending staff address capacity constraint on the
minibus service through improvements in ride scheduling especially in the area of
real-time dispatching of return rides. To facilitate the dispatcher's ability to real-
time dispatch, the board also recommends changes in scheduling protocols to
eliminate the need to call the day ahead for pick up times.
Cc: Pamela Myhre, Acting Economic Development Director