RTA, Detroit to Airport Express Service Public Hearing, Tuesday evening
DDetroit DocumentersJan 10, 2024 at 2:53 pm1h 7min
Unknown Speaker
Hi
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00:09Speaker 1
I'm still no stranger and closer to where we want to actually make the
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trek running
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00:27Speaker 2
the safety committee
Unknown Speaker
All right everyone is bad the team so we're gonna go ahead and get started to get situated
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01:12Speaker 3
All right. Hello everyone. Thank you for joining us this evening. My name is Mickey Taylor Hendricks and I will be facilitating today's public hearing for you. If you are here for the RTA Detroit AirPort Express public hearing, you're in the right spot. If you're not, you're still nervous. But quickly just to go over today's agenda. This is a formal public hearing. So there are a couple rules that the RTA will be following quite closely. First, we'll be starting off with a presentation talking about the proposed pilot service. After the presentation will go into a formal public comment period. This is where anybody who would like to give public comment verbally will be able to do so if you would like to get public comment, we do have some requests to speak cards over here with my colleague English. And then after that, we will formally conclude the public hearing. But we will be around to take questions and have an informal conversation because again, the public comment period is formal. And so we won't be responding to you while you get public comment. Do you housekeeping rules for today. We do have a court reporter with us here today. Megan is here. And so we will be making sure she is able to record everything accurately. So we'll be making sure that we are I will be making sure I do not speak too fast. But also that we'll be speaking clearly. And that means we might have to stop you all while you're speaking so she can be able to get your comments accurately. There will be a public comment period today where you can either verbally give your public comment or you can write it and then there will be an extended public comment period through January the 17th. So if you aren't ready to give your public comment today, if you need a little more time to think about the proposal, you are more than welcome to take that. And if you would like to let other people know who might be interested in the service, they can also give public comment through the serpentine. And then lastly, as I mentioned earlier, we will be around after the hearing and concludes to answer any questions about the materials and to have an informal conversation as needed. And with that, I will turn it over to Julia Roberts to kick off today's presentation.
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03:37Speaker 4
Good evening, everyone. I'm Julia Roberts, the lending and innovation Director here at RTA. And we're very excited to be introducing to you the draft proposed details for the Detroit AirPort Express pilot service that will be running as a coach bus. I 94 between downtown Detroit and just right, Metro airport TTW. Before we get into some of the details, I just want to give you some background context. This is coming out of some plans that we've had historically, but also that we're in the process of updating our regional transit master plan. And what you see here on the screen are five goals that are in draft form or updating them based relatively similarly to our 2022 plan. But some of the tweaks to try to simplify some of the language a bit more, make it increasingly accessible. And really front load the fact that any of the planning and services that we do require funding. So we want to fund transformative mobility. We want to improve existing services with our partners in the region. Our primary public transit providers including the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority, or we ride the Detroit permanent transportation DDOT Smart Mobility authority for regional transit. And we also work with the people mover, true people mover, and the cue line, also known as rail. With that, we also want to then build on expanding new service, adding coverage to new areas, and innovating as we go along. So making sure we're developing resilient projects, ones that can be sustainable for future programs. And these goals for service lead into what we consolidated for some of our top investment strategies. So we had 23 strategy last year, we've narrowed that down to about 10 this year. And as you can see, investing in implementing in a rapid transit network is is on our top. And this service Detroit AirPort Express is a really critical key way that we can do that. So now what you've been waiting for, we have a we put out a press release. So this is also has been shared with media outlets that we are proposing up to 60 round trips. And those will be about 30 to 50 minutes in duration between downtown Detroit and the airport. Depending on which terminal you're going to time of day for rush hour. There is a proposed construction project for the tunnel to McNamara. So that may add a delay for anyone who's traveling not just us. And I just keep that in mind that the draft schedule we share tonight may change not only with your feedback, but also because of the proposed changes that are coming. And that's a multi year project as well. The draft schedule for our service is proposed to go from as early is 330 in the morning to as late as 11pm at night, covering a majority of air travel and employees that may commute to the airport. We do recognize that there are existing services that are similar to ours between Ann Arbor and the airport. And we're trying to introduce something similar to everyone in the city of Detroit live here to this. Yes, the fares these are up to $15 discounts available. So that could mean half fares for individuals with disabilities as well as seniors, and possibly as low as book passes similar to our 80 to 80 service between Detroit and Ann Arbor. For personnel, we work at the airport, maintaining this on a regular basis. So four contracts are day to day to pass in front as low as $2. We're still reviewing for final fare discounts. But the way to purchase those will be similar to our due to a service fee today to service. So if you go to D to a two.com, you can kind of see what that purchasing process would look like. But you can also purchase in cash at the door of the meeting do encourage people to do advance reservations. So similar to the air rights service, this service would probably be around $12. If you've booked your ticket in advance, even as late as 20 minutes before the ride, just to help us get an idea of how many people are going to be onboard. We're paying planning to operate every day of the year including holidays, because we know people are traveling and working different hours and different schedules. And we estimate that this will be approximately hourly service. So frequency, not exactly every hour, but roughly every hour. The grant that we received as some things to the prod Southeast Michigan causal governance where you are today. That is in partnership with the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration, as well as the Michigan Department of Transportation. And that was a grant for $2.5 million. That could allow us to operate for at least a year, possibly more with an extension of up to six to nine months. And there may be other funding sources and grants to help us continue that pilot beyond its initial phase for an additional year or two for up to probably about three years before we do an evaluation. But this initial service is going to run for at least a year. Potential stops. So we've got at the airport. The Wayne County Airport