And um four, we've got it.

In that case, you've got to head.

It's five more we have calling.

We have the meeting is called to order.

Let's do a roll call.

Rebu is not present.

Yes, Ovisco here.

Barker Akry here.

Mike Schnell.

George Millet Boy.

My apologies if I miss Brown's remaining George, but he's not driven.

Derek here.

Here.

Very well.

That is a quorum of four.

Now we move on to the approval of the agenda from the January 8th, 2026 meeting.

I move to approve it.

We were gonna ask for consideration to move number eight to right below approval of the minutes.

So after Ford.

So before someone makes a motion about that, the reason why they wanted to do that is a wonderful guest here is when you made the presentation and he is planning to move at 5 30 shard, if not earlier.

And this item number eight is the only actionable item, truly speaking on our agenda today.

And therefore, whether you care to debate it for an hour afterwards or not is preventing on it, needs to happen within the next 25 weeks.

And therefore, the idea is that it will happen between number three or the idea is it will happen right after item number four approval of the mass.

Motion seconded.

Yeah.

Is there any uh discussion?

All those in favor of the motion of moving item number eight to go between approval of the minutes and selection of secretary, say aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

No, seeing none, the motion passes unanimously.

Sweet.

And now you just need to move uh you need to approve the agenda as amended.

Yes.

Is there a motion to approve the agenda as amended?

I approve I motion to approve the agenda as amended.

Second.

Any discussion?

Any objections?

Those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Vote is unanimous.

The agenda is approved.

Now we have a 15-minute total time open comment period for any guest who is not currently on the agenda to give a comment.

Seeing no guests, we move past that.

Now we go to the approval of the minutes.

Demands and video as an official record of the citizens advisor and transit meeting of December 11th, 2025.

So I have an attack in the end of that.

It's usually posted on the bullets and commissions website between the meetings and floor these outside of meeting.

So you would let us have a view of it before we have here once we approve it.

Just to clarify, it's not been it's not in a confirmed packet, couldn't no.

Any objections?

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Motion passed unanimously.

Very well.

Now we move to the item citizens advisor on transit support for the city of Rochester's active transportation planning assistance program.

And our guest here will give a presentation to us on the recommendation.

I'd like to introduce uh Matt Lynch.

He's the MoShift coordinator.

We discussed his position at our last meeting.

Um, and we decided to table his like formal introduction until we had a little bit more time on the meet on the agenda, but this is a pressing topic as the application is due next week.

Thank you.

Thank you all for your time.

Uh as Rachel shared, my name is Matt Lynch, I'm the MOSHIP coordinator.

I am my position is housed within community development at the city.

I started in October, and um while I will still come to you and give a more formal presentation on what that role entails.

An item of business came up that we wanted to bring to citizen advisory on transit because it is relevant to transit ridership and access to transportation options in the city of Rochester.

So I'm here today.

Oh, I do want to also mention there's always a transportation angle on issues, and the time that you're allowing for me to have this item sooner allows me to get to day care before it closes, and I'm riding my bicycle to do that.

So I appreciate you giving me that ample time to do those things.

So I'm I'm here to ask for citizen advisory on transit to support in the form of a letter of support for the city of Rochester's upcoming application for the Minnesota Department of Transportation Active Transportation Planning Assistance Program.

I will share a bit about the application itself, but I'll preface with why this matters to transit riders and citizens advisory on transit is that the planning effort overall will develop an action plan that brings together existing city and partner plans in a coordinated strategy to improve walking, cycling, rolling, and therefore access to transit.

So this planning effort is about balancing the system so that transit works better.

Our streets function more efficiently, and people can choose the travel option that works best for their needs on a given day.

So a key theme of this planning effort is giving people more reliable and practical choices for how they get around, especially for short trips, therefore, again, for just in alignment with reaching transit.

So when people have the ability to walk roll and bicycle, they are able to reach transit safely, and it does reduce pressure on the street system and also the parking system as a whole.

So that helps buses move more reliably.

It improves access for those who do need to drive or be dropped off.

Also, what this plan can achieve is safer sidewalks, crossings, and connections to stops, and especially important for riders who use mobility aids or mobility devices, uh travel children, or need a more predictable, comfortable route for for their transportation needs.

So this approach it does support independent uh travel with dignity by making it easier for people to complete trips without needing a car for every single segment.

And so improving access to transit, it does also help uh those who rely on specialized services and paratransit experience because those programs will experience less congestion and better reliability, therefore more efficient operations.

So we're looking at an offset.

Pardon the interruption, but uh were you planning to have a PowerPoint to show us?

I'm not.

Okay, you're just going to be telling us that.

I'm speaking to it.

I my slide skills, I didn't prepare that.

I did prepare these wonderful talking points for you.

That's why I was wondering about properly to why I was wondering about the drafting because often it's easier to follow along with something, but if we can't, that's okay.

Apologies, and I'll keep that in mind for next time.

Uh so what we are asking is the a very respectable request for citizen advisory on transit to vote to support the city's application.

Uh, therefore, yes, it would be helpful to have that in advance.

What I wanted to share was the theme because the application is currently in draft form that has not been finalized nor submitted.

Therefore, I did not want to present it in full yet.

Um, what we are asking is for a brief letter of support for from the board that highlights why this planning effort is important from a transit perspective.

Uh I'd also like to offer my very own support.

I'm happy to draft that letter for your review and send it to the chair for signature.

And the letter does not need to be long, just a few sentences expressed advisory on transit, support for advancing the uh active transportation uh themes that will provide better access to transit.

Um I am like I said, happy to draft that, and I say that because if possible, we are hoping to receive this letter by Tuesday, January 13th at noon, which would allow us time to include it with grant materials by our deadline on the 16th, I think it is.

So I want to thank you all for your considering this, and your endorsement would be a strong signal to the grant review committee and a signal for regional and rider support for the planning process that will help make transit access and the connections to it better for everyone.

So thank you for hearing our request.

I'll stick around for questions and perhaps some of the discussion is needed too.

Do you have any high points within the grant application that you'd like to feature that are like maybe drill down a little bit more?

Sure.

So just some example of these plans, the comprehensive plan that the city has adopted, it supersedes all other plans.

And we also have active transportation plan.

We also have the transit development plan.

All these things have recommendations for how we could uh make it better for uh population who may not have access to transportation options without purchasing a motor motor vehicle themselves and driving it for all of their needs.

Well, how can we implement some of those recommendations?

We just want to identify a prioritized, more uh focused implementation plan that aggregates all the recommendations from these various plans and then develops an action plan to actually then go do many of the things that the plans already state.

So if I understand correctly, so firstly, um correct me on any item where I'm wrong or you know, a little bit of correction of following, but my current understanding is this grant program is by the Minnesota Department of Transportation with money appropriated uh to the DOT from the state legislature against uh every two-year appropriations bills, correct?

I believe so.

Okay.

And so the city of Rochester would like to ask for a grant of money from the DOT with that pre-allocated money for the sake of this program that the DOT has of the active transportation.

Um I was looking at some of the items on the um on this active transportation plan appears that it began in 2017 and didn't have appropriations, and then 2021 it began with a five million appropriation for the uh biennium, I believe.

And that the it appeared based on this information sheet, which to be fair is outdated, so there could have been my recent fast and forward hungers.

Um to indicate that uh it's funded for projects and certain capital improvements, such as pedestrian or bicycle planning process or um uh like demonstration of need and safety concerns and things like that.

So it seemed a little bit more uh targeted.

So I'm a little bit confused.

Um is the city of Rochester trying to sort of condense like a miniature, I don't know the word omnibus overuse, but a miniature version of its its grand scope wherever there are major gaps that they can't quite uh fund that they're just trying to sort of triage all those into one little package and present it to the DOT.

