Hello to everyone that has joined us this far. The time is five o'clock. I just want to let you know that we'll get started about five more minutes and 505 I want to give everyone the opportunity to arrive and log in. So we're going to start at 505
recording in progress
All right, everyone,
it is now 505. I would like to officially start our meeting. My name is Iommi, Val Torrance, and I am the Outreach Manager for deedat. Thank you all for joining us tonight for our monthly community input meeting, as a special welcome to anyone joining us for the first time, and I'm going to get right to our introductions. And I see that our executive director of transit is on so I will start with him.
Hello, I'm Michael Oglesby, Executive Director transit for the city of Detroit.
Okay, and then we'll go and no particular order as I see everyone.
Lieutenant Cross.
That evening Lieutenant Krause for Chief Ricky brown transit.
Thank you. Yeah. Makara.
I'm Ricky. I'm a Kurama Capital Projects Manager here at dita. Mr. Passionate director of joy
Good evening, do joy, maintenance management data.
It's Williams
Hi, I'm Jasmine Williams, customer service supervisor at data. Mr. Barclay
Melvin Barclay, Deputy Director, operation and maintenance for DDOT. Mr. Mallet
getting an agile operations. Wallace.
Good evening, John Wallace. Agency CFO. DDOT.
Mr. Vinson. Good evening, everyone.
Tony vents. I'm the Assistant Director of Operations. It's more
What do you mean some are more general manager transair over Detroit metro lift
DVD committee.
Thank you. Miss Wonderly.
Good evening, I'm Sondra Wimberly, assistant director administration.
I'm gonna go over to marketing. I think that's Oh, Mr. Zack, excuse me. So your cameras on.
Hello Richard Zack, Chief Safety Officer DDOT.
Kristen, Chris is McCaskey where the marketing team Azure
and Azure marketing team. Kyle
Jordan also with the marketing thing.
Thank you and I just want to acknowledge our ASL interpreters tonight. Thank you for joining us. It is time now for our meeting rules, which are pretty simple. You will be allowed two minutes for public comment when that time and that will be after our presentation. And we do ask that you please respect that time and note that you may be muted for going over. Now if time allows you will have another opportunity to speak. As always, no personal attacks or foul language will be tolerated. And as I begin my presentation, I do have a few reminders as well. By participating in the Zoom meeting, you are granted permission for your name, image and likeness as well as audio and video recordings to be used by deedat. Now to request to comment, you can simply use the raise hand feature. If you are using the dial and only phone option. Enter star nine to serve as that raise hand feature to request to speak or ask a question. You'll also have the ability to submit questions or comments to deedat staff in the chat. And that will be open following this presentation and please limit that also to comments regarding the meeting. Before asking a question or commenting Be sure to unmute your audio state your name and your organization. And following your comments, please mute your audio. Special thanks to our DDOT passengers and stakeholders and transit advocates who have provided feedback in the first phase of deedat reimagined. Now we are reviewing this information to develop a draft plan that will be shared to the public. Now DDOT expects to provide the draft plan to the public in January. You can learn more about deedat reimagined at Detroit mi.gov That's Ford slash DDOT reimagined. Deedat that would like to acknowledge that passengers may have experienced a higher number of bus delays within the last several weeks. Now we are continuously making adjustments and are working to improve your overall writing experience. Please note that a majority of our delays are due to cuts made when we don't have enough operators on the road. And speaking of not having enough operators deedat is hiring. But did that did recently hire four new team members to assist in servicing our T bills. That's how operators 11 students have completed training in the last 30 days was seven more expected to finish this month. And there are currently 42 students in training including ATT all recruits in the classroom training.
Data is also hiring nine driving positions. And that includes our safety division that's looking to hire security personnel. Now for more information about deedat employment opportunities, feel free to visit Detroit mi.gov That's four slash deedat. Or you can use that QR code that you see on your screen. D that is an equal opportunity employer. And I want to give a moment for those who may be seeing that code for the first time if you'd like to scan it
and we'll have that link on the in the chat later as well. But again, please spread the word. Okay. And when it comes to high art paratransit, as well, that is currently hiring for customer service representatives and dispatchers positions for paratransit. Now these positions are available at Detroit mi.gov. That's the city's website. And interested parties must apply through the city. So again, that's Detroit mi.gov. We will be hosting another meeting regarding the Coolidge replacement project. Excuse me that will take place next week, actually Thursday, October 27. That will take place at 1230. And be on the lookout for more information. But you can mark the day that's happening next week. Our next Local Advisory Council, the LAC meeting will take place Tuesday. That's November 15. That's happening at 10am. And of course our next community input meeting will take place Thursday, November 17, same time by PTM. Now that is all the deedat updates that I have at this time, you can stay connected to us by searching on our website. Again, Detroit mi.gov forward slash deedat. And all those upcoming meeting information will be there as well. And you can also follow us on social media. We have Instagram, Facebook and Twitter at right DITA I would like to turn it over now to my colleague Kristen to call our first person
the first hand up has a number ending in 294 Okay, we can come back to you
got an ham gave me a flyer
is problem with
buses after all 50 am about weekend weekend
was that the end of your comment about the pluses after hours?
Yeah, yeah.
Go ahead. Mr. Banker.
Thanks for letting us know. Um, as we talked about earlier, we are working on increasing our staff members for operators. That is currently our issue where we are short operators and we are short operators. We don't have anyone out there for service. But we are working to move operated from different routes to assist so that we can ensure that we have coverage on routes when we have no buses out there. And anytime you have any questions please call the nine through 1300 number and we will go out there so we can keep a log of it. We can send real supervision out there, so we can track to ensure that we get service out there to you. Thank you Okay, thank
you. The next hand up is Robert. Good evening. Can I be heard? Yes, go ahead. Thank you.
