Capital District                                                                                               March 12, 2010

Transportation Committee      

 

 

REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION COORDINATION COMMITTEE

RECORD OF MEETING

 

DATE/TIME: February 10, 2010 1:30 pm3:30 pm

 

ATTENDANCE: Michelle Abel—Catholic Charities of Schenectady County Wheels to Work, Luis Acosta—CDTA; Mike Barry—Center for Disability Services; Ed Biittig—Schenectady County DSS; Carol Croak—Rensselaer County DSS; Rocky Ferraro—CDRPC; Kevin O’Brien—CDTA; Elise Relyea--NYSOTDA; Deb Stacey—CDTC Staff; Tom Vaughan—NYSDOT; Kristina Younger--CDTA

 

STUDY DISCUSSION SUMMARY: Meeting participants introduced themselves.  Kevin O’Brien provided a brief background about his work experience, as he has recently been hired as the Mobility Manager for CDTA.  After introductions, each agenda item was discussed in sequence:

 

RTCC Activities: 

a.     2008 New Freedom Projects —The ABS scheduling software has been installed and Catholic Charities and Schenectady ARC employees have been trained.  The ABS system is also used by Access Transit, which will allow for additional coordination.   Catholic Charities and Schenectady ARC hope to add other human service agencies to the ABS system as their staffs become more familiar with the software and its strengths and weaknesses.

Catholic Charities also submitted a proposal to begin limited weekend service on a trial basis for seniors in the county.  The service began on October 31st. To cover required match, Catholic Charities needs to provide a minimum of 24 one-way rides per weekend day; currently this goal has not been achieved.  However, ridership is steadily increasing.  Winter weather definitively impacts trip taking.  An introductory “fare sale” might be introduced once the warmer weather comes to boost ridership.

b.     2009 Solicitation The City of Watervliet was the only applicant that responded to the 2009 solicitation.  The city will institute shuttle service within the city, connecting senior housing with retail and recreation and with parts of Green Island.  A lot of progress has been made toward implementation.  The route has been defined and the vehicle has been ordered.  The route will dovetail with existing CDTA fixed route service, making it easier for seniors and mobility disabled individuals to get where they need to go using CDTA. 

At the June 2009 RTCC meeting, CDTA was asked to look into expending the remainder of the New Freedom allocations on an Accessible Taxi Program.  Since that meeting, CDTA has made progress in getting this program off the ground.  Several meetings have been held to design an achievable program.  The accessible taxi working group will be looking at available vehicles in March.  The program will start with two accessible taxis and will expand from there, if the program is successful and a need is shown.

 

CDTA:

a.     CST Funding Update-- CST 8 monies have been obligated. CST 9 funds are being expended by Rensselaer County, Albany and Schenectady counties are already spending CST 10 monies, but Saratoga is lagging seriously behind. CDTA instituted a major fare increase in April ‘09, so the CST 10 pass rate is higher.  It is not clear if CST 11 will be approved by the governor’s office.

b.     JARC—CDTA has obligated all JARC funds in the original SAFETEA_LU authorization in one grant, with amendments.  Albany County has spent their allocation for the safety net brokerage, while the other counties have sufficient funding through at least the end of the year.  It is expected that the JARC program will be continued in a SAFETEA-LU extension bill.  If this happens, CDTC will have to solicit for projects once the JARC allocations are known.

c.      Access Transit –Access Transit plans to respond to the Albany County RFP for non-emergency medical transportation and the Albany County Department for the Aging trips.

d.     Other-- The vanpool project is moving along.  There are now three vanpools on the road and a fourth will start shortly.

CDTA will begin neighborhood route restructuring in Schenectady County beginning May 2010.  There will be public meetings about the new routes and route structure.

CDTA has partnered with Price Chopper to begin a program for bus passes much like the fuel advantage program.  This program will provide $2.00 off the price of Swiper passes and the 10 ride debit card for every $50 spent at price Chopper.  Twelve Price Chopper stores will sell the discounted fare to customers.

 

Other:

a.  NYSDOT—The solicitation for JARC and New Freedom in Rural Areas will be released shortly.

b.  The Center for Disability Services transportation department is working on securing shop licenses so they can pursue Joint Maintenance agreements with other human service agencies.

 

NEXT MEETING:

 

The next meeting of the Regional Transportation Coordination Committee is scheduled for Thursday May 6, 2010 at 1:30 pm at CDTC’s offices.