Authority has recommended and looked at with us potential sympathy, syncing up with a ride from the Ann Arbor airport as well as smart. They run a limited stop service that goes back every mile for stops. So there are people traveling locally, which means there is an existing service but this is an express service and that's the main distinction. It's one stop from end to end at The airport and downtown Detroit, the Evans terminal would likely be at ground transportation. So that's the proposal. We welcome your comments and then at the McNamara terminal, it would likely be at departures. And again, we want your comments and we will do our best to work with WCA on the air airport authority to incorporate any changes. Some of that is outside of our control, but we do our best to collaborate. In terms of the downtown Detroit stuff we're proposing and applying for a permit at Washington Boulevard on the west side of the street, in your State Street. For reference that's across the median from the book, Cadillac Westin Hotel, and basically on the other side of the people movers maintenance facility from Rosa Parks transit center. So it's very close proximity to both existing commutes and local routes, as well as hotels and other areas of interest in Detroit. If for whatever reason that stop is not feasible, or we're looking at alternatives, we also have the option of going back to our D to A to stop, which is at Park AB and Bagley near Grand Circus. The perspective start for this is estimated to be end of March in time for this to be a soft launch before the men's basketball quarterfinals here in Detroit. And then with a full watch planned for April before the NFL Draft. And then the last thing we want to share with you all I mentioned this is for both visitors and commuters. We are partnering with Michigan flyer who operates our D to A to service currently as well as the air read service or to the airport and other services in Michigan. For our communications, we're partnering with ad watermedia. They started with Detroit and in Burke communications who has helped us with our D two way to service in the past. And in terms of our commuters and visitors, we anticipate that there will be a wide variety of people using the service. So concessionaires may work the restaurants at the airport. Airline employees may take this service, people coming both nationally and internationally. People coming back home for the first time. And this is a way to really welcome people to Detroit. Whether you're from here, if you're coming here for the first time. I do want to make just a quick note, a question we often get before we open it up for public comment is why not rail. As some of you may have heard their proposed plans for Amtrak, those plans are probably several years away. And there is not a current rail route that goes directly to the airport at this time. So one of the ways to best test demand is to see with the buses or coach buses that were comfortable, we run them for our D two into service, they get one for luggage and TTA to work for bikes and scooters.
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13:19Speaker 4
And we don't anticipate a lot of people biking or scootering at the airport. But these are all ADA compliant lift equipped for mobility assistive devices, wheelchairs, scooters, etc. And so we just want to let you know that while this some people have different preferences, oftentimes the most important thing to people is making sure you get where you need to go. And this is the way to do it sooner. And it's often more cost effective. And so if we see demand over the long run increasing, Amtrak does run a few times a day but often not at all intervals and frequency of hourly. So we can partner with them in the future that pans out. But for right now, this is our really our best avenue for getting this service launched. I do want to also note that this pilot will allow us to collect the needed data to justify long term ridership expectations so that hopefully we can sustain this service into the future. And we are working with the airport's understanding the potential employee demand and shift times we're sending out a survey to understand who may be most interested in taking the service and how we can best accommodate those needs as well. So with that, we'll turn it back over to you. And just before we do I'm gonna leave this up for a minute. This is the draft proposed scheduled service. You can see the 16 rounds was eastbound and westbound dropping off at McNamara and then a layover at Evans So drop offs and pickups at both locations on each trip. Thank you for your time.
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15:09Speaker 3
Thank you, Julia. Amazing stuff, right? Really exciting. So now we're gonna jump into public comment for today. If anybody would like to give public comment that has not yet filled out a request to speak card, please raise your hand so we can get you a card. Thank you got a couple of hands up. While we do that, I'll go over some important notes for speaking today. If you would like to get public comment, and you don't want to speak that is also more than welcome. You have comment cards that you can fill out. So if you would like to get public comments, or write it down, we are able to take that as well. A few things to note, individuals will be called to give public comment by name. My colleague Khalil will be walking around with a microphone, so when you call, you don't mind standing up so he can quickly identify you. I did mention earlier, we do have a court reporter here today. So we would like for you to start your public comment by stating your name, as well as filling in the state and then spell your name. And then go into your public comment. Each person will have three minutes max for their public comment. Again, that is three minutes max for public comment. And we have a couple of notes for you to keep you on track. So my colleague English has three different signs for you the first green sign let you know when you have one minute left for your public comment. And then she will raise the yellow sign when you have 30 seconds left for your public comment. And then lastly, the red sign when it is time for you to sign. All right, again, written comments, we have those cards if you would like to do that instead. And then last reminder, before we have incidents, we will not be responding to your public comments. This is a formal process. And we are here to listen to again all of your input and feedback. This will be taken into consideration as RTA works to finalize the proposal. We will be around afterwards. So if you do have questions, we will be here and available to answer questions and have any more conversation. All right. Leo, we're gonna start with Matthew carrier, I apologize if I mispronounced your name you're
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I heard it come on earlier.
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18:01Speaker 5
My name is Matthew carrier, ma TT, he W ca Rr idr. And so first, I just want to say thanks for doing this seems like a very good project. It seems like every city I've been to when I visit has some type of presentation system to get from from the airport to downtown, and vice versa. So it's great to see Detroit do this. And so thanks to the RTA for doing this, I had pretty much one question. That would be will people be able to book tickets before the launch in the spring, because it was mentioned that there's at least two events that are pretty big and upcoming, and should be pretty important. And it seems like people should have an opportunity to if they're coming from out of town that's just look at that time. And I just want to make sure that that's something that they can do. And I wasn't sure if it was considered. But that will do the rest of the time. Thanks.