Good evening, everyone. Robert Palacky. I'm a Wayne County Youth Council member representing District 15. And a Citizens Advisory Council person for the RTA of Michigan, southeastern Michigan, also from Southgate Wayne County, so a couple small things for you. So this is really geared to the director. I know we have. I've heard conversations regarding partnerships with Detroit public schools to retain te O's. Now, the one thing I can make come through it that is the downriver Career Technical Consortium, which is a career path for high school students. It's based out of Flat Rock, Michigan, and it basically hits every high school in the downriver area, including western areas of Wayne County, which includes Huron Township, and they look for career paths for students. Now, one of the things that really caught my eye was getting DDOT involved with this program. It's a wonderful program, there's plenty of room, you know, it goes from, you know, just regular college classes to whatever you want to pursue in college, just a simple job. And also, we're, we're possibly looking for a partnership with Southgate community schools to do a assembly with possibly more agencies, including DDOT. So I just wanted to point that out. I don't know if the director seems interested in that. But I would love to follow up and give you some more information because I know I only got two minutes. The second thing I want to make note is our drivers. It's all it's 100 years. So I just wanted to point that out. And the barbecue that we had last year, last month was wonderful. We got to meet so many different drivers, and actually celebrate 100 years at DDOT. So thank you to the marketing team. Thank you to Director Ogle speak for all the work you've done, setting that up and just getting us involved, again, to where we can actually have that person to person contact, again, after all these two years. But other than that, those are my comments. I do have one more thing, but I'll try to touch base if I'm still in here. And there's some extra time. But as always, thank you again.
All right, very good. Thank you very much for those comments. Yes. Any opportunity to plug into any consortium that has a career path towards public transportation, I'm always in. As you know, the age limit for a driver is 18 years old. We are interested in looking into it. So get that information to us. We're looking at all types of opportunities, internships, we're going to really try to bring this to the next level. So let's take this one and throw it in the mix.
Thank you, Robert.
Next hand up is Mr. Cunningham.
Mr cutting, yes. Can you hear me? Yep, go ahead. All right. Good evening, Director ogos be in that state staff. My questions are in regards to again, the Metro lifts between towers in advance you need to call in in order to get started. That's really if it's paratransit Metro live. I think there should be more opportunities and they said, opportunity but more opportunity for folks two or three hours in advance if they want to go somewhere, kind of like the new dialer ride in other areas. And of course, after 6pm and regular DDOT bus at 6pm or on the weekends the bus service is at its worse. Once the animal Micah ogos V. I talked in the Stephanie today and I want to know if I could meet with you one on one anytime. excetera I don't know if I have your email address if it can be put into the chat. I would greatly appreciate that. I've had a pretty good relationship with DDOT all the way back before Dan Dirks. I was curious if you all have met made any meetings or possible meetings you Dan Dirksen yourself that he did email you sir. I was curious about that. and also DDPS schools. I'm glad I really am proud of Mr. Philosophy. That's what we need to connect with those young people that some of them are not going to college. And if it's down rivers, anywhere, by any means necessary, we need to get these drivers. My hotline number for those that are listening is 313444911413444911 for feel free to listen or contact. And I'm just asking everybody to continue to keep me in prayer. My vehicle is still down. I'm releasing one right now. I gave out a bunch of flyers, the virtual meeting flyers, and I take people to go vote for free. So
thank you for that Mr. Cunningham. And that is time, and we do appreciate you. Yep.
I'll comment on a few of those things. So Dan Dirksen, I have been playing phone tags, and no, we haven't had an opportunity to talk yet. But I look forward to that fruitful conversation. The question about Metro lifts in the 24 hour situation is pretty standard. And Simone knows this and Mr. Staley, I think is on also. And typically when there's a program that allows to allows someone to get a ride closer, you know, within two or three hours that would be based on availability. Unfortunately, right now, most of the providers are already having a hard enough time filling the seat with drivers. The driver problem is just not fixed out, though it's not touted. So driver availability would be one of the things that we'd look at even after we take it over moving forward. So we're not going to come in and say okay, we're going to take it over in January and all of a sudden, you don't have to you know, make a reservation within 24 hours. We're still going to keep it standard but we are working on some creative ideas to be able to make something come to fruition up to an including taking a look at how a new freedom is structured so stay tuned. Be patient we'll see how it goes after January
Thank you Mr. Cunningham. Next hand up is Mr. Chela.
Good evening, do that staffers have the right to OLS V. directos VOD, the talk which we're trying to get together have something for Cunningham. It would be like a buffet at the Motor City could be a casino. Nobody has to pay, maybe just have enough to tip the waiter. But I like to talk to you on time and day maybe that you'll be able to pay the bill for that. I'm quite sure. Obama she has my number and everything. But getting to the point to the point of it that why underseal justice seats being taken down. And his must elapse before something new was installed, if you want to tear down, placed the new infrastructure in at the same time. And then also as shelters across from each other, are consistent with space near each other. Once that has a shelter, those that has just a seat shelter disappeared without being placed like MAXSIZE shelter VanDyke just a mere seat. And I've noticed on Grand River I had a full Shelter by the shale gas station, when you get to the other side going west is nothing there. But the shelter has been taken down from in front of the shale gas station and the seat has been replaced there. Next thing is on our pair transit move. Please is it going to be anything there were you know, make sure that the buses are clean? I mean, you know, the transit vehicles are clean. The drivers are courteous, courteous, sometimes road Metro lift I do that Metro lift too. And you know drivers isn't that as patient with some of the riders as they should be? And also, how are you training new and old drivers on good customer service? Guide and courteous service? Often what type of training is it? Do you do? Roleplay and how's it compliant with ADA? And how do you train paratransit driver says we'll
I think I can take the part about the shelters. But I'm going to need you to repeat the the exact locations of the shelter that the intersection and the direction of Travel if you could
live in noise in Grand River going east downtown
River, Grand River,
the Grand River bus and overnight,
yes. The grammar besides going east, it was a full shelter. Now it's only seats there. On the other side going west is nothing. They're just like on living noise going north is a shelter there. But then going south on the other side is nothing there. Not a seat or anything for anybody to sit on. Okay.
There's, we have to look up what happened to the shelters, there's a chance they may have been hit by a vehicle. They may also if they will be old style shelters, they may be getting replaced with the new ones. So we don't take what shelters just to take them away. So we'll look into what happened to that. And we'll, we'll reach out through a Obama and let her know what's happening and she can reach out to you.
