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TRANSPORTATION THINK TANK NOTES FROM MEETING #8: MAY 5, 1999

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** NEXT MEETING: Wednesday May 19, 5 pm at CAFE BRASIL **
** 1410 Mission Street in Santa Cruz. All are invited. **
** Cafe Brasil is now wheelchair accessible. **
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The AGENDA for the May 19th meeting will include discussion of Peter
Beckmann's idea for adding life-cycle estimates to the RTC's 50-item
wish list. We'll also be open to other ideas that could aid upcoming
transportation-related decisions to be made. NOTE: These notes are
posted on the Singers' web site: http://www.cruzio.com/~forums
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The TTT meeting May 5, 1999 was underway by a little after 5 pm, with
twelve people present: Debbie Bulger, Bill Comfort, Madeleine
Hormann, Dick Little, Emily Reilly, Mike Rotkin, Peter Scott, Janet
Singer, Michael Singer, Richard Stover, David Walworth and Les White.
David Walworth facilitated the meeting.

We started by discussing the Highway 17 Express "1998 On-Board
Passenger Survey" that was provided to us by Chris Augenstein of the
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA). The survey was
conducted in the Spring of 1998, yielding 369 valid surveys, about 45
per cent of the Hwy 17 daily ridership. The report on the survey [let
me know if you'd like a copy and I will provide one] states "Today,
the Hwy 17 Express remains one of the most productive and
cost-effective transit routes in the Bay Area region. The Hwy 17
Express Bus is a contracted service, and is equally funded by VTA and
SCMTD. SCMTD owns the vehicles and administers the contract."

Peter Scott noted that a seeming 36.5 per cent of the zip codes of origin
lie within the Santa Cruz city limits (95060-64) which seems to indicate
that if the bus were to stop at the Santa Cruz Metro Center it would be a
useful addition.

Mike Rotkin noted that this also indicates that a "park and ride" lot
in Santa Cruz would be well-used.

Janet Singer asked about the category labeled "valid" in the zip code
response tables. We are not sure what this means. [CHRIS AUGENSTEIN:
do you know?]

[Other notable findings from the survey: rider retention is high:
70% of riders surveyed have been using the service for more than a year;
80% of riders have internet access---more than have access to an
automobile; 90% of riders rate overall performance excellent or good;
53% of riders report incomes over $50,000; 75% of riders work in Santa
Clara County, but a surprising number (20%) work in Santa Cruz County
(the other 5% are not reported in the survey). Many helpful comments
(206) are included verbatim in the survey. Among them are eight
unsolicited and unrelated compliments for driver Mark Krovetz. Only
driver Toni received any other comments (two). Leaves me thinking that
driver attitude is a key factor.]

Janet also asked where we stood at the moment regarding the prospects
for the improvement of this service, and to what extent does such
improvement depend on the outcome of negotiations with the Bus Drivers
Union and with decisions soon to be made by the SCMTD board.

Les White noted that there are two separate issues: (1) whether the
service is to be privately contracted (as present) or is to be public
(using SCMTD drivers) and (2) whether it is expanded. He indicated that a
decision will likely be made within a month and a half regarding (1), and
that a decision on (2) will come later. Driver wages tend to be less for
privately-operated service than for publicly-operated service, but there
are also advantages for making the service publicly-operated.

Peter asked about estimated time lines for expansion plans.

Mike Rotkin said "not right away".

Les noted that if ten new buses were ordered "today" it would be about
1.5 years before buses actually arrived because of the waiting list.
There are currently four firms manufacturing buses in the US (Gillig,
Orion, New Flyer and TMC) with a total output of 3000 to 3500 vehicles
per year. New vehicles are about $275,000 each, with an annual
operating cost of about $200,000 for each.

Madeleine asked about the availability of vehicles made outside the US.

Les noted that the "buy America" rules virtually eliminate that option,
since the rules add about 80 per cent to the cost of a vehicle purchased
from outside the US.

Janet asked about the HOV option in the MTIS study, and whether the
Hwy 17 bus were included there. The answer is basically no, since
Hwy 17 is not part of the MTIS corridor, but that option B-6 does
suggest extending the service to Watsonville.

Les noted that the SCMTD currently has a fleet of 64 "peak" vehicles
(maximum number of vehicles in use at any one time) out of 77 "total"
vehicles. [the difference of 13 vehicles are those that are out of
service for maintenance or other reason.]

Bill Comfort asked whether buses on a guideway would imply a reduction
of operating cost, and Les said no, since even on a guideway there
must be at least one operator per vehicle.

There was additional discussion leading to a decision on a fruitful
role our group could play, with Debbie every so often asking "WHO IS
GOING TO DO WHAT?".

Mike Rotkin noted that the main question before the governing boards
(the SCCRTC and the SCMTD) involves priorities: What is the best way
to spend the money? First, should we spend money on buses? Then,
suppose we have enough to buy ten buses. Where should they run?

It was concluded that we (the question is still WHO will draft this,
although I thought I heard that Bill would be willing to help) could
usefully produce a concise "white paper" on the Hwy 17 service and its
benefits (and detriments, if any).

[One question is this: what other useful documents exist?]

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We spent some time discussing the topic of the RTC's "wish list" and
Peter Beckmann's suggestion that in addition to the cost of each item
on the wish list we do some research to supply also an estimate of the
"life cycle" of each item.

Emily and Janet and Michael agreed to help Peter Beckmann with this
project.