I don't know if I asked that question very clearly or not.

I I think the planning assistance, there are two different grant programs.

I'm not sure if it if it is planning or an infrastructure program, because if it's infrastructure, that is the actual facilities that can be constructed.

Um if it's for planning assistance, part of that can be the implementation of quick builds, for example.

So, like there is an a physical change to the streetscape.

Um, like an example of a quick build that we've implemented in the past year is the ones on 11th Avenue, those delineators for the bike lane.

If you you bike or if you've traveled up and down 11th Avenue and Cutski Park neighborhood, that like a restriping and delineators.

So those aren't permanent modifications, so that would be a definition of like a quick build project.

And that also is the city of Rochester was a recipient of this grant in the past, and that's what it that's a portion of what that grant funded.

How did I do with answering your question?

Is that clarifying a little bit?

And and I will even elaborate more the purpose of a project like that is so that we can say it works or it doesn't work, and then we could make permanent modifications, and like that would be the goal.

Okay.

And then you could apply for the next level of grant um to do those permanent um implementations of the capital improvements.

Sure, okay.

So then when we maybe it's just a little bit unclear to me when the city would apply if they can to this grant, what exactly are they going to be telling the uh the DOT that they're going to use the grant on precisely?

Is it is the entire thing just to hire one person to help them plan things, or is it to have a sort of coffer from which they can draw for various uses on the comprehensive plan?

The grant affords consultant time with partnership partnership with Minnesota Department of Transportation, and they would be advising on how to aggregate all these planning documents to develop an action plan of what to actually do and implement from these plans that hasn't already been implemented.

Okay.

So and that requires specialization of uh DOT uh personnel that uh the city of Rochester doesn't have it requires the specialized uh certification skills that don't there is there's yes, City Rochester has the skills, but there's not the capacity for those projects to be taking place now, like that planning effort.

There's not the capacity in staff to do that currently.

So this grant opportunity affords that extra capacity to actually conduct the work.

So is better if they come in with the First Perspective and the experience on working on working on some of these other plans in two roches.

And broad diverse expect uh perspective too.

Yeah, yeah.

Additionally, I'll add we're talking about documents that are hundreds upon hundreds of pages long.

Um so just like that's a that's a substantial amount of data to filter through as well.

I'm for the other thing to ask questions.

I think it sounds like great to bring some outside help to help you guys if you need it.

So yeah, I think all the questions I would support the slider showing support from us.

You guys would sir, you mentioned part of the implications here would be called it either consult from them, but also and like they would also have the means to uh excuse me to work towards some of these quick implement some of these quick um quick builds as well as that kind of the hopes here, if I'm understanding that or they may offer some guidance on how to actually implement them, but then City of Rochester would would actually do the implementation of public works, for example.

Okay, gotcha.

Okay, thank you.

Additionally, they help like collect surveys and um so they're engagement.

Yeah, they'll help assist with community engagement with that, which is a huge asset.

And they host the survey, the surveys open for the entire duration of whatever that implementation would be, and then they can collect the data and provide it back to us.

Okay.

How many years does this grant like how many years will help for?

It gives us, I think it's one full calendar year of May of 26.

Okay, when it's awarded.

I think I've got those dates right.

Okay.

And you can draft like a strong recommendation from us, and then we like sign it somehow.

Okay.

Thomas is signing, like would you just sign a name on it or like just say that we approved it?

It would go to Jesse as acting chair.

Okay.

Okay.

Your name on it.

And I'm, of course, happy to share uh an initial draft.

And you're welcome, of course, to take the time to edit, and I ask that it merely be completed and signed by our deadline, which could be exchanged if you're comfortable uh digitally over email.

Yeah, I guess I guess one thing that's important to ask on uh here would be yeah, you can exchange over email, but um first of all, the when the city of Rochester um sends this request, will it be sent by the city council to the DOC or it'll be sort of inofficial within the D within RPT?

It'd be staff.

Uh it would likely, I think my name's on it, the actual application.

City council did uh approve our pursuit of this uh grant.

They they approved applying for the grant.

Well, I thought we were supposed to send like if we were to approve it, then we would send it to the city council and they would approve it then.

So city council has already provided their their vote of approval.

Um important part I should have included, yeah.

Yeah, and like we are we are providing a letter of support.

One doesn't circumvent the other.

Yes.

Um, but the way that uh Rochester Council in Rochester City runs is um before a grant is applied for, uh, we have to get uh approval for that just so that they're aware of funds that we're pursuing because it's important to also recognize that grants have matches.

Um and so if we're applying for a grant, we would be on the hook for a portion of that funding as well.

Yeah, of course.

I just thought that I thought that we were to give our uh advisory if you will by that letter and then the council would vote on it rather than the other way around.

Yeah, going to council next week.

No, next week is studying session.

Okay, next two least.

Yeah, I got the dates wrong.

It was the last council.

You would say that it had supposed that just initiates it.

We can like counsel now, they can't afford the initiative.

We can we're doing I'm having a similar presentation with PBAC on Monday.

Um since council gave us screen light to it was the it was the council meeting before the deadline for the grant, that's why we see had that happening.

So just so I fully understand because it's written some grants myself.

The grant's being submitted whether we support it or not, but because it's related to transportation and then any additional documentation by concerned citizens with a value related to the grant, it's beneficial.

So it'd be it's going in no matter what, but because it's related to the services that we would like to be voting on.

I feel as though we could probably end discussion and move to a motion to vote on said item.

I don't know about you guys, but I'm not quite ready for that.

I feel really, but if you want to talk about it more, I think we can.

Jesse, we may ask why you don't feel ready for that.

Well, not a number of things.

One is um your presentation, T Row I've been given so far still um didn't say uh the the dollar amount that's being asked on the grant.

That's uh perhaps the biggest one in my mind, and secondarily, whether said dollar amount uh has all it is to be drawn from the current funding that the DOT has.

Um I believe for the um you know, uh up through uh I believe it's uh expires in early 2026 if I recall correctly, or if it's anticipated funding that the DOD will uh that the DOT will have based on the appropriations bill signed by the legislature this spring.

The funding is already been allocated.

They are granting the funds for 2026.

I do not know how long their grant program runs for with it before it gets re-upped.

Okay.

I don't know that.

So it all it would already be in the DOT treasury then, so to speak.

I don't know that.

I don't know that to answer that question, but I can get back to you on it.

I appreciate that.

And then how much is the grant on total that roster's asking for for the one year?

We off we are requesting a range, and it's an estimate based on other um similar plan aggregations.

I'm trying to find my number for you.

Don't want to misquote it.

I'm trying to get it right for you.

I think it's important to let's matt though takes that number.

Um, that like these this is a this is a rolling grant program, it happens annually.

Um, so these funds are not uh ones that I would be concerned about not having access to.

But that being said, we could still support it regardless, like, and if that funding were to fall through, that happens all the time in grant application.

So um it doesn't negate uh the support that you would provide uh towards the grant program, and then um secondarily transit the transit department is not paying like the the cost share of the grant.

So if that helps alleviate some of those concerns as well, the cost share when you need the other group the other side then it would be the the community development department, unless Matt I said that incorrectly.

No, it did not.

And it would be other perhaps even other organizations outside of the city that would be chipping in per se on on funding implementation of these this plan aggregation.

And the reason I couldn't find the amount is because I remember now it's it's that there is no uh there's an allocation pool of funds that they grant based on it's like seems like a need base, and we are we're not expected to request an amount.

We're expected to simply share a case for their support, and then they allocate consultant time up to a certain threshold of dollars.

And it's from what I've seen, it's estimated up to be a larger pool of one million dollars in consultant assistance statewide.

So that the statewide pool is one, and so whatever we would get presumed at least some fraction of that with it.

Right, and things like the letters of support um would weight our application higher.