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19:05Speaker 3
Thank you. Next we have Robert Palacky.
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19:17Speaker 1
Thank you, Mickey. And thank you, Julia, and thank you to the RTA staff for hosting this public hearing today. My name is Robert Palacky. I'll spell it out for you guys, our OB E R T. P A WLOWSK. I am the Vice Chair for the Regional Transit Authority systems Advisory Committee. I'm a longtime transit advocate. First off I'm very excited to see this plan as we unfold today in this public hearing regarding express service to the airport. Now the big question everybody asks, Why isn't there a rail? Well, we're not Cleveland, but we're closely getting there. We're easing in steps. I'm excited to see this but the things that strike me the most here are just the accessibility factor. First off student fares students using the service that are Coming out of state, there's a lot of students that traveled back and forth on campus on a state, whether that's from Ohio, Massachusetts, New York, a lot of people just graduated in 2023. And starting off their college years, one of the things that they use is they want to be able to come home and not have to wait in the arrivals area to get picked up by their parents, they want to find a way to get to campus or get home with this express service. What is the status on having discounted rates for students, but not just that employees that work at the airport, maybe lowering it to $5, or even less than that, or maybe even just exempt them altogether, kind of like what happens with parking if somebody works downtown, and they have that luxury of parking in a lot for free. The second thing, and I'll try to make this very quick. So us at the CAC and our executive team have robustly discussed this all the time. And it's about the vector McNamara terminal stop, so to speak, the current stop that most of you all know for all smart air ride and this proposal services on the departure stack. I'm totally opposed to having this stop on the departure stack. One of the reasons being, there's so much traffic congestion. And a lot of people when they drop off their passengers that are getting on a flight at the airport, they constantly blocked the Bice, the bus lane so to speak, and it's not ADA compliant. It never has, you go in and it's it's completely just not feasible, so to speak, when I get off a coach or I get off your ride, or I get off sorry, it's not easy getting on and off the bus. Sometimes I have to walk in three lanes of traffic to get on even a local route. It's best if we relocate this bus stop down below to where it was before at the ground transportation center, all public transportation or that's Coast service local service. It makes it more accessible. And it makes it for people with cognitive impairments or seniors are students. It's easier for folks to be able to get around and more often. It's totally inconsistent that we're still kind of debating the subject about the departures deck, we need to think about the ADA accessible factor, but also what is easier for traffic on btw is property and with that I yield the rest of my time. Thank you.
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22:08Speaker 3
Thank you. Next we have Steven amatory.
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22:21Speaker 6
My name is My name is Steven Hammond trade that's Ste ve N H A M M o n t r e. And I found a smart writer for 13 years. And as you mentioned earlier, smart does have an existing surface between the airport and downtown Detroit, route 261. Fast Michigan and I even wrote that to get here today. So what's so much better about this express service that justifies six times the fare on top of what you might have already paid the smart
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guy just keep going.
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Finish up here, okay
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23:25Speaker 6
that justifies charging six times the fare on top of if you have to take a bus to get to the Express, you've already paid the fare there. There are a couple of things that it could do to its advantage because this is being run by the same company as the air ride Michigan flyer. What if there were just through line trips that could make it easier to get from Detroit to Brighton or Lansing? Or? Okay, I forgot what my next point was. But also I don't want there to be a new stop in downtown Detroit. There are already plenty of existing transit locations, including, again, Indian trails, who's running this service has a stop at Grand Circus park or there could be bus connectivity at Spirit Plaza or down the transit center. Why does there have to be a new stop for it? But that's all I had to say about it. So I yield the rest of my time. Thank you
Unknown Speaker
all right. Next we have Bill April
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neither time the time
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25:00Speaker 7
So my name is Bill April and I am the director of sales at the Ford Pontchartrain hotel. I was the opening director of sales at the Ford Shelby hotel. And I was one of the people who founded the downtown Detroit hotel Association. And we've worked for years to get transportation, from the airport to downtown for conventions, and groups like that. And so I applaud that you're doing this, I think there's more steps needed actually long term to be able to meet the needs of that community, the hotel community. So in 2023, the estimate was that conventions were going to create $200 million in economic impact in the city of Detroit. We do five to eight citywide conventions a year compared to a city like Chicago that does 30. So let's say we double our 200 million to 10 conventions, and $400 million, there's a lot of money, of economic impact available. If we can bring more conventions to the city, and we do lose conventions, were one of the reasons is, it's just too hard to get here from the airport. It's too expensive, and it's too hard. And we lose, the city loses millions and millions of dollars for that. So working on this is great. Michigan flyer, very familiar with it. And my kids go back and forth from East Lansing to an arbor that says like, but like this shuttle would never be enough to accommodate what you would have for a convention. Right. So I would suggest that this is a starting point. And that this is good. But is there a point where we can, you know, keep working on a solution that works for conventions as well. Because the more than, you know, we're adding hotels so we can get more conventions in the city, we expanded the convention center so we could get more conventions in the city. And this is one stumbling block that is keeping us from competing with other cities in the Midwest. So I would just so my ask is that we have another step, or process we attach on where we look at that because I look, I'm excited that this group took this up, when you got when I got the email you were doing it, I was super excited. So really, that's my main asset. We like this would not solve what we need. But I think what we need to solve
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all right.