Okay, and we still got trans dad there, but whatever it is, with the paratransit think they got 70% of the service.
Here,
I can I can answer that I can answer that, Steve. So just to help, let's let's round out the shelter situation. So one of the good news, one of the good things about the shelters is that after we went to that our replacement fund the public, let us know what we needed to do with it with the money. So we have a big chunk of that money going towards fixing all the problems that you're talking about. So we're in the process of doing a full assessment of what's out there, taking a look at what the new shelter will look like. And pretty soon we'll start replacing and you'll see more shelters. As far as the ones that you're referring to that we've had some unusual situations. I know there's one on Grand River, it is a glass shelter that it got hit. And with those shelters, we don't have immediate replacements because they were part of the streetscape program. So there are a lot of the nice ones that are getting hit, but we don't have replacements. So we may be putting up some of the oldest shelters just to get through the winter, until we really find a replacement. But we are on the shelter situation. And as Mr. Patrick said, we are not taking any shelters down for any, you know, any business reason. So there may be an accent or some things going on. As far as the placement of a shelter versus a seat. That's going to be part of the the funding that was approved. Remember, not only we got we put enough funding in there for almost 300 shelters, which we only have about 199 now, but we also put a lot of money in for almost two or 300 seat additional seats. So we look forward to it. Just be patient I know the bad weather is going to be coming not I'm not going to call it bad weather. I'm going to call it cold weather. Cold weather is going to become and so we won't what will you be doing more of an assessment during that time, but once the weather breaks, hopefully we'll have something for everybody to see. As far as paratransit I know if Mr. Staley is on because what you're referring to anybody Foley our
home who was definitely someone needs to be muted someone who said it was Stephanie. Oh, okay, let's do still needs to be muted.
Definitely. can you mute, please? There you go. Oh, yeah, we're gonna be having a discussion tomorrow, aren't we? Anyway, so. So as far as paratransit goes, as far as clean, courteous, new standards, that our RFP that we put out and the responses that came in, it's quite clear that what we're requesting is a little different than what is in place today, coupled with the potential and again, it went to City Council. It's going to be going to city council on Monday, so I can only get into it so much. But based on what we have put forward, you will be seeing clean new standards. The requirements on training, customer service, role play is all part of the new staff that we have brought in. And Mr. Staley, again, I don't know if he's on could could speak a little bit more to that.
I believe it's okay.
Mr. Staley is on. specifically as it relates to both the vehicle standards and the driver training standards as Mr. Oglesby indicated those have been enhanced, much more muscular than in the past, specifically as it relates to the drivers training DDOT required in the in the RFP request for proposal that some of the components in the classroom include disability awareness and sensitivity training. passenger assistance techniques, defensive driving and a number of other topics related to DDOT paratransit policies and procedures, we will have in place a manager of contracts, who will be exclusively dedicated to reviewing compliance issues as it relates to the contractors. And that person will also be doing vehicle inspections, driver file audits, and pardoning. And and we'll also be doing both scheduled service checks out in the field and random service checks out in the field. He will not be the only one involved in that process, I will be involved in that process as well.
Very, very good. And and the part about let me answer your other one because I heard you throw the word trans dev out there. We're going to be bringing to city council the results of the RFP for the providers. As far as what is going to be overseen by DDOT, we have kept our promise by keeping in house taking in house customer service dispatch, scheduling and everything that goes under it, managing eligibility, managing contract operations and outreach and, and having an outreach specialist. Currently all that is underneath under transit that is going to come to us, the person that's going to be going to city council is your request for the providers. As you know, the public said there you know you can take take it in house, but you want to give local companies especially Detroit based companies an opportunity to provide the actual service itself. So we put the RFP out, as I had mentioned in a very short summary. So I'll say the exact same thing I said at the last meeting, the results came in and before the board, the way that the summary looks was a little misleading because it said 30% people's Express 70% Transdev Transdev submitted a submission for the provider piece only. So their duties are completely different than they were before because they submitted it partnering with Delaware re United mo transportation in big star. So that 70% is really those three companies. So really the providers are people express Del Rey, United mo transportation and big star LLC, those are the ones that are providing the actual service, we will we have a manager of contract operations within DDOT overseeing all of that. And those three companies instead of submitting them separately, which they had the opportunity to do chose to submit it through Transdev. There's various reasons for that, because there are city requirements that are typically put in an RFP that a lot of small companies just can't do insurances, all of that stuff. So that was the purpose of that. But the function itself is going to be completely different. So I know people who are trans to have nothing's changed, I can guarantee you something change because I can put up that. So So I but But I understand some people here trans Dev and they don't that when they see the new structure, they'll understand that truly the providers are Delray mo transportation and big star under them. And we will be managing that, coupled with people express who people express put in separately. So when you see the organizational charts, and I compare them, you'll see that we did exactly what we said we would do.
Okay, and other thing is state their transitional time to be 2023.
Yeah, it's on time. You know, it's funny, you say that I was just on the call the other day, they're moving in order to move forward. And I'm glad you brought this up. And in order to move forward, we are going to be doing something with the current transit hub we have we're not ready to announce it yet. But there's going to be construction through the current hub, which is linked to the new transit center. So we're going to have a like alternate location for people for a temporary period until it's built. But yes, it's ready to go and I expect to see it pop up next year.
Okay. And remember what I said at the beginning, I do need you to get in touch with me. See if you got a date somewhere the first two weeks in November, so we could meet the Motor City and honor Mr. Cunningham and give you a big thank you for the things that you have done that you could do for us. The DPP justice team appreciates all of you. And you all have a good evening and stay safe.
Thank you very much. My staff were reach out to you. You have me at casino now. All right.
Thank you, Mr. Chela. The next hand up is Mr. Verse.