And obviously, MAX and creditable application skills.

Yeah.

Sounds like a great resource to have for the city.

Thank you for writing that off.

Thank you.

Five minutes.

I don't want you to miss your diet day care.

Do we have any other questions or things I need clarification on sure?

You know, it's a big big thing to be thinking about, you know.

Well, the the money's there, and whichever the Minnesota community that wants to get it, everyone's submitting their grant requests, and we're just competing, and we're adding an extra element of support to the grant that's already going to be submitted by just saying we feel though it's a good decision.

So I mean, there's no monetary or worries or concerns that should be in any way impacting this as a committee.

What about the other half that comes from um uh I forgot the the name of the department?

No, that's just because that's their job.

So their operating budget is my understanding, will be covering all of the standard fees and costs associated with all the other parts of it.

So we're just getting we're requesting money to expand and improve community transportation, and all we're doing is saying, young hole, let's do it.

We're we're supporting you 100% as far as our trusted city employees to do the job.

Okay.

We have secured uh letters of support already from Rochester Public Schools and Olse County Public Health, as well as requested them from other organizations, partner organizations that have already communicated they will be submitting letters of support.

I think uh thank you for your time, unless anyone else had any other questions.

Or just fall to the original question or motion to sure support second it.

I'm so sorry, I we've got a phone call for some help.

I'm apologies, everyone.

Um, so discussion amongst ourselves.

Um thinks we should uh support, I suppose.

Um I'm just I'm just trying to think about some different things, especially because you know, if for some reason there's some angle to this, which I haven't seen, most of the time goes on you know who, right?

And I was trying to ask these questions for concerns of much of my concerns lately have been due to the uh strains on the budgets at every level that have happened in the last couple of years.

Um, from my knowledge, the counties had really tight budget, the states had budget constraining issues, the cities had trouble with those things, and so I was trying I was trying to figure out what what is already determined versus what is it, you know.

You get my sense.

Yeah, it's very different.

Like if something's like, oh yeah, the money's already being thrown out the window, catch it before it goes into the mud, versus ask for the money to be thrown out the window.

And it seems that we're in the case of the form.

So we also have the ability, if we were to get the grant, we don't have to accept it.

And so there are multiple fail-safes in in place um for that purpose.

However, this grant really covers the planning component and then those quick build aspects that would be on the city's hook.

So we would have the ability to determine what level of of costs would go into it at that stage as well.

Sure.

So I I don't want to um reduce the feelings that you're having right now.

However, uh, they are ones that have already been planned and thought for.

Um, and we have the ability to be considerate when if the grant comes to if we we are awarded the grant in May, we have the ability to not accept it if we didn't have the ability to pay for it very well.

And I suppose that specific details of uh certain things that would be implemented ultimately are that would be up to, for example, city council that the end additionally, I'll add that this was budgeted for.

Um budget just got approved.

So we are aware that of the council's aware of us applying for this, so like the that budgetary component is already public and and planned for.

All right.

Any other questions?

Okay.

All right.

Is there a moment?

Do you have a motion on the floor?

Oh, yeah, so what was the motion specifically?

Yes.

T he moved to um wrong recommendation for the grant.

Yeah, from the right letter of support from the CIS advisor in transit for the city of Rochester for its active transportation planning assistance application.

Is there's already been a wonderful vote?

My apologies.

Um all those in favor.

We have the unanimous vote and the motion passes.

Great.

And Matt will help draft up that letter.

You'll see if it's sent around, and then um we'll just make sure you have it by the 13th at noon.

May I coordinate that through the interview?

Yeah, thank you so much.

Well, if we should run the record stand for the sake of uh the public that the plan is that Matt will make the original draft with each member will independently, not together, because that would come as a meeting.

Um, review any minor edits, and then the myself is the acting chairman and will sign the end copy.

Perfect.

Thank you for the chair.

Thanks.

Thank you all for your days, Matt.

Yeah, five safe and dry.

Yeah.

Great.

So I think you're back to selection secretary.

Yes.

Moving to item five.

Well, I suppose it's uh item six now, selection of secretary, because in December the term of Tracy, if I recall correctly, expired, and she was our secretary, and uh we want to discuss whether it would be valuable to have one.

Um I've been informed by the staff that we're not required by regulating our statute to have a secretary on this committee.

The need for one is not as strong as it is for many other organizations, but if you would like to discuss the potential pros and cons of having a secretary, now the time to do so.

Um, otherwise we can always uh just label it indefinitely for some reason until someone.

You wouldn't have to do that.

Um, so what I would recommend doing is if anybody like we don't unless the the board feels different, we don't feel as if the secretary position is essential in your bylaws, don't require it.

Um so you could make a motion to um not fill the secretary position and then have second, and then you could discuss, and you can either vote that up or vote that down.

Rachel, would they have to make a vote to not have a secretary for this year or till a new member comes on?

Maybe someone else comes on and is interested in having that.

We'd be able to word the motion to say borrowing a nomination.

Yeah, we could do that.

Yeah, I'll make that the motion to suspend.

Yeah.

Okay.

So no one wants to declare I'm second the motion to uh decline secretary unless the board member nominates themselves or someone else.

Perfect.

Is it as any discussion?

Other reasoning anything.

I think we're okay.

You guys do a great job.

I think uh one reason why I was wondering about it is because well, one is that some people like to be able to have the opportunity to develop those skills.

Um, and then secondarily, um, there will be um well, the the more sometimes the I was thinking on the side, I was trying to imagine the point of view of the public.

Uh, when you have people on roles that have some kind of um representative component, it is you know, they would expect that all the aspects of that are done by those people, and so I didn't know if it would be important to the public for the way that the records are written down to be done by an appointed member as opposed to a staff.

Um not to get too much into the meta politics, if you will, but that was just a thought I had matters that much.

But I suppose if they care enough, they could uh they could find a way to write to us in the future.

Yeah, and they always find the meetings in time to talk.

Well, and in addition, like the council meetings, those minutes are done by city team.

So and we have we always have the item on the agenda to approve the minutes.

So we write the minutes.

If it's not what you thought would be in there, you wouldn't make a motion during these meetings to one-minute minutes.

So you have unfortunately you need to give your input to under minutes before the approved.

Okay, all right.

Any other discussion?

All those in favor of uh the motion not to have a secretary for the year 2026, barring some nomination by a member of himself or herself uh or someone else in the future, or the same for a future member.

Say aye.

I the motion passes unanimously.

And now we move to the item of the false service changes update and spring changes.

So for those who do not recall, we staff were going to present those in the previous committee, but we ran out of time.

I will be given this presentation sometime in August of last year.

If I think both of you were on here, but service changes are ready back for every chance of the agency and we do this for our PC twice a year to make changes to the system to respond to what our writership patterns are and how travel patterns are changing in general.

So last year in August, we came here to this committee to present on what our proposed changes are for.

And those changes were implemented in November of 2025 on the 23rd.

So I'll just give a brief overview of why we've made those changes.

Basically, the goals that we drive in the changes we made last year.

I'll talk about some of the main figures that are coming out of those changes, and then we look ahead into our spring changes that are being planned to take place this April.

So for last year, one of the main goals why we decided to initiate these changes were because our operating costs for our services were increasing.

So usually transit funding is from three main sources.

We have federal, we have the state, and we have a local match.

And our local march is coming from the first rider's pay to ride the bus.

They come from any advertisements we do on our buses.

And lastly, for many sponsorships we get.

For 202, 2024, and 2025, the state was taking care of 95% of our operated cost, and we were taking care of the 5%.

From this year, 2026, we will be taking care of 15% of that cost, and the state will be taking care of 85%.

That means that the cost we bear to operate our system is going up.

Our ridership over the years have declined.

In the past, we were doing about 2.3 million riders a year.