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Sorry, state inserting.
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27:58Speaker 8
Thomas Yazbeck, as th O Ma, s YAZB. E CK. I agree with everybody. So far, this is awesome. This is a cool project. It's gonna solve a lot of people's problems. I think Steven may have kind of hinted this a little bit. I'm just wondering, and maybe this is something you guys can discuss in the informal period after, but will there be some kind of integration with the existing flyer route that goes between? In Arbor in or the airport and in Arbor in East Lansing? I mean, I could see, like, some solutions might be let's say, I want to go from East Lansing, Detroit, or vice versa. What about like a discounted transfer, right? Like, or something like that to make it easy, or like even like some interline trips that go straight from or like, you can probably get one ticket maybe and that pays for the flyer leg and the DA X leg of the trip. So I just think it also some wayfinding too, if like you decide spontaneously, I don't know why you would but maybe you do at the airport that you want to transfer you say, Okay, I got the report. I was originally going to take 261 But maybe I'll take da X and stuff to get downtown. Is there some kind of like signage that makes it easy for some kind of system that makes it easier for people to understand like, Okay, I'm coming from East Lansing or Ann Arbor, and I can get to Detroit using da X, you know, so that's, that's what I'm wondering, and maybe we can talk about that afterwards. But integrating with existing flyer service, I think is a good thing to do.
Unknown Speaker
Octavius
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30:00Speaker 9
Hey Good evening Octavia smiles. Oh cet AV io us from Hollywood casino a great town thinking this is a great opportunity to increase the transportation to and from the airport to the downtown area. And I'm here just to offer the casino as an option as they stop 24 hour business well lit secure video surveillance and there's ample parking plenty long time travelers
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30:33Speaker 3
Okay, next we have parade. All right
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30:44Speaker 10
good evening. My name is Frank. Our last name is g you. D. Right. Good evening. I am Detroit bass, co founder of a FinTech mobility startup with mass transit, public transit. Firstly, Happy New Year to everyone.
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31:16Speaker 10
Okay, hello, everyone in here. Second, thank you to the RTA leadership, then Julia for the service. Personally, as a co founder, I travel quite frequently and this is much needed service. It will save me a lot of money. My question is, how does the RTA is expressed service to Detroit plan to collect and differentiate rider data between locals and visitors? And how much and how might this data influenced the service? So one year trial, I believe this is one year trial with the potential to extend it. Additionally, considering that in 2022, Detroit's Workforce Mobility Equity Analysis Gap Report, which RTA did? How does the service and to address the identified disparities and leverage this data for canceling accessibility and equity and transportation? Because even when I look in this room, I don't know if it necessarily reflects. I'm quite dismayed to see that, even from the demographics in the room doesn't quite reflect the Detroit that we know. And just thinking about the workers, local workers who may go to who may work at the airport. And this wouldn't be a much needed service given that the current service for two hours plus how our TA the use of data understand how to
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32:59Speaker 10
potentially extend the service that local Detroiters may actually have need off beyond. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you, Lucas.
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33:21Speaker 11
Hello, thank you. My name is Lucas and psyche. I'm a resident of Farmington Hills and a daily writer of smart. And I think I agree with the bulk of people who have spoken that this is really exciting to have this new service. You know, as much as we love the 261, the hour that it takes to get to Metro airport isn't exactly ideal. So having a faster option will definitely be nice, especially for people visiting who aren't as seasoned in the ways of smart as those of us locals are. I like the a lot of what I want to discuss here is to do with the stop locations. So the state of Washington stop, I think, personally is a pretty great idea. It's right on Washington Boulevard in the heart of it all, sort of a good balance of having a lot of activity nearby having it right in the middle of the city without having too much of a detriment on traffic. It's right near Rosa Parks transit center right near the river. So very good connections to the network at large. So good decision for the stop location. And let's say but I do have some concerns. And these aren't really directed at our TA more at Wayne County Airport Authority and we'll bring them up with them but I just want to be on the record saying that the stub location first at McNamara terminal is not good. The accessibility is leaves a lot to be desired to say the least it's very hard to find. It's just the departures level is not a very good stop location and I really hope WCA will allow our TA to find a better location. But I imagine that like with Michigan flyer your hands are kind of tied on this one at North Terminal. Ground Transportation question. I think that works. But the other thing is WCA needs to have better signage pointing transit riders to options because the signage is almost non existent in the terminals. Now, if you didn't know where to find the buses, you wouldn't be able to easily figure it out. And I would wager the staff probably don't even know where to find them. So that's something you should probably contact WCA about to make sure that the signage and the stop locations, sort of tree transit riders with the respect they deserve, because they're sort of shoved off into a corner as it is now. And that cannot continue. If you want to make transit, accessible, and attractive to people visiting from out of town. You have my time. Thank you for the hearing tonight. Thank you.
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35:55Speaker 3
And this is the last part. So if anybody else would like to give public comment and you don't have a comment card, please raise your hand. David graph.
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36:12Speaker 12
Okay, so I'm a resident who lives in Detroit. Yeah, my name is David Graf. I live in the new center neighborhood of Detroit. And I wanted to first say that I'm very supportive of the fact that there's finally going to be some form of transit, from the airport to downtown. I do wish there would be really good connections to get into the stock business downtown. Because as I step in State Street would mean that I'd have to walk at least two blocks, if I would have take like one bus or the queue line in order to get to the transfer point. As someone who who. And when you compare like it being like a 20 minute drive or a $40. I think having a much quicker connection to downtime is very important and when that should be affordable. And that's all I have to say.