Okay, I can say, Good evening to all of you, and the director. I concur with most things that everyone has said so far. And I would like to add when it comes to the transgender issue, because that's the way to nail it down most. I think it's gonna pass I well, I guess maybe I have more information than a lot of people. And I'm curious as to why it had to be a five year contract, or could it have been less and personally, I think it should be less like a one or two year, because it's really an experiment. See how it works? I know you say you're gonna make it work. Hey, thanks, there always go as we plan as we're fully aware.
Other than that,
I support what I have learned wholeheartedly about that. I am concerned about a few other things, though. One is, is there going to be sensitivity training bus drivers? Because I've noted Sheriff put some problems. Some drivers seem angry, especially on the Grand River. I don't know what exactly the problem is. I know that drivers don't like it. They feel that it's dangerous. But
I don't see any alternative.
I mean, I don't like when they signed on in their employment contract. That was an I will not take any risks
ever clause.
When I'm also realized that your hands are bound to a certain extent by contract negotiations and certain laws on the books. I'm asking you to see if something can be done.
All right. Thank you, Mr. Barrows.
That take it we talked about training, we actually finishing up a round of sensitivity and de escalation training with our operators right now. That training, we usually do some enhancement and refresher training once a year. And that is one of the areas we deal with these have sensitivity in terms of just bringing a passenger interaction, then with people disabilities, and de escalation situation. So that is something we take very important. They very serious. And I'm asking you, anytime that you come across an operator that is not showing sensitivity, please let us know. So we that's what we that's what part of our reasons we have service inspectors, so then play can go out in a row and look into that. So please let us know.
It very good. And if I could piggyback on that Mr. Verse, especially as it pertains to the operators on Grand River, I was on the bus not too long ago, I ride up and down and I rode the Grand River route. I was on the bus and I saw what the operators have to deal with. And I saw what the riders have to deal with with the operator. And, you know, it's tough times. We are going to train our driver continue to train our drivers on sensitivity training. They are it's all about customer service. But I wish I could train the riders, some of the riders on sensitivity training because when when a writer gets on is really rude to an operator, it's really you know, they're human, also they trained to, you know, behave a certain way. But when I have them working overtime, really pushing it because we don't have enough operators that are out there doing a service for us. And you know, and then they expect the same respect that's given and I watched it sometimes it doesn't happen. People get on and they they're some of them are pretty rude. So I'm not making any excuse for the operators. I think sensitivity training is is needed. But we have a we need to make sure we stick with this customer Bill of Rights where people have to just We all have to be kind to one another. The question about trans Dev and or the providers because again, the RFP isn't just about trans debits, people's Express, trans debit, most Delray, I mean, you know, it's not people just keep saying one word. The reason why you would put a five year contract in place is because of the requirements that we are putting in. Everybody said they want newer vehicles, they want clean vehicles, they want more, they, the operators should get more money. Well, in order for a company to invest in do everything that we're asking, typically the first year, they don't make as much money, and then the following years, they make the money back for their investment. So it wouldn't be fair to have somebody pay so much money that they make no money the first year. And then the second year, we say goodbye. Thanks for your investment, as typically why it's a five year contract. I will also say that within a five year contract, there's opportunities to adjust. So though it's a five year contract, depending on performance, there are a lot of things in the contract that give us the power and ability to make some adjustments. But yeah, I did hear the concern about a five year contract. But that's typically what is done for longevity, this is not a test. This is the real deal. We're taking it no matter what. So we're taking the responsibility of these providers aren't the ones then we go get other providers, but we are taking full responsibility for the customer service dispatch scheduling met and managing eligibility.
Thank you, Mr. Verse. The next hand up is Steven hollering?
How's it going? Um, I've got you questions about the people's Express mine under me, but people's Express, it operates a lot in southwest, Southwest. I know Pam or smell for lag in this kind of worry, because the most of their experiences, rule trains that they don't really have experience in urban transit. That's my first thing. And my second thing is about the low income fear program. I'm not opposed to low income bear, but 10 million for a study that that just sounds way too steep. I mean, you could almost like it, every homeless shelter in Detroit or bus pass for like 2% of that cause I'm just curious why it's that much. Because I mean, how much the system's struggling. I mean, 10 million is a lot of money for something that I mean, I'm just curious set, maybe I misread it or something
I can take,
I can take the first, the second one about our low income fair. So the low income there was discussed during the app replacement funds. And it ended up that people were so interested in it that we actually took it out of the opera plan and put it in DDOT reimagined to be able to move it forward quicker, there was no $10 million dollar amount. I believe the 10 million that you're talking about, is the old study that indicated that if we moved forward with a low income fair, it would cost DDOT $10 million. That that's a lot of money. That that is annually. And when we were typically getting $20 million a year in fairs, that's half that's 50%. Well, right now, we're not even collecting 50% and fairs, right? We're only collecting eight to 10 million. So if we're only collecting eight to 10 million, but it costs 10 million to do the low income fair study, that leaves us with zero income. I don't believe that that's totally accurate, because those are all statistics pre pandemic. So what we're proposing is to do a new study with the new structure with the new ridership, service mile information and everything else and see what the true cost would be to DDOT. And then we'll announce it. So no, $10 million is not it is a lot of money. But now that that's those are old statistics and old numbers and we're not moving forward with as far as people expresses submission. People Express went through the process just like the trans dev group did. And they proved that they have the ability to provide the service That was required in the RFP, only 30% of it though, and then the 70% would go to the other side, we are confident that they have the ability to provide the transportation.
I've heard great things about that from my work in the counties here.
Okay, thank you. Thank you.
Alright, and the next hand up is Stephen Boyle.
Stephen boy Boyle,
are you available? A lot of background noise.
I'm sorry, I'm at work, I'm going to try and move to another space. Okay. even quieter. Yes.
The next hand up is Ingrid green.
Good afternoon. My name is Ingrid green. I am the Executive Director of drones for girls. Thank you for setting this time for people to make comments. I really just wanted to ask about a challenge for Detroit high school students to design a, a bus shelter they these kids have grown up with well, some of them anyway, with a tablet in their hands. And they might be able to envision some things that maybe we're not seeing here. Or maybe they've been somewhere else. So they've seen it. And it would just be a cool way for problem solving to be happening maybe in conjunction with something they're doing in their classrooms that would really encourage their parents. And it's something to promote about how Detroit is doing things differently, or is moving into another phase or era. And I I've, I've emailed about it. And I've I asked a question or two about it. And I haven't heard whether or not there hasn't been any response. So I guess I thought I would hop on here and ask what was the feedback? What was the discussion about that? Y'all got some big fish. I've been on this call
for a minute. And that is time. So you want to give us an opportunity to respond to some of those.
