Hello everyone who has joined us thus far, but the time is five o'clock. I'm gonna give it about five more minutes. We'll start at 505 to give everybody a chance to log on but again hello to everyone who's joined us thus far and we're going to start a Bible five
recording in progress
Okay, the
time is now a 505 I would like to officially start our meeting.
Good evening everyone.
My name is Ayana Bell Taurus and I'm the Outreach Manager for DDOT. I'd like to thank you all for joining us today for our first community input meeting of 2023. Especially welcome for anyone joining us for the first time. We value this opportunity to hear your comments and questions and look forward to sharing our departmental updates. Now first, I would like to start with the introductions. And I'm going to begin with our executive director of transit.
Welcome, welcome. Welcome, everybody. It's 2023 Can you believe that the future is bright, we have a lot of great things that we're going to move forward with. We ended the year with a bang, if you will, and we're going to be continued to move forward with some great projects. I look forward to the Coolidge project advancing. I look forward towards working towards state fair, we have a temporary setup, which ends up being pretty good. As a matter of fact, people have even called and said they like it better than the old one. So we're just going to keep listening to what people have to say. We take your input seriously. We have all the appropriate people on staff to listen and to hopefully be able to answer the question to the best of our ability. If we cannot answer the question. We have no problem getting back to you. So welcome. And this will be a great time, I Emami take it away.
Thank you for that Mr. Speaker. I'm going to continue now with their introductions. Yes, and no, I'm just gonna go as I see everyone, so pardon me as I just go through the line. Mr. Yamamura.
Alright,
I'm Ricky. I'm a Carrera. I'm the project manager here at dita. Mr. Barkley.
Good evening, Melbourne, Berkeley, deputy director of maintenance and operations for DDOT.
Williams
Hi, Jasmine Williams, customer service supervisor,
Mr. Patrick
Patrick, I'm over the planning and scheduling division, service development and scheduling. It did that
Mr. Staley?
Good evening, Michael Staley executive manager paratransit at DDOT.
Mr. Vinson. Good evening.
Good. evening, everyone. Tony Benson, Assistant Director of Operations at cheer
Good afternoon, everyone. Happy New Year to all our wonderful transit customers and partners. Chief Ricky brown Transit Police
Sheffield
everyone looking at Sheffield ADA coordinator and regulatory compliance office be that
it's Miller Alicia Miller compliance manager and I'm gonna move to marketing of this all the cameras I see as the kowski Hi, Crystal kowski on the marketing team Jordan. Jordan, also on a marketing team. And this makes Hi, I'm Arjuna also on the marketing team. Thank you, everyone. I believe that is
all the staff that I see right now. And if not, there'll be joining during our question and answer period. This time now for our meeting rules, which are quite simple. There are no personal attacks, excuse me, or foul language will be tolerated. That's verbally or in our chat. And we just ask that you please respect the time limit to two minutes or you may be muted for going over and if time allows, of course you will have another opportunity to speak. Also know by participating in the Zoom meeting. You are granting permission for your name, image and likeness, as well as audio and video recordings to be used. By data. If you would like to request to comment, you can simply use the raise hand function. Of course if you are using the dial in only phone option you can enter star nine and that will serve as that raise hand feature to request to speak or ask a question. If you'd like to submit questions or comments to do that staff, you can do that in chat and that will be opened following this presentation. Before asking a question or comment please be sure to unmute your audio. We ask that you state your name and your organization if applicable. And following your comments. Please mute your audio returning now starting with service development and scheduling effect the Monday January 23. There will be new schedules on the following routes. That's the for Michigan the five Bandag Lafayette nine Jefferson and 18 Finckel. Now the new schedules will allow for better schedule
adherence. From compliance Your
participation is needed in the title six on board ridership survey. Now those surveys start circulating on the buses Tuesday, January 17. And they will continue during the weekdays until Tuesday, January 31. And speaking of feedback, we would like to hear your feedback regarding deedat reimagine. Now D that is preparing for the next phase of deedat reimagine. Now once the draft plan is reviewed, it will be shared to the public. Now DDOT expects to provide that draft plan in the coming months and will host open houses and pop up events. To learn more about deedat reimagine you can visit Detroit mi.gov As for slash deedat reimagine
are now to our coolest
terminal replacement project. Now in case you missed it D that is planning to construct a new bus maintenance storage and Operations Center at the existing coolest terminal site now deedat will be hosting a public hearing to present the findings of the environmental assessment and receive public comments for the project. Now more information will be provided once that date is confirmed. In the meantime, you can visit the website that's Detroit mi.gov For slash DDOT or you can comment or place your ask questions at by emailing do that comments at Detroit mi.gov.
D that is hiring
DDOT currently has 20 students in training. So that's good news not 13 of those students are training behind the wheel. One student is in CDL prep, and six students are expected to get their operated badges the first week of February 14 students have completed training since December 1. And our next class is going to take place on Monday since January 23. That is also hiring non driving positions. So for more information about deedat employment opportunities, please visit Detroit mi.gov For slash deedat where you can use that QR code you see on the screen and you can scan that now for anyone seeing that for the first time. We'll give you a moment to do so. And please know that DDOT is an equal opportunity employer.
Okay, and speaking of hiring
great news from the Transit Police five new transit police officer this the T POS have been hired and transit police is scheduling additional interviews with amcos. That's the Michigan commission of law enforcement standards licensed officers. We do want to give a special thanks to the Transit Police for helping to keep our riders safe and for making arrests resulting in getting numerous reportedly dangerous people off the streets. Now transit police also reports that assaults on T O's which are our bus operators are down by nearly half.
From our safety division, the search for a security training vendor will go out to bid to adequately train all security staff. Now the vendor selection process is underway. To outfit doodads bus fleet was new cameras. Contract negotiations are also underway for AI cameras to monitor to enroll patterns. Safety is undergoing perimeter fencing negotiations to enhance security at all DDOT facilities they are working with a contractor for on call camera system enhancements performed video coverage of all deedat facilities and fire protection contract with Johnson Controls is also under review
with paratransit the new service model for deedat paratransit it began January 1, and we're going to take a look at the numbers. First column is the same. This is about the first week or under safe service. There was one preventable accident. That's the backing with property damage. The zero passenger injuries under reliable service OTP report which is on time performance that's 85% but 4173 trips, the weekday average OTP with 88%, Sunday 73% And Saturday 85% When it comes to customer oriented services 11 complaints were taken 10 Valid 10 deemed one excuse me one invalid moving to cost effective service this trips per hour is 160 for the seven day average 159 For weekday 130 for Sunday and 155
for Saturday.
Moving now to week two under safe service, ZERO ACCIDENTS which means zero passenger injuries, unreliable service and that OTP report 84% with 4785 trips the week day average OTP was 85%. Sunday, Sunday percent and Saturday 90%. That customer oriented service there were 34 complaints taken and 34 of them were deemed valid under cost effective service trips. per hour 193 to seven day average 191 we get 170 for Sunday and 180 for Saturday. I do want to point out that this information will be provided to the public in a scorecard quarterly, but this is available now that we want to report to you today what a scorecard that will be made public will still be published. And in light of that we also want to show our fixed route Performance Dashboard. Here's a look at November and December. The ridership for November 843,265 are on time performance weekday was at 63% The average weekday pulled out for am and 96% and the average weekday pulled out for PM 93%. In December the ridership 787,451 the on time performance weekday at 64% The average weekday pull out am 95% And the average weekday pulled out for PM 94%.
That brings us to
our upcoming meetings and the next virtual community input meeting will take place next month. That's Thursday, February 16
at 5pm.
And that is all the updates that I had at this time. Of course we asked us for the latest information you stay on us with our website. That's Detroit mi.gov For slash DDOT. Please follow us also on social media, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter at right DDOT we are going to now turn it over to public comment I am going to call on Kelly Kristen to call first person and then I will be opening up
the chat. Thank you.
Thank you and the first hand up I see is Mr. Cunningham.
Oh you should be able to unmute yourself.