This year, our ridership will last year, that's forgive me, the 2025 and 2025.

But 2025, our ridership for the year was about 650,000.

So from 2 million to about 660,000.

Two million riders a year.

A year, yes.

In 2019, we had over 2 million riders a year.

Wow.

And now we are down to about 65,000.

Is there a statistic on what the numbers sort of adjusted would be when you account for the increases in mail carrier transportation, like the shuttle service on east and west lots.

Before I those, or at least one of them didn't exist in prior between 2019.

It's hard to really determine what some of those impacts on those numbers are because 2019 was over 2 million, 2020 was 800,000.

And so there were modifications made with both a worldwide pandemic and with the different available shuttle systems throughout the city.

And so we do know that they had impacts, but it's we can't um figures.

So we can't surmise that one of them had more of an impact.

Obviously, one of them probably did have more of an impact than another.

But both of them could potentially have an impact on our route.

So based on that, our trading cost is increasing.

Our fares have not gotten back to where they used to be.

So we are really bearing more costs than we would like to.

And generally in our system, there were some redundancies and some inefficiencies that could be worked on.

So that is one of the main goals that motivated these changes.

And also, I don't know how many of you ride transit on the regular, but sometime in last year you would have noticed that there were a few trips were missing here and there.

And that is because we didn't have enough operators to operate our system.

So again, we had, and this is a nationwide issue.

Many transit agencies are having driver shortages, so it's not even need to budget start.

But we felt that impact.

And that also reduced the overall customer experience.

So making these changes, right size on our system, making sure the number of drivers we need wouldn't be as much as we wouldn't be able to have.

All these changes were supposed to make our system better, improve general reliability, and make our customers feel better about our system.

Some of the changes made were some frequency changes on seven routes.

The 20 CD routes are evening and weekend routes.

So in the evenings, they were running every 30 minutes between 7 p.m.

and 10 p.m.

So we made that frequency every 60 minutes instead of every 30 minutes.

Rile 102 was also running every 30 minutes.

We make that frequency every 60 minutes.

We suspended four routes.

These routes really had overlaps with other routes.

So just reduce our duplication, we took those routes out and re aligned these other seven rounds to cover some of the areas that were lost from the suspended routes.

And we did a name change for two of our SPS routes by taking the X's out to 150x became 150, 550X became 550.

Basically, that was more of a technology and data issue based on how we put our numbers, the X's and letters, the letters and the figures were not matching up correctly.

So we just do the XSL to make that better.

After making these changes, we reduced our routes from 30 to 26 routes.

And the number of drivers we needed to operate our system moved from 43 to 37 routes, 37 drivers, sorry.

We are still in the process of collecting feedback and data from what has happened after these changes, but I have metrics here for September, October, and November.

And even though these changes happened in the later part of November, you would see that the number of mixed trips that is because we didn't have enough drivers with messing trips.

The number of mischiefs, September was 96, October was one third, November was 22.

So there was a big decrease in the number of mistrips we are seeing.

You would also notice that our ridership for November was a bit lower.

Generally in our system, November and December have the lowest ridership.

So this is not something out of the ordinary.

Our on-time performance, September was 69, October was 70, November was 73.

I will not completely actually do this increase in November to the service changes, but it's also show some trends of what is happening in the system in general.

Towards the middle of March, we would have a general year in review report of transit for 2025.

We'll bring that to you all, just so you see how transit performing the whole year.

But this these are the numbers I have for now with our December.

Once we made these changes aside, looking at the key metrics in terms of numbers, we also collect customer feedback on how people think these services are doing.

We have a few avenues where people could provide feedback.

We have our email address out there.

We have a comment box or comments section on our website where you could put in what's happening in the system and we respond back.

We have our dispatch phones where riders will call in to let dispatch know if there are any consents.

And the main concerns we are receiving are people asking for clarity on seven routes.

These are changes, it may change just the people's travel pattern.

So we have received calls and emails on when is this route running, what times or what changes are being made.

And we have also received a few requests for new stops, which we have granted.

And I just put in a comment from one of our riders on how they would aware on the respondent to some of the changes and some of the requests they had, just to show that these changes we know affects people's travel patterns.

And we are always willing and ready to listen and make adjustments as needed.

But next steps after these changes, we'll continue to monitor our key metrics that's our on-time performance, telling us how early and how on time our buses are to the stops.

We'll keep monitoring our ridership, our mis trips and any other metrics, such as customer complaints or customer feedback.

Our operator is transdev, it will keep coordinating with them.

We have our drivers out there.

Our drivers know a lot about what's happening in the system, so they can give us feedback.

And we always take those.

We will continue with our communication efforts with our riders.

We have the C's communication team helping us reach out to riders, have a few images, have data points that we give out to riders.

So we will continue with those communication efforts.

And we will keep planning for our service changes with the next one coming up this spring.

Are there any questions on what I've presented so far on the four service changes before I move on to the ideas we are having for the spring?

Do we do we have more in-depth data on the mistrips?

Is that mainly driven by the driver shortages and buses?

That's really the main driver of misstrips.

Okay.

We don't have enough drivers during the peak periods.

That's when we need most of our drivers.

Okay.

And I think in total, we have around 60 drivers.

And we have four or four, five to be, you know, vacation or six on any given day, but if that number of states that's typically that's when we see the missed trips.

And I will add, you know, just uh to advocate for the managers within our transit system, they all have CDLs.

And so when they do them call offs, they often go out and drive.

Okay.

And the um is the CDL the only sort certification or credential required to determine RBT driver?

Yes.

Okay.

Well, and the packs to background traffic and and all of those things, but the the in terms of like licensure, the CDLs required.

But we do have a training program in which we can train drivers.

So when we started having these mischrips, one thing our operator initiated was that even if you come in without a CDL, they will train you to obtain the CDL to be able to drive the buses.

Oh, so nice.

And has there been any consideration of like flexible breakdown of the position, so to speak, like if you can't obtain, like if you only get one applicant for a position of the whatever is like the let's say full-time uh CDL bus driver, but there are 20 people out there who'd be willing to do it for 10 hours a week.

Has there been discussion about part-time drivers?

Um within our system right now, and we have bracket drivers, so that they were actually brought in drivers from out of state during some of the high amounts of um shortages.

But um, kind of related to that, what we are looking at as well is some of our ZIPs or our periodsit vehicles require CDLs.

We're looking to reduce the amount of CDL vehicles required for zip that would potentially provide some additional drivers for the fixed route system.

Yeah, because I mean we're just trying to think about this because of a common thing among people closer to my age is a lot of them just have huge trouble just finding a job, and maybe there's a communication thing in the way where they think, oh, well, I can't do this because you have to go through all these certifications and things like that.

But if it were known to them that, like, hey, this could be full-time, this could be part-time, you you know, we can give you the training necessary for your CDL, then it might be you might have more demand for those positions.

What's the optimal number of drivers that you guys want to have?

When link is up and operational, we'll need uh over 90.

Is it 95?

It's 95.

Yeah, okay.

Are you guys actively trying to hire people right now and then people see with always, always um actively hiring and recruiting?

Um Sandra's about to go through some of the spring service changes that would require us to find additional drivers.

So we've already prepped those conversations with transdev and indicated that like we foresee the need for three additional, three to four additional drivers with some of our upcoming spring service changes.

And so as soon as we make those decisions, they'll start actively recruiting to fill those.

Do you guys want to help from us or can we help with that at all with like recruiting device?

If anybody likes to drive, I'll figure out that.

Yeah.

But um, just a promotion and awareness, I think is the number one thing.

Um, we're really big advocates for I mean, transigence is a pretty grassroots operation.

And um, I think it's the best way to advocate is just to talk about it.

Yeah.