Sure. Actually, I
balmy if she salon, could you find out who she's been sending that information to?
The Ingrid Yeah, Sandra.
Okay, can you go ahead and unmute and let us know where the information that you sent is going to.
Yeah, on on March 18. I sent that I emailed the idea to to Mr. Oglesby. And I have brought it up before and since in one of these calls.
So it sounds like maybe we need to if we can get it emailed again. Or,
ya know, if she said it's March 18, we'll take a look at it. Okay. It is quite possible. Or if you have asked me if you could get her contact information, I can do that. The I'm very familiar with the bus shelter, design layout situations. We are in the process of figuring out what we're going to do with the shelters overall. Typically, the shelters are made by their standard made by one or two companies, and they look a certain way. Typically, when you have some that look a little different. It's a separate program like arts, arts and transit program or something like that. So we'd be definitely be interested to take a look at that and see how it could blend in and get back to you. Unfortunately, I don't know why. It hasn't got to where it needs to be. But we'll take a look at it. You have our attention. You gave us the information. So I promise you I will go back and look at it and if I don't find anything, I'll make sure stuff gets back to you to grab the the data and information.
That sounds great. It's a wonderful opportunity and I hope the kids get to do it and it's not about price. I'm assuming that something will get built or things will be designed that way. It's just a chance to give them a voice.
That's it. No, I love the idea. I think I think it's fun and fantastic. I love doing those things. So anyway, I can jump in and help and assist or talk to him. I'd love to do that too. So let's see what we got
we have I guess we can pause here we had some comments from Marguerite that she wanted to read out loud. So give me a moment because as you know, the chat has been busy, so I got to kind of go back a little bit. So the last one, hopefully it won't move on me. She's coming that not all disability persons who use ADA paratransit someone from the mayor's office talked on Tuesday before City Council evening meeting. A month ago, I was left behind due to training that to pull in close to the curb, and this was in the second lane.
And I know the second the original comment was she wants to know who the new ADA person was. And I'm going to read back this look Kenya Sheffield, that the contact information is in the chat but I'll repeat that as well. 313590 to 939. And I believe she may be on if she wants to comment any further on that. But that's the Kenya Sheffield's, the new ADA coordinator 313-590-2939. And this Marguerite, I believe, those were Timo there. Was there another one, okay. See, I told you, it's moving fast you want to?
I see another one says, Let's see a month ago, she's left behind due to a train. It didn't pull in close to the curb. It was in the second lane at large and Grand River.
Okay, that was the first one. Okay, I just cut off the last line.
That's all right. But that that's for me. No, thank you. Good to see at HFHY is a stop on Woodward. A block from Manchester and Highland Park. It's a vacant building is a dangerous stop. So that's something we need to look into. So that's good that she's alerting us to this. We'll be able to, will we be able to print off all of her comments, so my staff can take all of this stuff and take a look at
it? Yes, these are saved. And I can afford them to you?
Yeah, for them for them? Yes. Yeah. All of her concerns for them to both Steve and Melvin. Because she's bringing us into she's bringing some of this stuff to our attention and we need to look into it. We don't have the the answers right now. Because I'd have to look into it. And to give her a proper answer. We don't want to, you know, just wing it. But I think that's the only one she had for now. Right. That's all
I see. Miss Marguerite. You know, feel free in chat if you have another one. But we will. We will get those answered for you. And we will follow back up. Thank you for bringing that to our attention.
Yeah. Okay.
Steven Boyle. Are you still available? I am available.
Am I in a quieter space for you?
That's a little better. Yes. Okay.
I've been the past few months, I turned around and started using my bicycle an awful lot more because the best just not so easier to deal with. matter with the bike racks. And I was like noticing that some of the bikes have been being replaced. And I'm happy for that. Thank you very much for that. I'm concerned about the approach of cold weather and our shelter program and you know how the shelters are just today, like listening to people saying why are they removing shelters at a time when we need to have more soldiers put in to that improvements join up soon. The I'm glad to see that we've got more drivers in training some 40 some drivers and training is a good thing to hear. I am concerned about our night service, and then picking up more night hours and that means trying to get from downtown out to Wyoming and in the middle of the night, which is nearly impossible without walking about 20 minutes in the dark. So that's about what I'm doing right now is you know if I get out at 1030 at night and I'm hopping, I can't even get the central bus set. Alright, I'm getting a Dexter and then walking the rest of the way. So that's what happens when people when when the buses pull up at eight o'clock or 10 o'clock or whatever it is they stop running the people that work long hours, wind up kind of doing what they can for the remainder of the trip. Thanks. Mr. Boyle,
do you use the Bus Tracker app?
It has helped me immeasurably. I also use the transit app because I do appreciate the crowdsourcing, there's a transit that offers, I really hope that the drivers, if their tracking system is not functioning, would actually turn on the transit app and then track their own driving, if possible. But that doesn't seem to be any training that's actually happening for drivers for tourism. I don't even know that the drivers understand how to turn their tracking device on on their bus. Because number of drivers I've said your tracking not on and they're like I don't know how to turn it on. So maybe that can be included in some training.
So when you say the tracker is not tracking, are you saying it's not tracking in the transit app, or it's not tracking and the DDOT tracker
in the DDOT? Tracker is not there. And then the rest shows up? And it's like, Oh, what happened very often, it happens from time to time.