Greetings director Oglesby. Greetings. This is Ahmed BL Torrance. Kristen, everybody. Greetings. Thank you for the flyers this month. That will be very costly if I were to do it on my own. I was doing it on my own for many, many years. And I thank you for that change. And thank you to Chief for sending messages every now and then. And Thank you Chief came to the Christmas party for Wow. He really, really warmed the hearts of the people they're attending that meeting the while meeting or is on wheels.
Thanks, G. IX, a question
about paratransit the complaint process. I want to know DDOT still has the voicemail system after 6pm on the weekdays and on the weekends. If so, can paratransit mimic that processes? Well? I don't know director ultimate can answer that but could that same voicemail and weekend voicemail can be mimicked for paratransit as well. What's paratransit? For those who don't know is Metro lift the small buses that come to the door for those who are disabled, disabled now folks don't believe it and believe it or not, I'm high functioning but I have physical disabilities. And I am a paratransit customer. And I take it periodically basically that's that's what I want to know and then what is the if you can see the the process on how to how a pair of trans person can leave a complaint? What is the procedures for that? Also, we would love to see how many people are in the meetings and who is in the meeting that has never been available. And these meetings, it will be nice to see who's here and how many folks came especially passing out all those flyers you want to see some new faces some new people as a way of encouragement and I hope everything is well in the new year
did I obame
It looks like he still had time so I wasn't sure so I'm ready to respond when you're done Mr. Cunningham.
I am hopefully there's a response.
Okay, so I'm gonna admit that Mr. Staley respond because what you're referring to for those that don't know is that Mr. Cunningham had gave it suggested to make sure that there is an answer machine after hours for fixed route in which we had moved forward with our system and implemented that or got it to work. Parallel paratransit 24 hours so I think it's a little different, Mr. Staley, you can go ahead and explain that.
Thank you. Yeah, I attended the Warriors on wheels meeting this week and the question was raised there as well. So as immediate follow up to that, I inquired of our telephone people and the folks at Avaya about being able to set up a voicemail system. Currently, we're taking complaints Monday through Friday during normal business hours, but they're looking into what it will take and how long it will take to set up that voicemail system. And as I indicated in the meeting notes that I sent back out to warriors on wheels that soon as I have an answer, I will provide that to them as well. The complaint process is you can you can dial the paratransit telephone number and select option number four and that will connect to with Tanisha Roby, who's our outreach direct services specialist. And she's in charge of logging complaints, point person on the investigation. She works with DeMarcus Garrett, who's our manager for contract compliance, as it relates to getting responses from the service providers. And we've set up with the service providers that they have a five business day turnaround for response to the complaint, not only with the driver statement, but also with actions taken based on the complaint.
There you go. Great, thank you.
The next hand up is Robert.
Good evening. Can everyone hear me?
Yes, go ahead. Perfect. Thank
you. Good evening everyone. My name is Robert claw ski and I represent the Regional Transit Authority Citizens Advisory Committee. First things first, I like to start off on you know, just welcoming everyone a Happy New Year. We had a lot of positive projects that have came into play throughout 2022 One of them being the State Fairgrounds project was one of the absolute things that has been kicking into gear, we're starting to see changes around the property remodel zation and also, you know, the new row that's going to be implemented to go into the facility. So we have a lot of positive projects. We've had kiosks implemented at Rosa Parks Transit Center. We have worked on getting bonuses for our drivers it has been an honor and a pleasure being a part of that. And we have a lot of good things in play the paratransit contract that was just revamped, and now and I appreciate everyone's time and consideration. Thank you, my Cal and, Michael, for all the work you've done, to really focus on this issue geared to these people that rely on the service but you know, it's not just the great projects that we have this just the revitalize the system. It's mainly our drivers that keep us here. And one of the things that has really put DDOT on the map is our hiring efforts. We've implemented we've implemented billboards all across the city, major freeways and every time you pass by through Del Rey or some part of the city. You see we are hiring. And that's one of the things I'd like to see. We haven't seen that in many, many years. But like I said, for time and time again last year DDOT is on the rise, and that's one of the things I like to see. I would like to see more of the outreach go outside the city. I know you guys are not the only system going through a driver's crisis. You know, smart is going through the same thing but you have agencies like the ride that have already started paying drivers 28 An hour and they get guaranteed overtime. And that's one of the downfalls like we've seen a lot of drivers leave DDOT and go to other agencies. I want to see beat up even mostly the agency for drivers to come and spend their careers here, especially for people outside the city to come and make their careers here. There are plenty of billboards that I would like to see outside the city. That would definitely make your mark especially here in the downriver communities. Let's
that is time.
You can go ahead we'll hit it. We finish that sentence though.
Sorry, let's look really look outside the market of the city and let's definitely look outside the city. The job market is there and we have a lot of hopeful things for the future. Let's keep DDOT rolling. Thank you. Thank you.
All right, very good. Thank you for your support. There's not much to say there other than we agree with everything that said we're very proud of the efforts that we've put forward. We have hired a lot of people but the goal is to make sure that we retain them and that's been the challenge and I believe that's what you're referring to. We are going back to the drawing board and looking at salaries. You never know what can come out of that but I'm very, very optimistic that we will continue to stay competitive in the competitive market. And then quite frankly, we are reaching, doing outreach outside of the city. We're doing everything that we can, I'm sure like a lot of other transit systems, but it goes beyond advertising. Right. It's about making sure that we have the salaries and bring the people in salaries to retain them, the training that's required, and creating a family atmosphere that people love about DDOT and the reason why they stay and I think if we focus on that, we're going to come through with flying colors. So thank you for that. Those comments and we're going to keep pushing.
Let's look for talent. Okay, thank you the
next hand up is Ms. Michela.
obame Christian, the rest of the staff gave me a lot of dates on the things I was going to ask you about on time. I figured you would know that so you page you put it in there first. Okay, because I think you already know. Okay. reimagine. Please get that out there to date so we can start talking more about it. Love to see those hooks that we've been talking about come up. Also, what about the seats in the shelters? How are they doing? Thank you for the security in the shelter that State Fairgrounds but what is uh, how's it going there? How's it coming along? How's it looking when it's gonna be finishing is finished a little earlier, whatever. I do want to say that I had a friend on Facebook. There's a deer, my camel, he went to smart all the time. He's a smart he always talked on his Facebook page about how he loved theta d that was his heart. That's where he learned everything is friends. Community. He loved it. Jeremiah Campbell is back with you right now. From smart okay. You do have to get a little bit more better on that salary. Smart and do that because you're gonna lose a lot of good people. I think the people that have the ratchet blesses your services. They love what they do, but they're just not getting enough. You know what they need? They need a little bit more support. And if we can get console and DDOT us get together and try to get them to put more money into the guy always said every council meeting please get transportation more money. Love the way the transitioning is going into PA transit. Please keep it going. Make sure that it's better than what it was hoping to see a good paratransit mix I am a better as a writer to know you might look at me and say okay, we're selling walks you do this you do that. The Pro sale is at a community too. But when everybody know you know I know everybody know Cunningham Cunningham. Cunningham is having a birthday on the 26th if needed, but yeah, follow him. You know he's out here doing hand warmers. He's given up bus cars to people he's out here getting free rides. You know he he's doing some everything. You know, and if anyone's out there want to help them up. Come up to him a little cash app or something so he can keep on doing the things that he do out here for this community.
Thank you and that is time. Okay,
thank you. It's always great to hear your voice and to have your support as you know, we push forward I'm as transparent as can be putting it right out there. And yes, you did help influence that slide. And almost put your initials right next to some of those statistics. To make sure that everybody sees what we are doing. We're doing the best that we can we agree. Salaries are an issue. We're working on that believe it or not behind the scenes. I'll tell you a little a little secret. We are working very hard to see what we can do to stay competitive. As far as paratransit we're doing the best we can with what we have and we are very proud of what we're doing. But I can assure you it's going to be even better after we move forward and go to the next RFP process to kind of lock down the other 70% but we're filling it right now and Mr. Staley and his crew are doing a fantastic job. As far as Mr. Cunningham's birthday I'm very glad that you told me his birthday is on the 26th I have balmy mix. So you take note of that. And we'll make sure that I'll make sure I reach out to him and maybe we'll send a happy birthday to him or something. But again, thank you for your input. And yes, we are pushing to do everything that we can to and things are moving forward. I hope you see the difference. Things are moving forward. And we do care about the operator. We're listening to them and we're utilizing all of their ideas and DDOT reimagined and into you know, into moving forward what we're going to do with the salaries, but if I don't talk to you, Mr. Cunningham, happy early birthday.