I hope if there was some kind of there's a goal office where people know they can go because if it's just for things like linked in, people have become discouraged by all the ghost jobs and they might you know not even try.

How quick actually has job first.

We did a couple of the last year where at the RPT office they just have a bus out there so that people come in and talk to them and experience that.

And I'll make a point that RPC doesn't hire the drivers.

Transdev hires the drivers, so they're employees of transfer and not LPT.

That makes sense, okay.

But we support them, we have a job posting on our website as well for driver recruitment.

So we support them.

On the RPG basically.

Okay, makes sense.

I'll move on to the changes we we are planning on making in the spring.

We are still at a point where we still have some low efficiency, low valves that are not that efficient.

So those are general routes that are below eight orders per hour.

We have about 13 of our routes that have burdens of eight below eight buttons per hour.

So we will be targeting those routes and seeing how we can build some efficiencies, either by making them out shorter, by re-aligning them, or however we can combine routes to make those routes work better.

Do you want to cover what the standard is the FTAC, really?

So the FTE standard, or we usually we are usually looking at agencies in Minnesota.

So those are PPS, and we just look up what the Ridership and the ridership patterns are to set benchmarks for ourselves.

And most of these agencies are doing 11 burdens per hour.

So the numbers are be high.

But overall, for our PC routes, our average burdens for all our routes is eight orders per hour.

So we are looking at anything that is above that average as doing somewhat well, and anything below that eight boardings per hour as not performing as great.

So those are the ones we will be targeting.

Also, we have a few high performing routes, 150 and 58 are express routes that say about parking rides.

We have how many we have to be packet rides, the fair grounds, the non-broadway packet by in the 75th Street.

And we have these two routes that serve those.

And we have Route 41, which is a regular neighborhood routes that serves the IBM companies, and that's where the biggest chunk of ridership comes from.

So these three are highest ridership routes, but we also want to look into how to make these routes work better.

If a route does well, it means that there's actually some demand for high ridership in that area.

So do we increase the frequencies for maybe 30 minutes or every 15 minutes?

Or we're also looking at ways in which we can make our high performing routes work way better.

So those are some of the considerations we are making in the planning phase.

We also have a lot of routes that are loops.

So the loop routes sort of move in one direction and they do not come back in the same direction.

And based on our data and performance of our routes, we have seen that most of our bi-directional routes do better than our loop routes.

And the loop plus are generally very difficult for the riders to understand because you can only get the bus on one side of the street.

The bug doesn't come back on the same side of the street.

So we are looking at converting some of our loop routes into bi-directional routes where the bus is road that way and come back the same way.

So people come board in both directions.

And lastly, we have really low demand on holidays.

We have about 150 people boarding, and we have six routes of credit in every hour on holidays.

So that tells us there's really low demand because our regular weekday boarding is about roughly 3,000.

And for these holidays, we have 150 boardings.

We evaluated options on how we can reduce demand or remove holiday service totally from our system.

We're also looking at how we can improve of our efficiencies by reducing service on weekends.

So holidays and weekends might have some changes.

We are still in the process of finalizing what those changes will look like.

We are still in January and these planning ideas are still in the early phases.

Once we have these plans or the draft plans finalized, we will come back here to present those to you to get your feedback on what those changes are before we take it out to the public for general public engagement.

But if you have any ideas or thoughts based on what I presented so far that you want to share, that we should consider in the planning basis we have a things about us.

Okay.

A big hot topic right now is how can we use technology to kind of interface and get some more just in-depth data.

Is that something that you guys are kind of concurrently doing or looking at is as far as we love data.

Okay, yeah.

So yeah, because that that was just my thoughts, like um just more advanced data, and maybe how to you know go about that.

I I was just, I didn't know if I'm sure the staff's aware of just so we have our calibre that's uh that's what gives us ridership counts.

So once anybody's boarding the bus, we get data.

That's how we get to know which report board in the bus.

It also tells us when a bus is getting to the stop on time, when a wheelchair is being spot in the bus.

It gives us a lot of data.

We have cameras in the buses that we can view if there are complaints, we can go back to these videos to see, oh, how did the driver relate to this rider?

We get a lot of data from that.

We also have our apps, our trip planning tool, which is a real-time data update to so once I'm here, I have my location turned on.

It can let me know when the next bus is going to get to the stop I'm at just to help people plan more around that.

And we are currently looking into how to integrate fair payments into our trip planning tool.

Currently, we have two different apps for those purposes.

But we want to have one app you can use to plan your trips, you can use it to pay fares as well.

So we have a lot of technology available for us to use, and we are always looking at ways to make it better.

Sure.

Okay.

Because I had just thinking of my own driveover here, like when we optimize our network, we'll look at where drivers are domiciled and we'll kind of build off of that.

I was thinking, you know, if some of the riders are using our app and they're putting in like their home addresses.

I guess is where I don't want an invasion of privacy.

That's probably the only data we don't have.

We don't have the ability to for our fixed route system to say this is a unique rider following us route system.

Gotcha.

So like we have to be really careful, and like you'll probably we say boarding, so we say rides.

Um, because we don't know if that's a rider.

We don't know if that's an end that's an actual like same person.

Yeah.

Yeah, other data sources that trace identity, like street lights, uses mobile location and data to track where you're going to, like just to track your movement generally.

But that's not RPC data.

That's P5 data.

Well, and also we still don't know the person.

It's like it's like when you have your location turned on, it's pinging after that.

Okay.

So it's just tracking movement.

Um it's still pretty another.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah, well, is this, you know, RBT is not like looking at it.

No.

But yeah, safe.

Speaking of uh, hey, uh, do you remind me what's the maximum cost that to get on a route might be?

It's $2 for fixed route.

And if you were on our period transit service, it's three dollars.

Yeah.

Um, we have a reduced fare for uh senior citizens and students, persons with the and yeah, and um veterans, right, for free on the fixed route system.

And yeah, and um veterans, right, for free on the fixed route system.

And how long has it been?

Uh how long has it been two and three, respectively.

I don't know if we know that exact data.

Um, but if I could um probably forecast uh an additional question is like have we evaluated the opportunity to increase fares?

Um, which is like we've we've talked about it a lot internally.

If we did, we would be the highest cost um transit system in the state of Minnesota.

So um not um probably uh a feasible uh route.

We do have the opportunity to increase the the cost for our pair transit service, which is below um what most other uh cities have within the state.

Uh fixed route can be twice the amount.

I mean, sips can be twice the amount of our fixed route system.

So fixed route is two dollars, SIPs could be four.

Um but we we do charge three, and I think there's an error of importance on that as well.

We live in America City for Health and Mail Clinics, so we do uh recognize the importance of a paratransit service.

Um, but we have evaluated some of those things, but we definitely don't want to be the most expensive fixed route system within the state.

Sure, I was saying to like you know, nobody wants to make things expensive for other people, um, or at least nobody in this room.

Um the the reason why I was worried is because if it's not raised, then you know, deep inflation by by nature of the ad, the relative cost of it actually does go down, and therefore the money has to come from somewhere, and thus it we might by trying to be nice to people and not increasing the the fare, we might actually be putting more burden and strain on the taxpayers of Rochester.

Assuming that.

Right.

So just to be very clear, um, our the transit system is not funded by taxpayer dollars.

Our transit, well, direct taxpayer dollars.

So our transit system is funded through both FTA and min dot um grants and appropriations.

Um, and then those fill like FTAs filters through min dot and comes to us for both operation and capital um improvement projects.

So that's the purchase of vehicles, that's um like physical building upgrades, uh bus stop repairs, and then we are uh uh on the hook for local share.

Do we have that in the staff update?

The Monday presentation.

I don't think so.

So I'll cover this now.

We actually have a study session on Monday to cover this because what you're saying is very true.