Yes, and thank you for bringing that up, we, we actually have realized that and we've been working together with clever devices to fix that. Our customer service team has been watching tracking the tracker, and where there's issues with I call it a ghost bus where it's not there, then it just pops up. We're trying to make sure that that doesn't happen. So it was happening happening more, it's getting better, but it's not perfect. And if that does happen, please pick up the phone and call customer service and let let them know, if it's closed, leave a message. So we can do a point in time and go back in fine tune it. But we're still fine tuning it, we're trying to get it as good as possible. As we go into the cold weather. As far as the as far as the night service that you mentioned, should see better service after the last scheduled change because we did add a little more service in the afternoons. But again, if we don't have operators, and they don't show up, you're gonna see that whole, no, it doesn't matter how much service we add, if we don't have drivers, it's not going to happen. So really our pushes, once we get more drivers, you'll see more steady service,
or gig economy is moving much more into flexible work schedules. And that's making the firm to different hours in the poor business hours possible for a lot of people. Reminding of that, and I have mentioned it to the drivers to please have somebody at the transit center, get the tracking device enabled us know if you have any technicians available at the at the transit center. System doing anything like that small at a moment.
But we'll look at that.
Thank you for the information. We'll look at that we're working hard to get some things going. But there's one thing that's concerning me that's a second person that has said, people are saying we're removing shelters, we're not removing any shelters, they're getting hit, then we have to remove them. But we are not in the process of shifting or moving shelters out, especially going into the cold weather. But, Steve, when we have some time, let's talk about that and figure out what's going on.
Okay, thank you. The next hand up is Colin henshin. Ski.
Great.
Thank you. Colin Hanson ski. I'm a downtown resident First, I'd like to say that I appreciate you all being here and the work that you all have been doing. Running a transit agency over the last two and a half years. I know it's been very challenging. So thank you for that. Sunday morning, I woke up and I saw a lot of cones, people running in the streets and buses parked in places. So I figured that we were going to have some transit disruptions. So I got on the DDOT Twitter. I didn't see any updates about the marathon. I looked at the queue line, there were no updates. I checked the websites. The only surface disruption bulletin on the deed that page of the city site is the Claremont detour. And so I actually got most of my information from the marathon website that said that the streets would be slowly reopening until about two o'clock so I waited to go to Wayne State until later on in the afternoon, I was waiting at Grand Circus Park and waiting, waiting, waiting. I eventually mo goes to school. And on my way back at about quarter to five, I got on the Woodward bus heading back downtown. And when we got to Martin Luther King, the driver said, Okay, this is our last step everyone needs to get off. Well, by that time, all the streets were reopened. So everyone was was pretty confused. He said that he thought the map bus was going to Rosa Parks, but wasn't exactly sure. So we had elderly folks, people with bags. And so a lot of people didn't know how they were going to get downtown. So thankfully, I was able to walk the two three blacks and Mogo back downtown without any issues. But the communication around the marathon, which was no surprise, but the communication about service disruptions around the marathon was not great. And it also seemed to be reflective on the information that the driver had as well. So I just want to bring that to your attention. Thank you. Thank you for
that information we'll get we'll get the planning group together with Steve, were you going to respond to that?
No. Maybe not.
I will work with Steve to see what happened with that. And we will excuse me, I was off the air because I was choking a little bit. But we will work with the scheduling division to see what happened and make sure that every public is informed the future.
I'm sorry, I had answered the door. I just Yeah. But I'll catch up on this later.
If you don't. Yeah,
yeah. Yeah, don't worry about it. It's it was it was poor communication during the marathon with the lack of information on our website, to let people know what was happening and the lack of coordination with the operator, because it looks like the operator when the street did open up did not continue all the way to Rosa Parks, he let people off. So I think it's a combination of possible miscommunication. But we typically have these pretty much down to a science. So we'll do our investigation and look into it. And thank you for bringing it to our attention.
They did the detail was different this year, and the whole course was different this year. So they will try to showcase different neighborhoods during the marathon. So they moved around Midtown was it almost didn't do.
We will look into it specifically. Because even if it was even if it was different, we needed to know so we'll look at it and we'll we'll sharpen it up next time.
Thank you Next hand up is a number ending in 169.
Hello, yes
I got the flyer from
Cunningham and I just wanted to say that
I'm in or wooded areas,
there's no you know, seating areas for people to wait on the buses. The buses is not renting. Um, you know, I feel like they not running long enough. I've been waiting now for the bus, the Hamilton route 23 and buses that's supposed to be there every hour is like, sometimes it's like they come every two or three hours. I feel like it's only two buses in route at the same time because usually when one come one is going and I feel like you know it should be you know more buses on the route so that people don't have to wait. You know, as long you know, people will be having stuff to do doctor's appointments, jobs and things like that. And when the late that make people late.
They clean.
The older bus drivers have more of a attitude where the younger drivers are more impatient. And sometimes the younger drivers are both
um that's about it. Really? Um yeah, that's about it. Hi,
thank you for your comment. Yes, sometimes there are only two buses on routes. That may be all that it's on there. Now that we've done our service changes. We do try to keep at least one going he's by One going westbound on one going north and one going south. Please look at the tracker that I help you understand of where we are and what bus is coming and what time they're coming. For our operators. Like I said earlier, we're always trying to help improve operators with enhancement training, which is done several times a year to better serve our customers.
Okay, thank you.
The next hand up I see is Sheila Dorsey. Sheila Dorsey.
Hello, can you hear me?
There we go. Go ahead.
Hi, good evening. My name is Sheila Dorsey, I am a d dot t o out of Shoemaker. I know Deputy Director, Mr. Barkley is familiar with me. Mr. Oglesby, we've crossed paths. I don't know if we've officially met. And I saw a flash of Mr. Mallen, who may be familiar with me. And I thank you all for the opportunity. And first, I want to start on a positive note and acknowledge the changes in the encouraging motivational messages that operators have been receiving over our clever devices. And I don't know if that's a part of the D that reimagined but it's a great idea because it helps with the level of stress. When you can touch our positive message comes across. That's the positive note, but I want to speak briefly to the debacle of the marathon on Sunday. I was in that gridlock stuck for two and a half hours on Grand River which had been converted to a two way street between Washington Boulevard and gridwall. Woodward. I have four pages of extensive reroutes that didn't make a difference. My 10 hours and 25 minute route turned into essentially one round trip on grass shit. And that ended my day as I was stuck and then led to the transit center to wait for further direction. Something happened communication the ball was dropped with DPD, which had us sequestered on that little corridor for two and a half hours. It's unfortunate and two parts. Passengers became angry with drivers. They were videotaping us, they were telling us that we were violating our contract. I don't know where it all came from. But we were submitted to a lot of abuse as we stood frozen on that small little corridor
there that was time okay Mr. Botha, where are you spending?