I did want to just say one other thing. I'm so glad that city council voted down at trans do contract match. I don't think he had anything to do with the trans dip. But I thought that if we could get that pushed down, that we would get a Honorable Mayor Mr. Duggan to pull up his sleeves so that we wouldn't lose federal funding and make sure that when January 1 came, all that 70% That wasn't covered would be covered. So
thanks. Thank the Council for voting it down. I think that we got the paratransit that we needed.
Yes. Just one last comment. It ended it ended where it needed to end. We are taking what we were given because we had to go through the process. I mean, what do you say?
No, I was just seeing the thing come across. I see that. Congressman, seer theory chapter do he came in? He's got somebody's in here. Meeting. That's a good thing because we do ask council people, you know, representatives to come in, coming on these meetings and check it out and put the input and help try to get some funding for transportation don't
work. So we got it, but we're selling we're gonna have to talk offline. You and I go back and forth. We're gonna take up everybody's time, so appreciate you. All right.
Thank you, Mr. Chela. The next hand up is Colin user one.
There we go. Go ahead. Hello. Yes.
Happy New Year to everyone. Happy New Year. Mr. Vincent. I am calling because I need two questions answered. The first is when will you be restarting back the bus routes of number 89 and 80, which would be very convenient. If something can come down West Grand Boulevard other than just the Dexter. That even crosses Lynwood coming from the 89 That would be a hope because the Dexter is on necessarily slow. Were you still waiting hours at a time I have chronic condition itis and it leaves me in excruciating. Pain, having to stand two and three, and sometimes five hours continuously. I'd like to see you bring that service back. I'd also like to see for the ADA if you can start it where people can take their photos and ID badges at a different place other than Rosa Parks transit, giving people an option, even if it's at the old Red Cross where you turn in your pair of transit application personally I don't feel safe coming to the Rosa Parks transit center. There is a gentleman that now is on the day shift. He was afternoons that has referred to me and a couple other women as female doll and I've been dealing with his sexual harassment been going on now for eight years. I have made Mr. overspeed Mr. lozman. Aware alone with counsel I sent over audio tapes where this man clearly says he's not wanting to answer any questions of when a bus is coming. I have pictures of this man that was sent to Director ogos be Mr. Lowe's and
that is that is that is that is that I believe we have that information correct. That's not even two minutes. That that is two minutes me. Okay, so Iommi? Yes. Was that time to chat?
We have this that was time.
Okay, well, first I'll have I'll have
man please remain muted.
Okay, well, well, we can do two things. The first thing is far as let me get into the the what was sent to me on this issue. I'll have to get what staff to get clarity. Mr. Lowe's is not here anymore. But we do have staff that can put this in front of me. So I'll look at that as soon as tomorrow morning to see where that is. So thank you. For bringing it to my attention. I don't know if it fell to the cracks or whether status is to tell you the truth. I have so many different topics. That's no excuse but I will assure you I will look at that as specifically as it pertains to any type of harassment which is unacceptable. Here at DDOT. As far as the question about the ad nine in the ad, oh, and then the photos we'll look at that. Also, I believe you were probably talking about the photos for paratransit Mr. Staley will kind of talk about that. We're going into this paratransit contract. From an emergency standpoint, we're really just trying to provide the service that you were getting or a little better and then amp ramping it up slowly. So we're going to we're going to handle that. Now as far as the 89 in the ad. Mr. petronet. I believe you had some comments on that.
Yes, so I wanted to address that. Thank you very much. Good evening. So we we went through the first phase of detent reimagined last year and this year we're going to unveil a draft new network, and you'll see that a lot of the existing routes have changed and reconfigured when this comes out, but what I like to do is instead of thinking about bringing back old routes, let's think about what places need to be connected to each other and what connections would be most useful. And we you know, we encourage everyone to participate and the debt reimagined. And thank you very much. It's all good.
Okay, great.
The next hand up is Mr. Verse.
Mr. vs.
Go ahead.
Oh, I can't be heard
out. There you go. We can hear you now. Okay, good.
Just for the record. I'm out in traffic and I apologize for the background noise but I found it necessary to travel. Most of what I wanted to ask and a lot of what I wanted to say was actually already presented by probably philosophy and go fellow Stewart. But one of the things beyond that I would like to ask is, what exactly is the procedure for funding the operations which I presume covers drivers, but DDOT does that come directly from the city is part of from the state or as part of coming from federal grants, or does it all come out of the city treasury?
And after you answer that,
is there anything specific that bus riders supporters can contribute to helping to get an increase?
That's my question. Is that is that up?
I believe the answer is all of the above. We have lots of different funding sources, and including federal, state and city. And we have new grants manager who I don't know if she's on this call, but for help us get off all the available funding from different things.
Yeah, and if I can if I could be more specific first of all, Mr. Verse Happy New Year is good to hear you. And I don't see you but some tells me I'll be seeing you soon. Okay, so as far as the funding for I know, you're asking this specific to the wages that the drivers get and a way that like, like, Mr. Petrich said, we have various funding, but a majority of the funding that goes towards the wages are from general fund, the general fund. I will also say that we are don't have a financial problem when it comes to paying the drivers and getting the drivers. You know, we've talked about this. We're like a broken record, right. We have so many operators, that with vacancies, that if there was an actual increase that was approved, we will probably absorb it with the vacancy rate. Because we're still down 100 drivers. So the financial part isn't the problem. The tricky question, which is a good question is what can you do to help this move along? Right now we are, you know, it's clear as you know that the union has been talking to admin or myself and staff pushing for wages. It's more of a negotiation thing at this point. And I will tell you that in short order, something tells me we will be kind of going back and forth with that if it seems like it's something that's not coming to fruition, then it would be brought out to the public or to for you to be able to assist right now. There isn't much that can be done except to support us in agreeing that the operators need more money, because we agree with you.
have time for one more question. Sure. You did. What about in addition to wages, what about the benefits that they receive? Well,
I'm sorry, go ahead.
No, I was asking in addition to wages, what about the benefits they receive? Etc. Because that's an important part of the staying on the job process. How does that work? You can tell me?
Sure so so.
I can't hear you.
I think he may have froze
his diverse. No, no,
no director frozen.
Yeah, so just give him well wait till he comes back on.
Okay.
In the meantime, is it okay if we come back to this? I'm not sure if it'll be a quick fix or not.
I'll be here at power and time.
Okay, we will make sure we come back to it. Thank you. Okay, thank you.
Okay, great. Thank you, Mr. Verse. And the next hand up is Steven Boyle.
Oops, you.
Hi, Steven. Hi. I was waiting on the Rosa Parks. I'm sorry, the Franco bus that Rosa Parks in Grand Boulevard on December 29. I think it was. And at the time, I guess Rosa Parks had just recently opened and I was believing that they still had the detour going on. So I was standing on Grand Boulevard hoping the bus was going to turn left and watched it shoot straight past and it happens that that day was about negative 20 below. Wind chill. Oh, it was it was just horrendous having to figure out what was going on to try to figure out what's my next option because the physical bus doesn't very well run past 5pm until the very last bus in the night and then somebody runs a cleanup run and that's about it. Tonight for example, I hopped on the Dexter bus to get over to the Frankel bus and it says it's the pinnacle bus was going to be coming but it wasn't on the tracker so I didn't get off the bus. I got I stayed on the Dexter. So I'm walking home about 20 minutes after getting off the Dexter. This is just typical. Because I can't count on the phone call bus after five o'clock. It just doesn't really show up. So I'm glad to hear that there's some scheduling changes happening. I don't know what the inputs were to make the changes that are being made and I don't know what the results are going to be but I'm very curious about that. I also would like to ask for DDOT to have a very strong line against trans debt being considered because in the news article that I read Dugan spokesperson seemed to believe that after six months or whatever this emergency contract period is that they may reconsider trends and afterwards, I want to do guns staffed No, it is a hard line no. Then that needs to be publicized that they really understand that. And
with that, that is time. Thank you
I'm sorry I was shut off. I did catch the end of that. So Mr. Patrick, you content comment, I believe on what he was talking about, especially outside of Finkel and Dexter. I think he's complained about this before and we took some of the disinformation into consideration when doing the scheduling but anyway, go ahead, Steve.