Um right now uh we will be uh utilizing our reserves to um have a balanced budget in the year 2025, um which is not super atypical.

Um with a large capital purchase.

We we have six buses that will were um purchased or will be purchased, and so those funds have been already spent to purchase those buses.

Um however, because the the apportionment from the state typically in the past handful of years has been a 5% match on our end of things, we'll be going up to a 15% match.

So with the assumption of a $12 million um operating budget, uh we went from $600,000 a year match to $1.8 million a year match.

Wait, so it was that the state was providing 90%, or so it was not for us for I know 5%, it's now going down to 85%.

Correct.

So our local match has increased for local match, yes.

$600,000 to $1.8 million, assuming a $12 million operating budget, um, which is just a generalization.

Um that's not our natural number, that's just an assumption.

Um it's close.

It's close to what our our fixed route operational budget is, but um with the the potential addition of um more express routes or increasing frequency that would increase the cost of those routes, but that would along um come with additional ridership.

Um so we're looking at ways to increase riders.

Um it does add up pretty fast, and even 20 cents adds up pretty fast when you're looking at the amount of riders that we could potentially be reaching.

Um additionally, we can raise money through advertisements, so that's the wrapping of the buses or um benches or ads within our shelters, um, which are all typical revenue streams for transit uh authorities, transit groups.

Um you've seen rack buses probably anywhere you've been.

Um it's because it's a really great uh string of income, and so we're looking at ways to increase that as well.

Um, but another thing that we've done is cut some of our capital improvement projects.

So only purchasing essential vehicles in 2026 and 2027, um, and looking at ways that we can reduce other um capital projects that we have.

Okay, so it's it's more you got lots of different facets.

You've got opportunities to cut in other areas, you've got opportunities to grow in uh through advertisement and through tapping reserve and through the other matching.

You mentioned nonprofits earlier.

So it's not we clearly it's not just fair tickets.

That nonprofit, that was that we don't we don't receive any match from notes.

Okay, so in terms of a local match, it's not merely fair tickets and local taxes.

It's it's no local taxes, it's just fairs and advertisements.

Advertisement, okay.

Thanks for clarifying.

But if you want three o'clock, Monday, learn all about it.

As I mentioned, we'll come back here with what the trust changes are to get included with some of those.

I'll add like one thing that we do want to really push and normalize, and this is an opportunity to advocate as well.

Um, we really want to normalize service changes.

Um historically, like there's been a lot of surveying and a lot of input, and we still want those things, um, but we do intend that having service changes on a more frequent one basis, and so it would be feasible to constantly, hey, Mr.

What we're thinking about doing.

Um, it'll be more data driven.

Um, and then and the announcement of the changes, and if there are um objections, then we'd be able to make those modifications for their and for every service chain there is a required public engagement process.

So it wouldn't just be staff sitting behind the alcohol ideas and making decisions.

We still take into the public and yeah, feedback, incorporate those feedbacks before those changes are final.

So the public always has a chance to give us your feedback on the changes.

You are all considered part of that public engagement.

Right.

And the you said this the Monday three o'clock meeting is the word which it's the study session.

So it'll be in council chambers here at three o'clock on Monday.

And what's the the official title?

Oh, it's just city council study session, and that's for the spring service changes.

No, it's for transit sustainability.

Okay, thanks.

Can I ask one quick question?

I don't know if I'm allowed to ask this.

What percent of the year is budget is funded by grants versus ridership versus advertisement?

So um you can't tell it.

No, I can tell you, I can tell you that.

So right now, 95% of our operating budget is covered by grant funding.

Um, our capital improvement projects is 80%.

That's there's a different match on that.

So 20% of capital projects comes back to us um for payment on that, and five for like right well for 2025, so a week and a half ago, five percent um was on operating.

And then um we actually are projecting to be positive in our fair revenue and advertisement revenue.

Um, but we had uh some additional like our capital costs were higher because of the most of those buses.

And so I can't I right now couldn't tell you exactly, but our advertising, if it was a $600,000 match required from us on uh operation with assuming that number, we have about 150,000 comes from the advertisement on the buses.

So the rest of that um dollar amount is from uh fares.

Okay, so you guys aren't like freaking out about the three times increase.

Uh we would we I mean that's that's why um that's why the big shift with the fault service changes, but this is why we're um what I've like to call radical changes will be happening for the spring.

So some of our routes will experience probably more of a shakeup in what like you're not gonna be able to look at a route map right now and see these big beautiful loops um probably in the future.

They're not efficient, um, they take a lot of time.

And one of the like branded and most things, right?

Like time is money.

Um, and so we have to be really thoughtful on the amount of time that it takes for a driver to come from one uh what's our longest route?

68 minutes is our longest trip right now, 81 miles, um, which is substantial, right?

Um, and so and uh and all of that adds up, and so how can we make that more efficient and more timely and still serve the people that need to be served?

Um, but it we um are definitely in a in a belt tightening um time.

There are way to have the maybe it would make things too complicated.

There's their way to have the fare be say uh 220 for like uh a route that's like really far out and have it be like 190 for one that's really close.

No, I think that some of that's really good.

And so we are evaluating um what the cost of ruts will be, and um we'll definitely look into like we have started kind of conversations like that, so I don't think that's a misplaced comment.

Um, but we'll also look at that we'd have to hire like a consultant to do an official study.

So the cost wouldn't be safe in the end.

Well, I mean, that being said, I we would probably incorporate it in our TDP.

They usually look at that's a transit development plan, which we are hoping to push the timeline up on that to be able to start that process sooner.

Um, and so just speaking of dollars and speaking of um, you know, cost for that, the total cost we are estimating for that process is to be 300,000, but the grant would cover most of that.

So our portion of that would be 60,000.

Which feels a lot more attainable than 300.

Yeah, and it's it's it's really good that it doesn't seem like a like we how to put this.

You know, as a person who's not deep in the world, we think that the first thing they'd have to do is fight the the fair, but it's great to hear that that is not the person being considered.

Thanks.

That you're being created and exploring other ideas rather than doing you know, the most obvious form that people will not like the most.

And again, we want people to keep around in our system.

If it fails to increase the 2.5, trust me, minership will dip a bit.

So we have to consider how that impacts will be on our system as well before we just get up and ID by the same thing.

I I have to ask is there any implications here in the future that there would be dynamic fare pricing, depending on route locations.

Or is that ever been a theme within public transit?

I like New York did it, right?

Yeah.

Um I would say uh if anything in the city were to experience dynamic pricing, it would be the parking meters first.

Okay, yeah.

Um, but to to further that is not a conversation we've ever had.

Yeah.

Okay.

The next item we have is an update on zip runs with that as well.

So zips of our part transit system.

Z currently subcontracted by our contractor.

So our contract size trans them, and they subcontracts zip services to not a contractor called my C.

So they operate our project.

My C.

Yes, that's the name of the contractor.

And since my CD started operating our ZIPS part transit system, they have made a lot of good improvements.

You would see my CD's progress down here that shows numbers before my city came in and after they came in.

So ZIPS was traveling a bit before my city came in.

We had 12 staff.

My CD has been able to increase those drivers to 21.7.

They have increased it to 80.5.

And that overflow route, right?

So overflow is when we don't have enough drivers to cover our system, and we give the rights out to other services out there to be able to help us cover the rights we have.

It used to be 16.5% of our rights were transferred to overflow, and now it's 6.9.

We always try our best to bring our overflow rights as low as possible.

So generally, my CD has been doing well with our system.

But staffing with on time, with training our riders and training the staff properly and advice PR as well.

Another update that happened with ZIPS is we improved or made the ZIPS application better by requesting for more information and just making the application process easier for our writers because for ZIP, she would have to apply.

We have to confirm you really have a disability before your application is approved to write.

So we just made the application better as well.