Now? Thank you Miss Dorsey. Yes, we are familiar. No, that's not part of the that reimagine what the messages. There's just nothing dispatch that started to put out there because we know any, we need to do things to help encourage you guys out there because you deal with a lot on the road. You know, I always tell everybody safety's number one concern, so anything that can help improve your morale we are trying to do and as you said, with the marathon, we were at the mercy of DPD we are working to get better communication for next year's marathon so that we won't have those issues again.
Thank you very much.
The next hand up is Reverend Dr. Cook. Draft
go, I'm not even sure where to start. Let me just say this first. They need to cancel that stupid marathon just canceled all that. And I'm done with that. Now as far as Metro lift is concerned, I didn't get to church Sunday. And even though I was on a program at the church, I was going to fortunately, I could get through to them on the phone and let them know I couldn't come so I've got an issue with Metro live. And it's, it's a big issue. And I put in the chat room, my contact number and my email address for MS bore. So at trans Dev, because I want to do a formal complaint, not just tell me, we're looking into it, we're gonna take care of it. I'm going to do a formal complaint. And I want to know how to go about doing that. Thank you very much. I'm done. Yeah, go ahead. I'm sorry.
Yeah, I got some information about that marathon would happen. And it turns out that we were given one set of detours. And then without telling us, they changed it to another set of street closures. So our original detours didn't work for the revised street closures. And I'm sure that also affected paratransit. And the people apologize to us. But it was too late. It didn't matter because things were really messed up. And what we can do now is apologize that we didn't know and try to do better next year. There's more.
I guess I do. I do have one other thing to say. I've been back in Detroit for 15 years. And every year, that mess marathon has caused me problems. So this time, I'm not wasn't surprised.
Just a different kind of.
Yeah, yeah. Miss Moore was going to kind of comment on on and then but more importantly, yeah, the marathon was interesting. It was actually the first one I experienced. And I was stuck on Jefferson and couldn't get where I needed to go. So I felt your pain. I felt everybody's pain. And I was probably saying the same things. You all were saying to yourselves, trying to get where I needed to go. Simone, did you have something you want to say?
Yes, Director. Thank you. sincerest apologies, Reverend cook. I apologized for the inconvenience that you experienced on Sunday. Of course, our objective is to provide a safe and reliable service to Transdev or for the Detroit Metro live service. I have added in the chat, the formal complaint phone number, it's 313-208-7363 and that's Option two, we will look into the complaint to see exactly how it derailed and follow up with you and I have your contact information also. In addition,
I will promise that once Simone gets that information she'll get it to me and we'll work together to make sure that it's handled properly.
Yes sir. Thank you
Thank you
You're welcome. Thank you
Miss Marguerite your hands up next did we address your comments in the chat or do you have additional comments
thank you
good evening
I'm shifting or not the girl because again, this is the verse
den den
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the media word yeah yes the job cares Good
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no she is
Renee green Amelia
then might say please email me get Genki, you don't know about about me? Personally. Yes. But there's really no. You can't get me that email. Thank you absolutely, thank you.
Yeah, I'll definitely reach out, get in touch with you and Willa, give me whatever information you would need. Also, again, back to the marathon. It was clear based on what Mr. Petrich said, there's a communication gap that we could not control, control. We don't control the marathon. We push hard to get the information, we get that information. We set up shop and we go about our business. Unfortunately, we went about our business with the wrong plan. And it obviously not only frustrated riders, but it's frustrated the operators which you just heard, and it frustrated me. So we're going to make sure that we take go about it differently next year. And we're going to go work closer with DPD and open up the communication outwards instead of waiting to get it inward.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Next hand up is Robert Barksdale.
Yes, good evening, everyone. First time caller calling in regards to air purification on the buses. I'm sure you guys have gone through this before. But what's your current plan? And are there any options for the future? Different options I
should say. Getting to enjoy based on maintenance right now. That is testing on air purification system on a couple of codes username.
Something just happened. Do
freeze. Did y'all hear me?
He was he was talking and then we heard you.
Yeah, I don't know. He I think he went
but I can I can continue and pretend like I was God.
I think I think he's okay. I think he's okay.
I just I just posted our so just just chiming in on the air purification system. We are looking into a few vendors right now. And we're testing it on a couple of other coaches right now and taking the reading data how aircraft air ionization technique is working. In parallel to that we are testing some air air center system that is provided by the OEM vendors and comparing the pricing and performance right now. So hope by end of next month, we will have some data for you. Thank you,
and date have to follow up on that. Our goal is to put air purification filters on all of our buses. So once we come to the conclusion of this pilot to see which one's the right one, we will be putting them on because it was part of what the public asked for. And we have the funding set aside for it.
Understood? Is there any way to get involved with the project?
Pertaining to I don't understand the question. I
recently started an air purification company myself, I'm a minority supplier in the city that was just interested in like I said, it was first time on the call to see if there was any possibilities of working with your team to understand your needs, and try to help my city grow better. When you're providing, going,
go ahead, you got to jail. And you know,
I was uh, do you mind sharing your contact information and reach out to you directly?
I will put it in the chat.
Thank you very much. Thank you.
That works as we have about nine minutes.
Okay, Kristen. Yep.
The next hand up is Norma P.
Hello, yep, go ahead.