The scheduling changes that are going into effect next week are our runtime changes, just changing the number of minutes between one time point and the next time point. So those are routes for the most part. Were actually speeding up the schedule in certain places where, where there's too much time in the schedule. But as Mr. Oglesby has said, the shortage of operators is the main reason why some buses on the schedule are not operating on certain days and the Bus Tracker is the best way to find out if your budget is being affected.
Yeah, I have a quote. I have a question if Mr. Boyle is still on are great. You're using the tracker? Correct.
I'm using both the tracker and the transit app and the transit app said tonight for example. That the phone call bus was on its way to transit app said. However, when I looked at the tracker, I'm not seeing a dot anywhere on there for a phone call. Well, I saw a physical bus arriving at the transit center at about the time that it should have been up a grand boulevard.
So So first, I want to just tell you use the DDOT tracker because we're working very closely with our clever device group that is linking the two to make sure that is as accurate as possible. The transit app which used to be the go to is the reason why we created the tracker that we've had some inaccurate problems and part of that is the maintenance of the transit app, the lack of and no contract with them. So I'm going to tell everybody, we created the tracker for that reason. Once we get move forward, we're going to start focusing on talking to the transit app to make sure that it's linked to what we're tracking in our track and our Tracker app so they both are identical. So that thank you for giving me that input. I'm going to be I'm going to jump on it right away. We've been having some tracker issues as far as the mayor's staff I can't comment on that, but I can tell you that I right after we moved forward with everything we move forward with that we're doing now. I received a I'm not gonna say a nasty gram, but I received I received a letter to me from Transdev which probably would lead to the fact that they not only have closed out but they're most likely going to be moving on. One of the reasons why it's hard to do a hard no on them is because the procurement process and again, I appreciate your input because we're going to work on this. You can't if we're going through a legitimate procurement process. You can't say no to anyone. You have to take all bids. Something tells me we'll have more than one bid this time before I think there was one other bid you know, there were two bids. We only had two to choose from I think after what everybody said and what everybody's voice the city council, the mayor and everybody. I don't anticipate it being an issue. It's not something we're driving for as far as trying to bring back something that we weren't happy with. So I can assure you. There's a lot of eyes on this.
One thing I can what I like to offer is I realized that having two providers handling 70 and 30% of the of the activity is easier as far as who do you have to contact about stuff. So limiting the number of providers is helpful, however, is it harmful to the ridership that are depending on reliable service. And that's where I think where your riders are, are striving to say please provide us more local people that understand the local concerns. It's kind of like having central government versus having local government. Local government understands your localized stress issues and handles them properly. When you have centralized government, it doesn't work that well. They don't understand local issues.
Well, well, I will tell you this I think there's a misunderstanding with the writing public. The RFP was put out for all people to apply. Had there been four or five separate companies that applied we would have taken them in consideration. They did not want to apply unless they were under an umbrella but you're correct. I agree. Now, the other thing when we move forward, our intent was not to have less providers. Our intent was to have the most providers that we needed if it was five providers that could do it. We'll take five if it was six that could do it and it was needed. We take six so the RFP that we put out was put out that way the next RFP will put put be put out the same way and we invited all local companies to apply so it wasn't a situation where we did not. I will tell you one of the deterrence of a lot of the smaller companies where it was some of the insurance or the insurance requirements and some other city related requirements that made them possibly not move forward. But I think as we're moving forward with this emergency process, there are a lot of people learning the process. And I again I truly believe that we'll have multiple bidders. I hope so. i My fingers are crossed. I need your help, though. You need to cross your fingers too.
All right, I got my toes crossed.
Appreciate it. Great, thank you.
Can we circle back to Mr. Verse if he's still available to answer his final question.
I'm sorry, what was that, Mr. Verse?
Yeah, well, actually Nick Ogilvy, you had already started answering and that's when you get cut off. Could you do you remember what you were saying that you need to him to read?
I'd say I'll tell you what I was talking away and then I looked in the whole screen was blank. So I don't know what I was saying. But I don't even remember the question.
Okay, let's bring localu promised that we would come back to him. So
Mr. Verse
Yes. I'm here. Can you hear me? Yes, sir. Okay, my question was about benefits. How does that work for drivers than fish do they get because benefits along with salary is a big part of retaining employees. Do they get what might be called sufficient benefits? medical, dental. Whatever we call for when either a female has a child or
yes, okay,
snooped in other someone else has a shot. How does that work? Is it comparable to Well, I'm not gonna say comparable to what it was. Like comparable to the prevailing market at this time.
I can let I can let my off staff jump in but the answer is yes to all of the above. They have access to all of all that you mentioned. So that and that honestly has not been a deterrent as far as why people have left or why people have come on board. There was a recent survey that we did an internal survey if you will, to get an idea why people are staying on board and why they're not and that was not even listed as one of the potential issues. Of course a lot of the major ones were salary but it wasn't benefits. Either Melvin or Tony, if you want to add to that.
Yeah, I can answer that for sure. salary was was really the number one reason folks are leaving, you get your CDL license, and that can then propel you to a different job with some higher pay. And also the schedule was was another big reason. It's really tough. In the first few years as a bus driver with the schedule on the way work is set up and the picked by seniority. So a lot of times a new driver doesn't have two consecutive days off. They might work sporadic shifts where they're working some early mornings and then later in the week, they're working later at night, working the weekends gets tough. So so those are hard on you know, single moms or or folks who have are trying to juggle family life and work as well. So we're working to fix those, those issues.
But and just to piggyback on that I like I like where Mr. versus going with this. He's basically in a nutshell saying, Are you thinking out of the box and looking at things other than salary? And the answer is yes, we're looking at all options. We're looking at what's going on in the industry. We have taken a look at what the salaries are in the industry, the creative ways that they're recruiting. We're doing all of that. So So yes, we're going to continue to move forward and in the things that work. We're going to be coming to you and letting you know But right now our focus really is on figuring out how to just fully retain and maintain the people that we have while we bring people on board because they're coming on board. They're coming on board slowly but they're going out the window justice faster and I won't say out the window because that might be not be the right term in transit terms, but they're actually leaving, leaving the agency for various reasons. So we're working hard. We're even looking at possibly getting people who retired or left the agency, some type of incentive for them to come back. So we're working on all options but thank you for your comments.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Verse. And actually before Kristen calls a nice person I do want to address this Marguerite because I know that she asked as well for me to read your comment. I know she will let me know if I missed one as well. But no, I saw the comment regarding parking at bus stops, remains a concern for all riders when drivers are not pulling in close to the curb for safety of the passengers of all passengers.
On this tour is this Jeep Brown. I did respond to miss Madox directly in the chat regarding that to everyone else on the call if anyone has any specific location or problem locations where there are vehicles parked in the bus stops, please let Transit Police know or DDOT customer service and we will address it all the officers have been directed to pay special attention to all the bus stops and do strict enforcement of parking violations.
Thank you Thank you for that Chief.
And I believe the other one was regarding the icon which I believe Steve answered by with flashing my screen to like he said is the de dot icon so it was just our d that is the logo. But if you have any more please put it in the chat if I missed any Thank you. Okay, go ahead. Kristen.
Are you ready?
Yep. The next hand up is a number ending in 169.