And as Rachel mentioned, ZIFs might also experience some changes in the coming months or years where they might have an increase in fares from three to five.

We might also look at changes we could make to our zip service area because our zip service area must align to our fixual service area.

So if a change is made in the fixed route, we have to make a change in zip to align to that as well.

So anytime there's a service change, whatever the changes are whether in service fund in service area, we would have to apply the same change to zips.

So that might be coming up in a few months.

Is that like frequency changes or any route change or route change or service fund change?

So if services to be reduced from 6 a.m.

to 5 p.m., zips will have to align to the service fund.

Why does it have to be aligned the same way?

Because I would imagine people.

It's an FTA requirement.

Yeah.

So the zips is supposed to be running conjunction with the zip uh fixed route system for those that um have the inability due to their disability to ride.

Um and that can be physical or mentor.

So in May of this year, again, we'll have a general year and review transit report where you see numbers for both fixed rod and zips throughout 2025.

And once that is ready, we'll present that to you just to give what's happening in transit.

ZIPS application that's just the fill out and they send it to a position, or how does that work?

It's both.

Um sometimes the physician will fill it out and send it in, and sometimes the applicant does it themselves and then send.

I would say it's it's probably close to 5050.

Um so often um often what our um mobility coordinator does though is some you know, a physician is is used to to writing in a specific way, and so um probably a few sortion of his time is spent um calling somebody back.

And so, like for example, maybe the application says writing the fixed route bus gives me anxiety instead of saying I have anxiety, like diagnosing that.

So, like those can be interpreted two different ways.

Um, and so we just want to ensure um that we might help somebody fill out an application to ensure that if they are eligible that they qualify.

Okay.

Are they time limited like for integrity disabilities?

Yeah, we can we can time them um based on the application, they can be for a month, six months a year, or they can be um kind of indefinitely small through like this one to be a and then you have to go through the process to get the poop.

Okay, so if I fell and broke my foot in angle and I wasn't able to use their gas pedal without endangering other drivers, then I would be uh I would be able to apply the zip service to use for like three months.

Potentially, it would depend on your access to a fixed route stop as well.

Let the record stand.

Yeah, we've already taken a pair of that item.

So we will move on to social media.

Yeah.

And I just see I know you brought this up at the last meeting, but I just wanted um to touch base on it again.

Uh it's not city policy to have boards or commissions have their own social media page.

And I will daylight that we are entertaining the uh closing of the RPT page, um, and trace the Facebook page and transitioning it for all information to come through the city of Rochester Facebook page.

If you're familiar with social media, and if that's a realm that you live in, you have to post pretty frequently and have a lot of engagement for those posts to even appear on your page if you're following it.

Um and so we would be able to shift and then you'd have that amount of posts and engagement on the city page, and so the transit post would be seen more regularly.

That sounds great.

We can always give feedback on patterns and stuff.

Oh, yeah.

And so, like a great example of that, and I know it wasn't it wasn't y'all, but um at the safety meeting at the beginning of winter for the drivers, um, they asked for um some information to be sent out to our our riders to like if they have reflective clothing, wear it at a stop, or if you have a phone, like make sure your phone is out so like there's a reflection there.

Yeah, because most people's winter jackets are dark.

Um, and so it was really easy to miss um individuals waiting at stops.

Um, and so we we created a frame signs, but also push up messaging based off of that feedback.

So we're always uh looking for opportunities to create content as well.

Isn't that an idea?

If you if you're you mean so that somebody had a stop, the driver knows there's a guy at the stop.

Um I mean again, this would cost money, so maybe not, but just came to mind the idea of like having attached to one of the bars of the thing, like a little a little a little chain with at the end of it a stick with one of those little more reflective things so that I can sort of wave at the driver.

I know that's a pretty low cost uh effort for what we've been looking into, which like a lot of uh some bus shelters in other cities um that also get dark at four o'clock.

Um, they have like a button and a light will turn on if they they um push the button.

Ah that requires electricity.

Most of our stations have electricity because they have meters.

Okay.

Yeah.

And I kind of think the idea of like you feel like an airport guy.

Yeah.

But the the um that's interesting.

So the idea of transferring it would be so that it shows up more people who are using feed base uh, you know, scrolling, but it would in my opinion make it more challenging for people who are doing who are doing it in a seeking out way.

Yeah, so we've we've actually evaluated that.

I think that's really good input.

Um, you know, we really want our transit users to use the transit app as their source of information, and then um something else that we've discussed, like internally and externally as well.

Like if you're visiting a city, um, you're probably more likely to go to their website um and download the app then go try to seek out a Facebook page for information.

Um, or uh in most situations, people just use Google uh to figure out bus stops and bus times and routes like that.

And so it just doesn't align with the staff time needed to maintain that page and the amount of um input that we get back from the community, especially since we're trying to push them to these other rods of information.

Sounds good to consolidate down to using the app using the website, yeah, fiscal media and focusing your guys' time where it can be the most initial.

Yeah.

Sounds good.

But would there be like how many clicks would they have to go through once they get to the website to find the you know the information they need, so to speak, like you know, yeah.

So it would like if you see our website, it's actually we have a friendly URL, it's RPT ride.com.

So uh zero clicks.

Unless you let you open it, there's an allowance in schedule, so you can click on the NFL to submissive the so they can.

And does it say when the website was last updated?

Because some people want to be like, oh, maybe it was updated like two years or something.

Well, maybe our new website provider will do that.

Um we're actually transitioning from our current website provider to a new one in April.

Um, but we do update the website pretty frequently.

Um, and we're working on like if there's a major um issue, making sure that's a banner notification on the website as well.

But transit is a button on the home page of the Rochester Mn.gov website.

And then Doug Dov, the city Rochester website is a there's like the image and then and then a little, and then there's little boxes and it's one of the the main buttons on the main page for me.

Okay, great.

And I was yeah, I was wondering a little bit of that because in my own personal usage.

I sometimes like both with Google Maps and Facebook, because things are dated, like a review on that or uh you know a post on Facebook, it's it gives people who are concerned about timing of an organization where schedules change a lot when they understand that.

If I'm going to visit um uh Puerto Rico and I want to see what time there's a service at the Cathedral of San Juan, if they have a Facebook page and they've been posting regularly, and then they say come to our Christmas service at this time, that'll be a lot more something that I'll feel confidence in than it's just some old thing on the website.

Right, and that's a really good point, and it works really well for places.

Um you go there recently, that's really specific.

So it's very specific, but also felt a little intrusive because I am going to San Juan next month.

Well, I guess I'm going to the cathedral now.

I I don't I don't think the public will care about me sharing all the details about the trip to San Juan.

So I'll put all the feedback back when we uh the meeting into closes.

10 minutes.

Okay, great.

I'm going.

Okay, so our RFP says a request for proposals for the operation of our transit system.

It has been released.

It was released um the Monday, no, the Friday before Christmas.

Um, and so that's been up.

We had our pre-bid mandate meeting on Tuesday, Tuesday of this week, and we had 12 um 12 potential bidders that show up to that 12 individual.

We have four five prospective companies, and some of them brought their subcontractors for their paratransit system as well.

Um that's five of the 12 bidders were companies per se.

There were five companies present.

Okay.

Um that are potential bidders on um on the RFP.

So our operations looks at all modes.

So it'll be our fixed route system, our paratransit system, and our upcoming link BRT system.

Um so we are really hopeful for that, but that bid will close or open is the technical term because uh in the uh yield days, you would literally open the envelopes.

Um so it's called bid opening, which feels counterintuitive, but that is um when the bids are uh fully submitted, and we then will review them.

We have a review panel of uh uh talented city uh teammates that will be looking over those evaluations, and then we'll have an interview um component as well.

Uh so the the highest scoring uh applicants will come in and provide an interview process.