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37:06Speaker 3
Thank you. So I'm gonna do one last call. Anybody else want to give a verbal public comment?
Unknown Speaker
Would it be possible to amend the comments I already gave
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you did you have your time?
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37:23Speaker 6
And this is Steven Hammond tree again, one small amendment I wanted to make to the comment I already gave is that I would like to see if there are any options for putting this grant money towards improving the surface that
Unknown Speaker
does exist already. That was all.
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37:45Speaker 1
Can I also objects to add something or my Congress? Well, your name?
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37:55Speaker 1
Again, no worries, Robert, Pulaski ROP or t PAWLOWSK. I am the Vice Chair for the Citizens Advisory Committee. So I wanted to kind of save this for last minute fare payment. So for the last several years since DTA, two was rolled out, there has been kind of just this website where you can buy your tickets and show the driver a QR code or a paper ticket to get on the bus. One thing I want to see and since the implementation of Dart are easy fare between two different systems, I want to see easy fare or token transit be utilized to be able to buy these tickets, not just on Michigan flyer, air ride. But most of all this service, this service will make it easier for passengers to be able to go back and forth with the service, whether that's from Detroit, or to the airport, all with just one push of a button on the side of your iPhone for Apple Pay. It makes it so much revolutionary. And that's something I want to see. But overall, this is a great plan. And I'm so excited to see this rollout this year. Thank you.
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38:53Speaker 3
Thank you. All right. So that concludes the public comment period for today. I do have a couple more slides for you before we wrap up. If you again would like to get public comment you have until January the 17th. If you know of anybody who was not able to make it today, we have a hearing tomorrow which I'll talk about but the way you can get public comment include phone, email or by direct mail. So the phone number is 313-402-1020. Again, that's 313-402-1020 you can email a public comment to info at RTA Michigan, that org. Again, that's info at RTA michigan.org. And then you can also mail a letter directly to RTA at 1001 Woodward Avenue suite 1400 Detroit, Michigan 48226. I'll leave this up for a while in case anybody wants to take a picture or jot down the information. Again you have until this day Have a team to give any public comment you might have.
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40:07Speaker 3
All right, so thank you all so much for joining us today. I do want to remind everybody, we have another public hearing tomorrow, it'll be the exact same presentation. So if you know anybody who would really benefit from learning about the proposal, or who would like to get public comment and just get more information from our public hearing will be virtual held on Zoom. And that'll be from 10am to noon, you can scan the QR code to get the registration link, or you can copy the registration link. And so I'll leave that up also for a few seconds. Thank you all again, for joining. This concludes the formal part of the public hearing. Thank you. Now, I think we had quite a few questions. So we can go ahead and transition a little bit to just answering some of the questions that we heard today.
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41:00Speaker 4
Thanks, Mikey, and thank you all for your comments, we really do appreciate it. I'm not gonna promise that I memorized everybody's comments. I'm just gonna comment cards. Thanks for the call reporting. But I do want to open this up for some formal question answering some of the answers, we're we're not going to have all the answers tonight. So to state that upfront, we do want to take the opportunity to process what you've told us and listen to any additional comments we hear tomorrow and in the coming week. And this is a pilot service. So assuming that we don't incorporate into this round of changes does not mean we won't be covering those changes in the future. So we are constantly open to feedback and input. So anytime you want to contact us, the numbers and email that were listed in this presentation will also be likely hosting lists, looking at the Isaac on our website. So if anyone didn't get to attend one of these hearings will have an opportunity to see that information as well. Or they can leave us at our office, we can schedule time to get to something we printed up. Anyone who wants to talk about what you commented on or any of the questions you posed in the informal
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42:22Speaker 1
question. I know our board member June leave the board of directors of RTA has been very lenient with the RTA and trying to get some transparency going and some of the stops and credits to June and all his work. What is the current status? WCA? And how lenient are they being with you guys on this process right now with
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42:45Speaker 4
this program? Yeah, I think that one of the relatively new values for WCA that, that I saw when I first visited them a few months ago to start planning this pilot was innovation. I think that there are like minded in that way. And the bats come a long ways. I do think that they're trying to accommodate us as much as possible. I know we met with the Citizens Advisory Committee, and I'm open to receiving any accessibility requests that you may have. I will say there there is often equate this to kind of the title six bar of ABA compliance does not mean that there can't be improvements for accessibility. And so while the staffs may be ABA compliant, and we've already had walkthroughs, to look at signage, I think they are open to working with us on that. So I do ask if you can, you know, and I will say this for anyone in the room for you, if you have accessibility concerns or desires, please let us know. You can also reach out to Robert or John Waterman here is the chair of our Citizens Advisory Committee, they're putting together a compilation of kind of a summary for accessibility requests. So I know that you mentioned round transportation, but the International Terminal was something that was of interest. I did ask WCA on the background for that. And history so that I can be more informed. And once I received those requests from you, then we'll review them and then proceed as discussed. Yes, please,
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44:26Speaker 2
because a good person to reach out to might be now hiders. He's on a smart board members. I think he's a member of the Board of Directors of
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44:33Speaker 4
diversity. Thank you. Yeah, we're actually working on as Robert mentioned, Janine was the CEO of WCA and also their transportation manager there and other staff as they direct us. So coordinating with the concessionaires and other folks, they appreciate the additional recommendation and we are coordinating with smart as well. So we do regular coordinations with all of our providers on a quarterly basis through our providers Advisory Committee and also through one on one meetings as well. Thank you. Yes. Actually saw him hydro brace first and then we'll come back.