Yes, how you doing? Can you hear me? Yes, go ahead. Okay, first off,
I just want to say read the Cunningham. He gave me the flyer to actually contact you guys. He actually picked me up a few times when buses were running actually too late. My my problems with them the businesses and especially this Hamilton bus. The older bus drivers, they tend to have real bad attitudes. I was waiting outside for the bus one time and less fortunate person needed a mask. And the thing is the bus driver wouldn't let the lady get on the bus. She says she had no mask but in the bus. She had a big box of mask. Like I couldn't understand that. You know why you didn't just give the lady one and the younger bus drivers they just don't care at all. I'm busted versus going past me versus them splashed me versus never even came. I feel like the Hamilton Bush should run you know a lot longer than what it runs especially being on the route it is to the hospital. I feel like um, yeah, they should stay open a lot. Well run a little longer.
All right, thank you.
I'm gonna address the behavior of our operators.
Well, hold on hold on one second. Melvin. Before you do can we get in the timeframe of when he takes the bus that the that the that the service is typically subpar in his mind.
If you're still on
Well, yes, I'm still here, this time I had a relative that was in hospital on the ICU and I will catch the bus around 11 Maybe 12 o'clock, but a couple of old days that are working and this is in the morning towards you know going to the afternoon. A couple of times I couldn't even make it because no bus even showed up on the on the app it saved it is coming but it never even showed up two hours later did it it shows up. You know and that's really unacceptable even though I mean I know that they don't know what I have going on. But for a person that is here on time looking at the schedule looking at the you know the app, and it's telling me that is you know, should be pulling up in a certain amount of minutes and I see it traveling and then no bus pulls up or is stopping state where it's at for you know, an hour, two hours. You know, that's unacceptable. You know, I got drenched out in the rain. You know a couple of times and even coming back. I'm standing right there on third. Like right off of Grand Boulevard where to the hospital was at they take too long. Um you know the last bus leave um, the last I think morning bus is like eight o'clock when the hospital shut down for like all of the visitors is usually around eight o'clock. You know what I mean? And at this time, I was trying to you know, stay as long as I could and I will have to leave three to three hours earlier. Just so that I make sure that I get a bus that cut my time short and everything.
I got you I got you Okay, so Well, first of all, thank you for the input. You're talking to the executive director. My name is Miko, Busby. Okay, so I'm going to talk a pleasure so pleasure. So I'm going to be talking to the planning staff to kind of see what's going on there. And the reason why I was trying to find out the timeframe is I may I may get out there myself from writing and see what you're talking about. How's that? Okay, perfect.
That's great. Hopefully, you run into the persons I've seen, um, I can't really describe them because they had this like during the colder days, so they had like a scarf over their whole face. But I do notice the Hamilton route. Okay. 23 Yes. 23 Yup.
Okay, we got it. So go ahead, Melvin. I know you kind of answer I don't know Steve, whether you want to follow up with a with what's going on there. But I think I've heard this complaint before. I think this caller had actually called him before too. So Melvin.
Thanks. So
in terms of operators behavior, we are constantly monitoring it. We're revealing film. From the camera system. There's up there for your safety and also for us to monitor to make sure make any corrective actions that need to be done. Operators are receiving enhancement training yearly. And one of the areas that we do look at is customer service. Because we tell our operators not only are you a driver, but you are a customer service agent for the city of Detroit. And we really push that and we strive to make sure but anytime you encounter any operator that the not having professional behavior, please give us a call on our customer service.
I will do
I will do that that the last incident with the mass thing that is just to me totally off. I couldn't believe that lady refused the lady to get on a bus because she didn't have the mask but it was a boxer mask sitting on a bus. And I mean, you wouldn't even sell her one. You know, like it's, it's crazy. You know, that really kind of touched me the wrong way because I'd say you know, people like that less fortunate. They rely on these buses, regardless whether they have a mask or not, you know, it was other forms of way that she could have covered her face. And you know, the bus driver just had a snotty attitude like you ain't got no man you can't get on like
this thankfully we we have to move on but we got a comment received. Yeah, well.
Thank you. All right. Thank you for your comments. Renard. You're next. Oh, Can y'all hear me? Yep, go ahead.
Oh, God knows that no, this Hi, first of all, happy new year to DDOT. And I want to thank the director and all staff for noted continuing the hard work of improving the DDOT system and being you know, open to the public in terms of suggestions and complaints. So we're very grateful for that. Um, I just wanted to announce and also asked if has DDOT received our passenger bill of rights resolution from city council, and what is DDOT plan to disseminate that to the bus riding public and also incorporate that into his policy. Also, I just wanted to report out this good news. Ross. I I've been using primarily, especially in Dexter has been running a lot more frequently. So I just wanted to say that the service metrics that you provide it for November and December's at least my perception seems to match. I'm not unnoticed that could be the case for everyone. Else. But we need to increase the frequency on the less frequent routes that feed into the main commuter routes as well too. And I also just want to complain about you know, this has happened to me a couple of times of being passed by the bus this has happened to me on Woodward during off peak hours and then also the Fourth Street bus as well too. And that's really bad when that routes and frequent you gotta wait another 45 minutes or you have to find another route to get back home or into downtown Detroit. So we need some more driver accountability with that, with that regard but I don't want to take up too much more time. There's so many other callers that have issues, but it just wanted to know, the dude that received this deal, that passenger Bill of Rights, and how can the public know about about this as well too, and what is your response to that resolution? Thank you.
I'll speak to the Bill of Rights. I recall that it was what city council and City Council approved it I don't think it was sent directly to me but I do have it in my possession. The good news is a majority of what was put in there is what we already have incorporated with the exception of the the Low Fare portion. I think it was I'm doing this off the top of my head but I do remember reading it there was something about welfare. So as we move forward with our study, hopefully that will forfeit fulfill everything that's needed, but we're in the process of kind of cross checking in as to what we already do. And then we will be taken in consideration the rest of what needs to happen. You know, I haven't gotten to the point where we're posting it on the website yet we're redoing our website, but we are taking it Yeah, we are taking it to heart we did take a look at it. In addition, while I have you on I did notice that I think you put it in the chat but it was something about maybe some of the things going on with one of the opera projects, maybe the shelters and or the filters somebody put in so whoever put that in, we're in the process of procuring that. The good news is that we have the money and we're ready to go the bad news is that it goes through the chairman process. So we're putting that out there. That filters will be put in there. We are going to be putting in new shelters we're in the process of finalizing the structure. And then we're going to start identifying which which locations are the right ones and we're just going to start putting them in all over the place. So I'm really excited to execute a majority of the things that not only that we came up with but basically items that you helped us and I say you Renard specifically helped us come come come forward with so I think I think everybody will be happy and we're on our way to executing what we talked about years ago.
Thank you, thank you,
Director. This is just how the department works well and, you know, working with the people on that. And we intentionally you know, design that bill of rights because some of the things that are in there are something that your department has already been undertaking. So that wasn't an accident, but it's always a team effort. And I couldn't have done that by myself. So I want to thank my team members and members of the public they have been supportive of it as well. Also, just one last thing, when we know about how to that is going to be impacted by a 375. Have you identified routes that could be affected by this project? Since they're going to be taking away that freeway and replacing it with a boulevard and has there been any sort of like mobility sort of things that Dean is interested in with that route? Also, can I be invited to first like we haven't started new transit hub. I really want to see what those look like we're excited about those.
Oh, don't worry about that. You'll be invited. I'll let I'll let Steve talk about the 375 project. Go ahead, see, okay. Well, I'm
on the committee for 375. So, the city is you know, the leaders of this process have invited participation. So, we will be offering input and there will also be public input. Now when the project is completed. All of the streets that are in place now will be back to normal again, they'll just have surface level intersections at the Boulevard at the new Boulevard instead of going above you know, having a pastor underneath them or above them. More likely underneath Yeah. So is what we have now. So but during the construction, that's when we'll have to have detours. So, what we would advise them is d that is that if they have to close two of those bridges to build the boulevards now, though, eventually that whole thing will be filled in and made a surface Boulevard. Where did they not do construction on two adjacent streets that pass over 375 At the same time, and that way, the detours won't have to be very long. So and, and, and please, when they do open up the public participation up, please get involved. And and hopefully this will be a very nice thing to have. When it's done.