Hello, everyone. I put the information in the chat. My phone was kind of acting up a bit. But I just had three little questions about. Question about switch routes or transfer routes, I don't know what they're called when the Grand River becomes the eighth mile at a certain point. And when the Hamilton becomes the fourth bus at a certain point. Are there other routes that do that? And if so, can riders get a list? Because I've experienced huge delays on both of those buses when they switch those routes? That's one question. And then the next question. It looks like customer service or comment. issue has been brought up that, you know, I just wanted to reiterate that the training, it looks like it might be helpful to for drivers to have customer training. Again, I know it was mentioned that they do have it when they I guess when they get hired. But I've been experiencing and seeing a lot of rudeness on buses. And lastly, is there a policy for letting homeless and other people unable to pay fair ride free? Or? Or is that left to the discretion of the bus driver? You know, I saw where the bus driver on a we're having a bad day, clearly. And she passed up like three people. And then when a homeless person got on, she was fumbling for like another dollar or whatever. I wish I had it. And she didn't let her ride. And I just thought that was so rude. It was cold outside. So is there a policy in place like after 35 degrees or below they they can ride free? And that's it. Thank you. Okay.
Oh, go ahead, Steve, you can you can answer the interlining question
to the interline question. So there's some routes that operators pairs like throughout the day, and those would be like the one Werner five Van Dyck and the 94 and 23 Hamilton. So those operate regularly as pairs and on weekends. We also have the the van tank and the Dexter. I think this is just on Saturdays brought up there's also interline stitches happening maybe once or twice a week or a few trips a day and late at night, or what we do with this six mile Seven Mile eight mile buses. So where we're trying to get these into line so that they're all on the same garage like we moved the the Hamilton brush over to Gilbert so it would be in the same garage with the fork bus. And that does simplify the operation. But when when we did the service cut in November, it all got tangled up. So, so much that we we we've revamped to have it fixed maybe in January but but there will still be entrelacs and interlinings do save buses when they operate. Eight, for example, the fourth bus, but wouldn't be able to run with one bus and the Hamilton bus would run with two buses. But together, we can run them with three buses, instead of having two on the Hamilton and two on the fork, because the forward is just a little bit too long to have just one bus on. So that's why we do in two lines. But when we get to the new network, indeed, that reimagined, we hope learned tonight will be a lot simpler. The ones I mentioned are the main ones that that we have. But as I said, there was some that only happened a few times a day or a few times a week that I can't really list right now.
Okay, so there's just want to be clear what you said. So there is nowhere to go to see where these inter lines are. And then also when there was a driver that, you know, showed me his list of, you know, his his route schedule. And he said, See this Grand River, but says that it's out there, but it's actually not. So if you look on the app, that Grande River bus says out there, but it's not it really just turned into an eight mile. So someone was waiting for the Grand River to wait like an hour, maybe two hours when it turned into a river. So that's that's the only issue I saw.
If you're on the app, the app knows what bus it becomes. So it won't tell you that that bus is coming if it's not. Okay, the app has all the scheduling information. For example, if you're on a waiting for that Hamilton bus and the bus you're waiting for is on Fourth Street, it knows that that bus is headed your way. Because it's all on his schedule.
Okay, thank you. Is there anyone that can answer the policy about the homeless and customers that ride the bus and saying it was like 35 degrees or less? Is it left to the discretion of the driver? Because I feel like if they're in a bad mood, like this almost. Yeah. Yeah,
I can go ahead and answer that Tony Benson here at the Assistant Director of Operations. So the policy is that, that all passengers should pay their exact fare? We do we do leave it up to the discretion of of the driver. But the expectation is everyone everyone pays their fair.
Thank you. Great, thanks. Did you have something to add?
Okay, we have just enough time for our last first time hand up. I feel like we're going to do one round tonight. And that's the number ending in 441.
You have a comment number ending 441. You have one minute left? Okay,
let's see if they allow. Okay, there we go.
Yeah, hello, my name is Greg woods. Cunningham gave me a flyer. I'd like to comment on one first, the buses. They take too long. I cannot take the commute every day. And buses take a long time. And I also like to comment on been a lot of accidents out here in the streets. I see him daily. There was like three accidents last night. What is the police going to do about these people out here? Driving crazy. When you get out here and driving the streets. You got a draft for yourself and other people does not think so. That's that's, that's what I'm speaking on. No, I'm saying I think we need to have more police on the streets, patrolling the streets, making sure people are driving safely. And I'll say it's too many people are here, getting the accident losing their life. Family. No, I'm saying so. That's what I'm coming to you. Thank you for your
input. We do know that there is an issue DPD has been looking at this and they take this very seriously. As a matter of fact, I think they have a whole program to try to stop the speeding the racing and a lot of other things that are going on within the streets and we try to work with them to the best of our ability along with our own Transit Police. But yeah, Yeah, that that one is really difficult to, to handle because there's a lot going on in the streets. So we just have to be safe and be careful and tell our operators to be safe and be careful how it goes and make sure when you're on our bus, you're safe. And that's what we that's what we can focus on.
All up on the executive directors, comments, this is Rich from safety. Safety does see transit police out there responding to incidents and accidents as well as the Detroit Police Department. Sometimes they're both at an accident. So the Operations Control Center works with the law enforcement out there to dispatch law enforcement when and where needed.
Thank you. That is all the time that we have for tonight. any unanswered questions in the chat? You know, we will again, as we mentioned before we have those saved, and we'll follow up for any of those that we need to reach out personally, we'll do that. And any other new updates, of course, will bring that to that next community input meeting. I do want to reserve this time if Mr. Oglesby would you like to do any other closing remarks?
Yeah, so one I saw Lieutenant crossers gonna comment if you'd like to, I want to give her opportunity to comment on that last.
Yes, thank you, sir. I just want to call it and know that transit police does respond to all the calls on the services on the coaches, and we do assist CPD with some traffic enforcement in regards to the coaches and if he sees any violations or anything that he would like to report please call that into 911 and hopefully the if it's if it's transit related, it automatically comes to transit police. So we can be we can address the issue as expeditiously as possible.
Fantastic And in closing, instead of my me doing the closing I would like for Jasmine to do the closing because I miss her melodious voice so much. And we're all so used to her and customer service. I want the great and honorable Jasmine to go to bed so good night.
Okay everybody that's it. That's all good night.
Good night, everybody. Take care guys. recording stopped