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45:17Speaker 8
Can you speak to any of this stuff that I was talking about, like the possibility of like a discount transfer or free transfer between the supplier and this new service? Yeah,
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45:30Speaker 4
I did mention just kind of book passes. And so I think for for commute, and I'll get to the transfer in a second, I think you folks had mentioned? Could there be general discount somebody had asked her about students, I think that might have been you, Robert. So the discounted book passes would be for that service itself. In terms of transfers, that's something we can look into. And we appreciate that recommendations. Certainly, it may actually be faster and are more affordable to take due to a two to the Michigan flyer. But either way, they're both operated by the same operator. With the parking drop off and pickup requirements, we have to make sure that the schedule is alternating. So I have to look and see exactly how close that transfer time would be. Which is why I said that taking D to H and Arbor and then transferring to the Michigan flyer may be an alternative, but then you have two choices. In terms of the pricing, we can certainly look into that and see if there's a way that we can make that happen.
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46:31Speaker 8
Yeah, I just think to just to expand on that, you know, it is a bit redundant. But that redundancy can be good, because if those schedules are, are staggered enough, that may increase the frequency, basically, of the service. So if I'm coming from East Lansing, and I see oh, it's the buses are coming kind of every 45 Or every 30 Instead, every hour, that may increase ridership. So,
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46:56Speaker 4
and part of the pickup and drop off is we want all of the services, excuse me all the services to be in the same area. So whether it's ground transportation, or departures or elsewhere, we want people to be able to go between the different services as easily as possible. And wherever we can, we'll we'll make that happen. I think, Okay, go ahead.
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47:22Speaker 7
I was just gonna say like, my concern is over convention, people that come into the city, local people in the city wouldn't have to pay that same price, this $50 really cheap. If I'm convention that maybe there can be a money, crossover or subsidy that blows up.
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47:45Speaker 4
Yeah, well, lunch mentioned that that up to $15. That would be, you know, if you're not planning to reserve arrive in advance. So it's most likely to be less than that. And then for commuters, that would be the cost of that. So I think they're all already discounts baked in. But we can look at any further transfer just to make sure that, you know, kind of like fair capping where people aren't hopefully, paying twice. This is a pilot. So whatever we aren't able to accommodate with technology in the initial phase, commit to implementing for permanent program.
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48:28Speaker 11
This will be a little bit technical, but curious, a couple things about imagine there's going to be a GTFS published for this route. Yes. Are there plans to integrate that to have that added to the transit app?
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48:42Speaker 4
That's a great question. So I think this gets to the fair piece, too, that we're talking about earlier. Robert mentioned, we are looking, we're currently in the midst of doing a mobility pilot pilot to help with the integration of fair payment across different systems in our region, amongst our providers, including ourselves and our partners of Michigan flyer. The next step would be looking to integrate kind of real time information, booking scheduling those things. And we've we're looking into grant opportunities to do that.
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49:18Speaker 11
So there won't be real time tracking when it first launches. It's going to be a down the road sort of thing. I don't
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49:24Speaker 4
believe there's currently real time tracking on our day to service and someone correct me if I'm wrong, however, the service is very timely. So we have very, very low if any, late routes, so the schedule is pretty real time. Yes,
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49:44Speaker 6
I believe. I believe I have seen only on our bus stop for D to a two there is an electronic real time departures board that based
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49:54Speaker 4
on the schedule. The real time information is based on the schedule Will offense if the schedule is so close to real time people use that as an estimator.
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50:07Speaker 5
Sir. Yeah, I was curious about the question I brought up earlier about tickets being online before this pre launch. Because I mean, for us, I know when I travel somewhere, sometimes months ahead of time. And that's why I was curious. Because if you're starting this as pilot program, and you want to make sure your numbers are reflective of ridership throughout the year that you have the pilot, it seems like making sure that even up front in March and April, you're available. And I'm just curious if you've probably address that. But
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50:38Speaker 4
no, I think that's a great question. I think we would like to do that. And so we're going to look into doing that probably as early as possible. I don't know how far in advance is the march because it's a soft launch. So it may be further in advance for April, because we're soft launching in March. So I would say for the April one, we're aiming for end of March, so probably about a month in advance for the March one and maybe a matter of weeks, but it might be a month in advance. I just don't want to until we have more information, I don't want to promise something we can't deliver on like, yes, however we can get you to be able to purchase tickets sooner, the better. Yes, please.
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51:28Speaker 12
$50. Just to compare, like, if I took me right now to the airport, it's $43. So when I was traveling like three or more people, it makes more sense to just take a new group and take the surface carpooling
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51:44Speaker 4
as a form of public transit. So we encourage you to do that as well, whenever possible, I will say we do save up to $15. So people aren't shocked. But there are discounts available. So that would be you know, most of them that's proposed right now as the highest potential fare, it doesn't mean that there won't be lower fares. Okay,
Unknown Speaker
frosty, forget that. 261. It's
Unknown Speaker
$2. Yeah,
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52:08Speaker 4
sorry, yeah. So for example, the air ride, that's the current fare that they use. And so we want to be, you know, as transparent and similar across our regional services as possible. That being said, just as an example, what they use is, it's $12, if you purchase in advance, and it's half off, for people with disabilities, and seniors, and then if we're looking at a book pass similar to our D to A to service, it could be even less expensive. So even for, you know, regular travelers or commuters, it could be significantly lower. This is a pilot, so we can, you know, test something out. And, you know, if we need to adjust, we can look into that. Robert, was there before I come back to you, Robert, are there any other questions over here? Yes.