Yeah, I can address the past by the past by issue. I know we say it all the time calling and complain please, please do that. When you call those complaints and you know, just rest assured we investigate audit percent of them. Be as specific as possible. We want to know bus number if you can catch it. We want to know intersection, bus stop time of day, all that information that a whole bus pull video or pull that up on our AVL system. So please, please call those.
If your bus is on the tracker and it disappears. Chances are what might have happened is that maybe the relief operator, there was no one to relieve the operator who was driving it and they had to pull the question to the garage. It's something we don't like to do, but sometimes we don't have a choice. Right.
Great, thank you.
The next hand up is Jalen camp.
Can you hear me? Yep, go ahead.
Okay, good evening, everybody. I was sent by cutting him I want to say thank you to Mr. coming in for passing out the hand warmers and helping out with public transportation and stuff as well. My only concern was No, I have a one to two year old not working. I can say this about the buses run that late and behind time schedule. You know, I'm wondering No, we'll be able to like fix some bus stops because you know, it's getting a little chilly out. It's getting worse and stuff if you wanted to know we all be able to help out with bus stops. That's really my concern.
When you say the bus stops need to be fixed. What do you mean
there's like some some bus stops on living noise. Like a six mile there's no like no no covering like, like for people standing in the stay warm, like shelter things.
Yeah, we have 5000 Bus shops in Detroit. So only a small percentage of them have shelters. And we're always looking to expand our shelters. But a shelter is a construction project. So we can't just put bus stops at all 5000 I mean, we can't put shelters at every bus stop. We have to we have to take on construction. projects. And do you want a little punches? So right now we're in we're almost finished with I believe is 59 shelters. That's our advertising shelter program. And that's finished and we'll start another phase or shelter construction. Walk in
a specific location please make a request where you'd like to see a shelf
Okay, that'd be six mile Mike Nichols.
Six months
Okay, great. Thank you so much.
Because a lot of background that was I was worried about Okay. Okay.
The next hand up is Alison Chan.
Hello, everybody hear me?
We can just barely hear you. Can you speak louder?
How's this only slightly better? All right, well, that's better. Go ahead.
Happy New Year everybody. I just moved back to the city like a month ago in spring wells downtown. So happy to be back. And I'm also happy to see the new ticket vending machine at the Rosa Parks transcendent but I wanted to ask why is that only available on weekdays between 715 and five? That doesn't make any sense to me because that's the same hours that you can walk up to the window and bypass for the person behind the window. That's that's all I got for questions.
I can actually answer that. Hello, Michael Oglesby, Executive Director of transit. We're excited that we have a ticket vending machine. It's a project that we've been working on for quite some time and the vending machine that you see is actually in its pilot stage. So we're putting it in to make sure that it can handle the requests of the of the riders. We are finding issue after issue that we're fixing, which is great. That's what a pilot programs for and once we get past the pilot stage and it is dependable. Then we will be expanding it 24 hours around the clock but we don't want to go through a pilot program. have it available when no one's no one's there to assist folks and then people put money in they lose it, they can't figure it out. It's late at night and then they start getting complaints there. So be patient with us. We taken huge steps by putting this machine in. It was actually created for DDOT and once we're once we're very confident we're going to be putting them in multiple locations. So you're going to see a few more and Rosa Parks. One state fair is put in place. We're going to have one in state fair. And then we're going to start looking at the durability to see if we can have them outdoors. I mean we have a very we have a fun plan moving forward but it's in the pilot stage as a matter of fact, we haven't even announced to the public that it's there because we're going through this pilot stage. But we are going to do a grand opening pretty soon and hopefully by then you will see exactly what you're asking for.
Yeah, I'm excited to see it. Excited to see when it's fully open and also come in more locations. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you.
And the next hand up is Miko Williams
Miko if you could unmute yourself
okay,
while we wait for Miko to unmute himself. How about Andre Bryant?
Yes, can you hear me?
Yes, go ahead.
Okay. Happy New Year. Data administration. I just wanted to what a couple of things I want to ask. First I wanted to first off one is I am I am the Chair for the Local Advisory Council and almost also member words on wheels. And I just want to say I took paratransit ride for the first my first time for this year, yesterday and it was a good experience too. But the the riots were clean and actually they looked at likely to new vehicles and also I've also noticed that they the driver does not have to layer two way radios and I think that's a good idea, like we had in the past. So I just want to let you know that I was pleased about that. And also want to know first, ma'am, how were the how the funds appropriately a first period transit, how they funded versus fixed routes. Is it through the federal government, or did they actually just come from the city funds? That's all I wanted to know on that. On that front?
I can answer that with question. So in the past teaching paratransit that we're using FTA FTA funds were being used. But in order to make paratransit just as important as fixed route, we're utilizing the same font type of funding source that we use for fixed route, which is from the general fund. So there's no grant funds attached to the paratransit service that we are providing, which was one of the reasons why we were able to bring it in house. The total amount of money that was approved pre approved was approximately $15 million by city council in order for us to build this. So at this point, we're running on or near schedule a little bit over because of the emergency process that we're going through, but that's not a problem. We have the money to offset that based on the vacancy rate, but I will tell you that yes. The funds are exactly the same type of funds that we use for fixed route.
Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. Thanks. Thank you.
Miko, you're still next if you can unmute yourself otherwise, we'll go to college.
All right, go right ahead. Good evening, everyone. My name is Miko Williams and I'm a resident. I'm also currently taking transportation I'm happy to have a bus stop right outside of my own shame route. I'm also happy that you know the effective and fun time and it shows the bull's eye right in front of my room. I just wanted to call in and I wanted to express my support for the DDOT bill of rights for the passengers, the low income there. It is so very important that our residents have access to ride but also at a rate that they couldn't afford to get on the bus. also calling for the paratransit I really am concerned because I represent a group of people that take care of transit every every day. And even with the mayor in decision making. I still feel that there should be expandable options across the board. Are there any Uber and Lyft code for anyone that seeking to take public transportation to get where they need to go? Is there any discount flexibility such as that nature because also there's a disconnect to where people are not informed shout out to brother cutting ham, Cunningham Cunningham. He does a very great job. We need to give that man a contract period, because he is informing everyone about the public system as well as giving everyone information or we got to the bus and I also agree with Steven Boyle that there needs to this meeting needs to be viable on the coaching our writers are on. Definitely great. I just only have a general public transportation is so essential in a big city like Detroit. I don't understand why we don't have 24 hour bus service all round the coach. I understand the COVID worker shortage. I understand the metric that people may not ride late at night. Downtown. It's time but I also think
you could finish that sentence that is time though.
I also think that people that you know go out deserve to have a service that is reliable they have this another city
Okay, so a lot was said there you know I'm gonna I'm gonna answer that backwards and start with the 24 hour bus service and staff can chime in and then fill in the rest. As far as the 24 hour bus service, it would be nice to have 24 hour bus service on our routes. I'd love that we don't have the resources to provide the 24 hours on the I believe several routes that we currently have down the road if we get more operators Yes, that's an option. So there's there's no need and there's reality and right now we do not have the opportunity to do that. So there is a work shortage. Everybody knows that. In addition, if we took the resources from the other routes and service the highest route say to connect 1024 hours then we wouldn't have reliable service on the other routes that we took it from. So it's tomato tomahto. I understand there's there's a want, but then there's reality. So all I say to everybody that's coming in with a request is just understand the parameters of what we're working with. And we are going to move forward and do the best that we can we want to enhance the service that we have. First, we want to make sure that we get back to pre pandemic. I'm not even gonna say pre pandemic levels because we're already running the same service miles with 100 Less people so we're much more efficient, but our goal is to bring it to the next level and the only way we're going to do that is one step. At a time and hopefully down the road. We will all be singing Kumbaya with 24 hour service, but right now that's somewhat down the road. We are going to focus on reliability and increasing service with the amount of resources that we have as far as Uber and Lyft for paratransit. Mr. Staley can talk about that. But I can tell you that it's more complicated than a lot of people think, coupled with the fact that a lot of people have been really, really focusing on what are we going to do with training moving forward. How are we going to train who we have, and it's very difficult to train Uber drivers to provide para transit service. As a matter of fact, the other day, I got on an Uber bus. I'm in an Uber vehicle, and I had a German shepherd the front seat. I mean, it was crazy. So you know, it's hard to control that Uber and Lyft portion but believe it or not, we are actually looking at those options. But right now we are what we're doing right now is so much more efficient. We're going to again focus on efficiency, Mr. Staley Yes,
the only thing I'd add to that is, as the executive director stated, he has asked me to look at other options for how we deliver service. But I think most people would understand and appreciate the fact that we're at day 19 currently of the new service model and all of our time, energy and efforts are devoted to getting the core service where it needs to be saw the statistics earlier on. We have a ways to go to meet our stated standard of 95% on time for pickups or drop offs. So our timeframe was roughly the first 30 to 45 days really work hard on improving the core service. There will be a number of procurements that will be coming out there'll be opportunities for any number of companies have to bid on their services. And again, one of the things that the executive directors asked me to look at over the course of 2023 is what other enhancements in terms of service delivery might we be able to offer
going forward
thank you
the next hand up is Colin user three.
I can see you're unmuted.
Go ahead. Just your comment. Mr.
Oglesby, can you please tell me when will you be making changes at the transit center for ADA riders, where if we cannot sit on the benches, the the seats that you have that folded up, one cannot be allowed to sit in those Can you tell me when you will implement that
change?
When you refer to the transit center, you're talking about Rosa Parks?
Yes. And I'd also like to know, since you're making some changes at the state fairgrounds, why is it when you come into the fairgrounds it's always seeming to be difficulty getting on proper buses with a mixture of both smart as well as the that they're not being able to come on the right side for those of us who are disabled.
Good question. Oh, do you have another one?
Yes, my question will be, when are you going to make a location other than Rosa Parks transit so that those of us who are disabled can take our photo IDs when updating our pictures? So we don't have to come to Rosa Parks. Why not add Mac 100 Mac where you drop off your paratransit application
Okay, is that it?
I'd like for you to give me a timeframe of when you're going to get that and I'm still noticing that you're not keeping the grounds clean. And I take video footage of it every time and I send it over. So I want to know why that's not getting a dress. When you call customer service to complain about service dealing with the drivers. You're generally told they're either not going to take the complaint or is a shortage of drivers. I lost my phone about two and a half weeks ago. I had to buy another one. However, I couldn't even call properly to customer service nor you your downtown location to try to track it. I've spent found through some of my relatives older phones, Gilbert and Shoemaker terminal it wasn't turned in. I didn't figure it would because it's Detroit. That is but I'd like to know when is it going to be changed with improvement is the biasness when
I'm dealing with that. So I want you to see every time I asked
Can we come in I do want to I know we we are at 630 I think we had at least seven new hands raised. So we really and we give you the opportunity to have two minutes we just ask that you respectfully phase. Keep that time especially now that we want to give everyone a chance to ask her questions or comment.
Well first before we get started to that caller if you could put anything that you didn't get to say in the chat, we'll be able to see it.
I don't have an ability to do that. But I sent that email and I'm going to send this recording over to city council and it's being sent currently to the media so that you can answer all of us you're giving others longer time but you cut me off every single time. And so that's why I'll be sending over the recording in a few minutes
to prove this Okay, okay, man, thank you. We I'm going off of the time that's given to me and I know for sure that that was two minutes but again, we're trying to
first time me off and I'll have it on tape Kipruto. Okay.
Okay, man. We apologize and see what that means that we can do another opportunity we to speak as well, so that we
know that we didn't get an opportunity I had to call back which you didn't. So just know that city council will have the three there already. And I'm going to email it over
to have to allow for
us to continue. Okay.
With that being said we can answer to the best of our ability and then get whatever information is acquired over and I have no problem giving it to city council. As a matter of fact, I'm very when it comes to transparency. We're very transparent. As far as the issue with the, the the chairs it's my understanding that there were some folding chairs over at the transit center. But those have been removed. I will look into why they were there. In the first place. As far as the the way that the State Fair is set up. I'm going to let either Mr. Barkley or Mr. Vincent sort of get into the flow of what's taking place there. State Fair.
Yeah, I can answer that. So the buses that are passing through state fair, are picking up and dropping off on the north. side of that platform. The buses that began the route there are laying over at the State Fair and picking up on the south side of the platform and dropping off the buses that are ending they're dropping off on the north side of that platform. Very good.
And as far as a photo ID somebody had mentioned that earlier. So we're going to look into that to possibly look at various locations. We're trying to think out of the box and make sure that photo IDs can be accessed. So that sounds great. As far as the grounds being clean, I believe you're referring to Oh, go ahead. smelvin
Yeah, you know, we have received your concerns about State Fair. Our issue is that garbage every day we go out there every day to clean up we also having companies come powerwashing and clean up from other agencies in the city I think is early in the morning where we have people that come out there and stay out there. The trash piles up early in the morning. I know for myself, my staff is out there by 830 Every morning picking up trash. So it's sometimes just to populate the population out there doing stuff on the floor but we are continuing to try to keep it clean.
And as far as the grounds being cleaned at Rosa Parks I have personally been involved in making sure that that has been cleaned. The Maintenance Group has increased the amount of times that the cleanings take place by our contractor. In addition, we are still having problems keeping it clean because we're trying to you know, get the riders to understand that we need your help to a lot of people are feeding birds as they're feeding the birds and the and the end result of that. We can clean it and then within a half hour, it looks terrible again. So we're doing the best that we can but we're working on putting up signs we're working on going around and telling people to to help us help them. And we're really excited about that part. As far as customer service and customer what happened with customer service. I don't know if Jasmine is on or not. But perhaps Jasmine, you could kind of respond or retort to the accusations that this person is
passing forward.
We have Vulcan to I believe the person that gets called. We've had several complaints that we have taken. These complaints have to go through the investigation process. Once the customer service representative takes those complaints. They immediately are forwarded over for investigation. The turnaround process for that is approximately a week to 14 business days. Okay,
and also I know we're running over time, but I think it's important to to make sure we answer all these questions since it appears as if it's going to be advertised beyond this meeting. Is the chief on.
Yes, sir. I am.
Yeah, in the chat. I think some was somebody had asked, isn't it? Isn't it already illegal to litter and why aren't the Transit Police using their citation powers which are common to them?
is illegal to litter but they changed it to a civil infraction. And we are now in the process of being licensed by the state to issue civil infraction ordinances.
Very good. And in addition to that, again, a big problem is feeding the birds. So feeding the bird is littering yet the bird eats the litter and then what we're cleaning up is not what the bird that what's being fed is the result of feeding that bird. Yes.
Some of the social organizations will come over there, parked next to transit center and issue food to the homeless. And they will take the containers and everything else and go over to Rosa Parks and discard him all over the place. Some of the organizations have actually we've reached out to them and they've tried to cooperate as much as they can by placing trash receptacles outside their trucks and things but again, we need the cooperation of the general public to assist us with keeping the area clean. Very good.
So a lot of the issues that we're talking about a real time that are not necessarily something that requires a a timeframe of when it's going to take place we're actually in the process of handling all of this state ID issues. Currently.
I have AMI How would
you like we're 637 How many new hands that we have. Kristen. If there's anyone who could put any comments or questions if you don't have to put in chat because that that would help timewise and we'll make sure that we address it. But we
still have seven Hands up for people who have not commented yet.
Well, you know what, let's move forward with it. But I asked everybody to please respect the time. When when they say time they are actually timing these questions. So they're legitimately the timeframe. I'm sorry if you can't get it all in in a short period of time, but that's one of the issues with these public sessions. But I try to get everybody in and I'm going to continue let's go to the next one.
It's an email upstairs upscale dining.