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53:01Speaker 2
Question questions, such comment was about the stuff that's gonna be doing downtown, and I'm sorry, at Washington State Street. It's a terribly congested area with a lot of high volumes of bus traffic that comes through a city that has about between 15 and 20. Bus routes to drive through that intersection.
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53:20Speaker 3
They don't stop. And so once I used to be like, they do turn around.
Unknown Speaker
So Mark has three, at least three bus routes.
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53:29Speaker 4
Yeah, we actually looked into this and both DDOT and the Detroit Public Works are continuing to look into that for permitting purposes. But also, for the visitors purposes, the downtown Detroit partnership, the place where it would be stopped would actually be out of the running lane of where smart DDOT operate currently. So it would not block their ability to make that turn. It's not in the right hand turn lane. It's actually closer to State Street than Michigan Avenue. So we looked at a quite a few different locations to begin with. And with like, for example, I think someone mentioned closer to the Spirit of Detroit learned was another road we've looked at that's often closed for events. And so for example, is there a construction on Washington, we might look to a nearby location as an alternative. But just because we're proposing Washington, this is an opportunity for comments. So you know, I heard from a casino and other folks that there are other spots that they would like us to look into. So we appreciate your suggestions, and we'll definitely take those into consideration. remember seeing there's a bus
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54:45Speaker 2
coming around on the west side of the Rosa Parks trip, but I don't actually know if the transit still use anymore.
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54:53Speaker 4
Yeah, so we talked about the benefits and you disadvantages of pulling into Rosa Parks Transit Center, I think we want to balance between taking up space that could potentially be used for local service and connecting with local services. So we're trying to find that happy medium. Brother, I'm coming back to you. And then I saw your two hands raised. Okay, thank
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55:22Speaker 1
you. So most of the public engagement is actually being talked about on the CAC for anyone that doesn't know what the Citizens Advisory Committee is, is a committee that's formed by the RTA that as citizens engage, whether you're involved with transit, you're a business owner, or you're somebody that is very much involved with improving disability, people with disabilities and seniors to really get input on that. So I just kind of wanted to ask for kind of enlightenment for all of our business owners and guests here, can you have a kind of like, informal period on what the CAC is about to kind of discuss a little bit further, because we are taking in applications as we speak,
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56:03Speaker 3
I have a recommendation. I can share information about the CAC here and that way people are interested in learning more, and I know, tour here. So just to kind of reiterate what he's saying, we have Robert and we have John here today, they are the chair and vice chair of the CAC. So if you're interested in getting involved, you can connect with either one of them, happy to have as many members as possible to really make sure that the feedback and that the involvement of the CAC truly refresh request a region. This is a very large regional medical four counties. Of course, we have a variety of people who live in the four counties. So we want as much input as much as many voices as possible to accurately represent the counties. So if you took a just raise your hand, and that way people can connect with either one of them if you're interested in learning more about the CAC. Thank you. Of course, I didn't want to All right, I'm sorry. I said one thing.
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57:10Speaker 3
Maybe these are just questions that I heard earlier. So one of the things that you touched on, that I thought was really important, we do want to get as many people to these hearings as possible, we want to make sure as many people know about the proposal, they can give their input, but then also know about whatever service comes from the proposal. So we really would love it if you all could share this information to any networks that you have. And then the last thing, or probably the last thing, Julian mentioned this earlier, but we are working with the airport as well. So we are really actively trying to make sure that people who work at the airport live in Detroit are able to be aware of the service and then utilize the service once it comes online.
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57:55Speaker 4
And then she I want to come back to the data question. I just want to wrap up I saw that you guys had your hands raised earlier, did you have any follow up questions or anything about the stocks,
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58:06Speaker 13
the stops, I mentioned it and one other spot I mentioned in my comment was the unique way to stop. Pretty much next to the cable line and the Peoplemover.
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58:19Speaker 4
Stop, it's actually also a couple of blocks from the queue lines, about equal distance from the queue line. Also about the distance from what people need to stop, however, these two services have different. And I'm not gonna say this is the final stop, like I mentioned, it may end up happening to a to stop. That's why we want to hear your comments. But just give you a sense of how we arrived at this proposed location is that it's actually a different audience with an easy way to stop. So the GTA to stop is primarily commuters coming from Ann Arbor and Detroit to the respective cities. The Detroit AirPort Express is focusing on also commuters by commuters so maybe transferring from local services to the airport for travel or visitors coming into the city. So we wanted it to align with both connecting to local services and also connecting visitors to closer to some of the hotels that are centrally located in downtown. And before I come over here, I'm sure there are follow ups. So again, anything I'm saying about the proposed stop doesn't mean you know, we're not going to reconsider it. Just kind of give you an idea of what we tend to consideration to get to this point. Go ahead.
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59:45Speaker 14
So we've been doing some informal surveys, this kind of address the problem that you mentioned the payments problem. So we do some informal surveys. And what has been quite instructive for us is going to places where people are so Going into the airports and talking to local traders. And I'm wondering, so I wanted to show how you publicize this who have provided this particular meeting. But what I found to be useful was, for instance, black tech Saturdays helps, because they're a big convening platform. In December, other places that I've had to leverage just to go to where they are, versus asking them to kind of tweak just as a, as a suggestion to appreciate it.