Scale dining email. Can you hear me? Yep, go ahead.
How are you? How's everyone doing tonight? Right. In order to speed things up. I just wanted to ask a quick question and maybe a quick follow up. And with regard to the health and the safety of the riders, one of the things I've been worried about is COVID and wearing masks and everything like that is DDOT doing anything with regard to potentially outfitting the bus with anything that could potentially help or prevent the spread of COVID or flu, influenza. Because my family and I have we've been really concerned about that. We still wear our masks everywhere we go. And then I know certain cities have implemented things in mass transit. And if you were thinking about doing that, is there any timing with regard to that?
And that's all I have to ask.
Great question. Someone I brought that up earlier. The quick answer to that. is yes. We are currently going through the process of putting out an RFP for filtration systems that are going to be installed in all of the buses. we've sampled various ones and there are there are some that are out there that actually do fight against COVID. Again, I don't know what the next thing is, hopefully it's not stronger than COVID but we are in the process of moving forward and we will be implementing filled filter systems, some of which are the ones that are in the hospitals on all of our buses, which are 288 that are actually more than an hour priding 292 But we are going to put them on all the buses. Perfect. Thank
you so much, sir.
Great. next caller. Let's go. Hey,
Megan, you're next.
Hi, I'll try to keep it pretty quick. I wanted to because there's been a lot of great comments I appreciate all the time you're taking. I wanted to both ask if there's any update on when any of the great improvements that are planned from the for the ARPA funding. We had some wonderful discussions last year you got some great plans for new shelters and seats and everything if there was any timeline for those and then second wanted to extend a quick invite to everyone for a true state of transit event on January Tuesday, January 31. A great chance to connect with lots of transit folks and hear updates from the whole region.
That's all.
Fantastic. Well, Megan, there's nothing like a shameless plug.
I know I'm shameless.
Hey, no, I appreciate it. And I'm glad that you came on. If not, I probably would have tried to find a way to let people know it's very important and I'm a big supporter. As far as the opera, the opera funding we're working on the actual schedule that we can put in front of the public right now I can kind of tell you what's going on behind the scenes. We'd love to put the filter systems in right away which everybody voted for but we're going through the procurement process. So you know that takes a little bit of time but they're going to be coming the the the the other big one was the shelters, right. And we're in the process right now of trying to identify, let's say the first 100 that will be replaced and once we get the shelter finalized, which will be similar to the ones that we currently have out there but they need to be a little more durable than nice ones that are out there. Then we're going to start moving forward the implementation of that so we don't have the timeframe at this time. But once we're in the process of putting timeframes next to each one of the identified pieces that. So we don't want, we want to make sure that they kind of go hand in hand, we're really excited that the public made the decision to really put that at the forefront and we're trying to incorporate that throughout the entire system. So stay tuned, we'll have some potential timeframes for that. Probably the first pilot will we'll go up quicker than the rest and we'll get input and then we'll move forward from there. So stay tuned. We're working on the timeframe that we'll be putting it up once we get all of the
portions done. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you,
Megan. Miss Marguerite. You're next
Marguerite.
Are you able to share your comments?
I believe she had them in the chat.
If she can't connect through, feel free to put them in the chat. If we have to move on and then we'll make sure to read them out.
Next hand up is a number ending in 585.
Hi,
I just wanted to know is there a quota for wheel devices on the bus such as wheelchairs and walkers and shopping cart because that situation last year in December where bus driver said he only had three on at a time I wonder is that on the books as being the quarter for having a wheeled device on the bus?
Before before you guys answer that, are you referring to the number of wheelchairs or no walkers?
It it was a combination of names. It was two. Water's on. And someone wanted to get on with a shopping cart. And he was like I already have two on and I'm like, well, he didn't know I think he had three on and he wouldn't let a person with a one shopping
cart Come on.
And the three walkers were floated up so like they weren't really in the way but I just want to know is there a quota on the books?
Right staff can answer that but I'm trying to when you say shopping cart are you talking about an actual shopping cart from a grocery store? Or
like shopping carts? You usually see people rolling around with Okay, yeah,
I get it. Okay. All right. Go ahead, Steve. I know you're gonna answer the question. I'm sorry.
Yeah, well,
the buses are designed to have certain seats that are raised and they become places where wheelchairs are secure. So and those are the only places where the wheelchairs can be. So yes, they are limited.
But he was in that wheelchair. They were just the walkers and they were folded in front of the people.
We have to, to know more about the condition of you know, how crowded the bus was and so forth.
I think I think operation is going well hold on one second, I think operations Melvin,
Deputy Director of operation maintenance from for me, what I gather from your what you're telling us is those things where they were to keep the aisles clear, just
like keeping the aisles clear. Is the is the main criteria is the aisles have to be kept clear, especially in the front of the bus where people are always getting on.
Okay, what's the maximum you could do? Well, I think
we'll know just in case. I'm never put in that position where I can't get on the bus because you know, that would.
I don't think there's a specific number but the you have to have a room where people can pass through, you know, back and forth through that aisle.
Okay, Tony here.
If Melbourne couldn't get on, she got frozen.
We might have lost
a few people were losing connection. Yeah.
But I think
if we find out more we update or we can if you want to put your email in the chat you know, because my director but his sounds like it's not a quote, actual number. It seems like it's more the criteria of making sure
that Alice could Okay, thank you. Thank you. Ivy Rose. Hi, this
is Ivy from Eastside Detroit. I'm a disabled fixed route writer and I just wanted to say I wholeheartedly agree with aggregate regarding the issues of parking and curb and accessibility I regularly have to make connections downtown at the city county building on Jefferson Woodward. And there are regularly and consistently cars that are parked there that are blocking the curb and the bus stop the number of times that I have actually been able to board at that stop with a wheelchair is in the single digits. So, Chief Brown, if you're still on the call, I would encourage you to direct your enforcement efforts there. I also wanted to stand with the other writer who commented about the major accessibility problems going on at the current state fair Transit Center. The platform is so small that there isn't even enough space to bring a bike or frankly even stand somewhere during rush hour, let alone for those of us who use mobility aids. Bus drivers have no way to deploy the ramp and trying to maneuver around at this job. Is impossible. So what happens if somebody wants to catch the 450 or the Dequindre bus as disabled people have no way to do that the way things stand currently. I believe that Miss Sheffield and Miller are on the call today. And so I'm hoping if you can demonstrate how this stop has passed the ADA compliance checks that director opsb previously indicated had taken place. Thank you.
Thank you IV. Miss Marguerite,
you are a last hand up. So if you you can make your comments. Go right ahead. Yes, ma'am. Go ahead.
Thank you. Thank you. Happy New Year to everyone. Again, I'm not coming in set the get the day one
your your very first comment in the chat
Yes. How
to Apply for paratransit for first time riders and how to text complaints. Okay,
yes. Did we lose Mr. Staley though? Okay. So Mr.
Marguerite, we have your information, because I will make sure that we follow up with that because I don't think we have anyone on to give you the appropriate information. I don't want to give out any wrong information.
Is that okay? No, I'm.
Good geskin like the sea of transit because you're a merge
Hello
ah, I could not
use more Walker. And not should go. And, and yay, yay. And if they did they get you in bed big. Data is the new not part got a bigger side the West Thank you. Again.
Thank you, Miss Marguerite. Again,
I think we'll take it and we'll follow back up.
And I believe that the last one
Okay. Miss Marguerite was the last new hands. Thank you. Okay.
We usually give it to the executive director to give the last word, but I think with him being off, we can go ahead and close it tonight. Yeah, just want to thank everyone for joining us tonight. We'll see you in February. And again, we apologize for those anyone who did not get a chance to speak but please know that we don't personally try to cut anyone off or mute them. We have a team behind the scenes. I'm not personally going around muting anybody I received that it's time to let you all know but we do that again, to ensure that everyone get the opportunity, because we don't always have the opportunity like tonight to go over 630 We try to keep it in that timeframe. So again, thank you all for joining us continue to reach out to us. DDOT comments customer service 313933 13 country. Have a great night stay safe