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01:00:29Speaker 4
Yeah, I want to also mention that we will have other engagement opportunities, not just for the service, but for all right, it's called the coordinated Human Services and transportation plan that we're going to be updating this year. And we'll have a ton of engagement coming up 2024. And so that's also an opportunity where people feel like they didn't get a chance to talk to us about this pilot. Now, we do want to get the service out there as quickly as possible. But it's pilot, it's a great opportunity for us to take in feedback, and iterate and adapt as we go along. And adoption only they don't happen overnight. But it took us a minute to even get to this point today. And so you know, we're trying to move things quickly and accurately, but also to make sure that we're being inclusive. So thank you for that. And
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01:01:17Speaker 8
so I had two different questions. One is, will it maybe when I stepped out this is already answered, but will it be trackable? Real Time Tracking be like if I want to pull up transit after Google Maps, like can I see like, because maybe the bus is five minutes behind? Will we be able to see that is that we were? Yeah,
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01:01:37Speaker 4
I think we might have answered it while you're out of the room earlier. But I'll give a quick recap. The the schedules are set up so that it I think sometimes there's a difference between local and express services where there's less delays, however, we are working towards real time tracking applications across the region. And we're in the process of applying for grants for that. Cool.
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01:02:00Speaker 8
And then the second thing is, in some of the earlier documentation, I saw there was a discussion about a URL in the RFP documents. There's like a discussion about intermediate stuff maybe like Avalon park or something. Is that idea of a nixed or is that something that could be played with later or
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01:02:17Speaker 4
it's definitely an option for the future. The initial proposal is to start with an Express. having fewer stops tends to increase demand for express services. And we want to make this as successful as possible and really see what the maximum potential for the services for the region. That being said we definitely want to keep the options open. We know there's demand from kind of the Dearborn Park area in other areas of the region. We know there's demand from Ypsilanti used Oakland from Pontiac Macomb from climates and other other areas.
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01:02:50Speaker 8
So I'm in favor of that. I was just curious.
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01:02:53Speaker 4
But yes, the short answer is it is still a possibility. Yes,
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01:03:00Speaker 11
I could just ask a brief clarifying question. You mentioned that with the proposed stop at Washington State, of course. But you said that it would be placed such that it would, it wouldn't block existing smart DDOT services, does that mean there's going to be a designated cut out for
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01:03:17Speaker 4
there's already sort of a designated cut out? It's behind the right turn lane. Okay. But it wouldn't be blocking any traffic. They're waiting. Yes. John, right.
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01:03:33Speaker 15
Julian said to come through, okay, this was something that was brought up by citizens a long time ago. And it hasn't been picked up by any of the providers and the RTA to step in and say, We're gonna provide something and we're gonna put something in place that really shows how you're answering to the public need, when you're overwhelmed with tons of human service planning, all this extra activity. So we
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01:03:58Speaker 4
really appreciate that I'm coming to a big shout out to Ben and Shana, they've been here longer than most of us, but also the whole team for making this happen. We it's really been
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01:04:13Speaker 4
other questions for the moment, and we're happy to stick around and chat one on one as well. But just want to link up and Robert
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01:04:22Speaker 1
is worth bringing it up. So there's been a lot of talk about the stop locations in which the gentleman from the Hollywood casino was still here. I like the idea of using it at some of these businesses, especially Hollywood casino, or Huntington center, or even the for monetary and hotel in saying that, right? There's a lot of different businesses that you can benefit off this if they have good stopping or spacing to have this system here. I mean, you have the Detroit people mover, not to mention the fact it's free, risk free for everyone that's using it so a lot of the visitors will get the use out of that. Could we potentially partner with The business to even have a stop house there because I know in East Lansing, the Marriott has arrived sitting there for passengers to
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01:05:07Speaker 4
get picked up. Yeah, we we can certainly look into alternate locations, I will mention that we actually did look at the Marriott at the rents and I will say that the pedestrian accessibility is a little bit more challenging. And that might be an understatement. And well, it does connect with the people mover, I think the other locations we looked at, and this was just what we looked at so far, we did not look at the casinos, necessarily. And that was the first time I had ever had heard of that recommendation. So that was a welcome surprise. And I think there are businesses who are really interested to have this. We don't necessarily want to recreate the people mover by having a circulator that goes around to the hotels, but we do want to make it as easy as possible for people to access conference centers to access events, you know, whether you're local returning home, or are returning, you know, for a festival. So, short answer, we're looking into it,
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01:06:09Speaker 1
the first thing I would not think of is the Marriott for sure, because that is so bad. Even if you were to have any type of service there for pickup, it's just not feasible. It's just the way it's laid out. Because you got to loop around and there's so much clearance, you can actually have oversize vehicles, there's only so much you can fit down there.
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01:06:27Speaker 4
Yeah, and I think there's a lot of potential places this could be it's not just about the destination, sometimes it's about I don't want to say the journey, but the stuff that we need, we need clear right of way, we have a lot of different partners that are working with us on this to determine a you know, an ideal location. Once more I will reiterate, this is a pilot. And so we will be collecting data we will be looking into, you know, how are we being representative and how are we adjusting as needed, we typically want to allow one to three years for the pilot to really pick up steam. And knowing that we are coming out of a three year pandemic, you know, ridership is lower than it was before we have, you know different work patterns, whether it's locally or nationally and internationally. So you recognize that we take that into consideration, but just want to thank you all again for your time as I see a couple of people heading out. And if there aren't any other questions, we'll stick around for anyone who wants to chat one on one for a little bit longer. Thanks again, everyone.
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