Um I mean, we don't take this lightly.

This is a multi-million dollar annual contract, and so we want to ensure we have the best um company.

So trans def is allowed to rebid.

Um their current contract is a 10-year term, so they've reached the end of that term.

Okay.

And so the new RFT is for an initial five-year term with the option to extend up to 10 years.

Okay.

And 10 years ago, it was it RFP again or a different company.

Yeah, it was an RFP.

Or sorry, no, it was a trans dev again.

No, it was a um city line, uh, yeah, Rochester City Alliance was the company before.

Okay, interesting.

Wait, I thought wasn't there a company called First Transit?

First transit is transdev.

Oh, they just changed their name.

They um merged.

Oh, okay.

Which is pretty typical.

Interesting.

Yeah.

Is there anything that you use to help differentiate between these companies?

Yeah, so we have a pretty complex um scoring and rubric system.

And so it's but let's see if we can get all the categories.

I don't know.

It's um like uh HR and staffing is one component, maintenance.

Um so Transto provides the maintenance for a fleet, um, except for our paratransit vehicles that's performed in-house by the city's maintenance department, and we are looking at the perspective of bringing that in-house.

So it's um being kind of viewed as um a separate entity within the application.

Um then we have um operations, so they'll be um evaluated on their operations.

Value add um is part of it as well.

So obviously uh we are looking for an innovative firm that can provide um access to really interesting technology.

Um we have we provide remix the software that Sandra uses for transit planning, but that um but the uh paratransit side of things, they would provide their own software for that.

So we want to ensure that um they kind of have a finger on the pulse when it comes to the integration of technology.

Um I'm missing at least two, Sandra.

They're all equally important.

And so the then happened last Tuesday.

No, that was the we have a pre-bid meeting.

So the but the the it's open right now, and so they can they can submit a bid until uh February.

That's part actually, the transition plan is part of the evaluation process.

Oh, interesting.

Okay.

The buses stay with you guys.

The buses are the city people stay with you guys too.

Like the so there's an FTA um requirement um to retain certain like retain staff that you can retain.

Oh, okay.

Um, to the best of their abilities.

And so um that even includes us, it's anyone who's funded by FTA dollars.

They wouldn't have the ability to remove any city staff, but it does protect city staff in a situation like this as well.

Interesting, okay.

And in that case, there's a high chance of a lot of drivers up on this pay, it would be difficult for them to come on the thinking set up driver.

Right.

So that's uh that's kind of like uh a constant uh saying that they say thanks, Sandra, but it's you're not gonna be able to manifest 60 additional drivers.

Yeah, and so it's very highly likely um that they would retain there, and even like if if after consulting with the the current management, they decide to maintain maintaining the managers, that is up to the purview of um both the individual and the the firm.

Cool.

Yeah, transdev are are they uh since they merged, are they still based in Rochester or like they were never based in Rochester?

Um I believe their kind of main one of their main headquarters is Cincinnati.

Um, and I'll just jump ahead to transvive staff they they did hire um bringing in the ball, um, promoted their operations manager to general manager.

So right now the operations manager position is vacant, and so is the maintenance manager uh position as well.

And then link updates, I'll be really brief.

Um Second Street is currently open.

Uh, we're still on track for for Link to go into operation in the summer of 2027.

Um so and then the next kind of the next big impact you'll see for Link is uh closure of a portion of 14 um for um the utilities needed there.

So we're working really closely with Mayo to make sure that there's still ambulatory services available at the same area's that's the side uh that the ambulance comes in on.

Oh same years, so that's uh 14th Avenue Southwest.

Yeah.

Um and then they're working over the winter to dig the tunnel.

So that's what's going on for that.

And that's the pedestrian tunnel that connects underneath 2nd Street from one side of 2nd Street to the St.

Mary's campus.

So how will 2nd Street be open then?

It's open right now.

We just have partial lanes closed.

Ah so um and last on that is one of the things that we've implemented this year that's a little bit different from previous winters is pre-canned detour routes.

Um so we had three routes that were usually pretty severely impacted for um just going up hills, Northern Heights, um, Northern Hills, and Tang.

Teton um things.

I wanted to say tell you ride.

Um, and so what we did is we worked with TransDev and kind of created okay, we historically know these hills are bad.

Um, and if the bus can get up there, that's great, but if they have to stop to pick up somebody, they don't have the momentum to keep going up the hill.

Um, and so we implemented kind of um uh information for our riders that said if you're on one of these three routes, it was 102, 104, and 307.

Um, if you're on one of these three routes, just pay attention to the app.

Um, and if the detour is activated, you can still walk a handful of blocks down the hill um to get picked up.

So it's just kind of removing the loop of the hill.

Um, I think that's been pretty well received.

The first time the first implementation was a little rocky, as we've talked about, um, as Matt talked about in his presentation too.

Um, but I think people have picked up on it.

And these may happen.

Yeah.

It may not happen as well.

But we have our trip line, so that has the function you need to put up on lists and then by this getting some lens and specifications on the phone.

So if the weather is bad, so bad that we're fine, make the hail, the outlets goes out, and you'll be able to see before you make that trip.

So and the the few times we've implemented them, they've been open back open by AM.

So usually they're just like the early birds.

So great.

And the last thing is there um anything specific uh you guys would like to see on paper agendas.

So um obviously we can give an RFP update.

Um if that one would probably be better in March.

Um we'd be able to tell you how many bits that we received.

Um link or other project updates.

And so I know um Mike Collins used to be on the transit team, but he's now on the um construction team with the city.

He's a project manager.

He's working on the uh Sixth Avenue project.

He would love to come and to present to the uh CAT committee on the Sixth Avenue project, and obviously Matt would uh love to give some more in uh insight information about what he's doing with the city.

Um another thing that's on here is incidental usage, which is a really fancy way of saying creative ways that we can um collect revenue that's not advertising in bears.

Um and a good example of that is like uh potentially like leasing out on use of space to collect additional revenue um or in a park and ride lot in which there's not uh a lot of parkers, maybe we um uh rent out some of the spaces for truckers to park overnight and sleep.

You like that?

That's good.

So um just something to like noodle on on that.

We're we're open uh to ideas and opportunities.

FTA has a what I consider a really interesting idea, which is to like allow somebody to set up a coffee stand next to a park and ride location.

Um and so I think um there's lots of opportunities there too.

Frankly, the uh the truck ID, they could fly more than uh than trucks, depending on what I mean, because I live here, I don't know how much uh from experience, how much tourism the place gets, but sometimes if you're like an 18 to 23-year-old and you're visiting an area and you can't pay the exorbitant hotel rates, sometimes having a place where you can just like here here's $25.

I'm gonna park here and you know, use uh walk to the quick trip when I need to use a cat.

So um uh if any of those sound uh appropriate, we'd love to put them on, or if there are any other ideas for for the February um meeting, uh we would we would take those now as well.

Like to just talk about maybe some driver retention and just yeah, like that's an area where we could help out uh as a board is just trying to get some feedback from the driver.

You guys have feedback and would you like us to invite um trans dev?

Um that'd be great.

Yeah, driver retention.

Yeah.

I'm assuming is it driver pay the biggest thing that is the roadblock or I think we're in an interesting market.

Okay.

Um, you know, obviously we compete with any other agency that has lead CDL drivers.

Um, and so there are a lot around here.

And so uh, you know, grass can be greener in some situations, and so we do have some attrition drivers to the just competitors.

Okay, gotcha.

Is it appropriate to ask how much is paid for the full time version?

Um we could have trunks yeah, we don't um that's not an area in which we have any um control over because that's a contract between our um train step with the driver.

Okay.

Sounds like someone that's going to be discussed.

Oh, between them and the driver.

Okay, same.

Right.

So do they discuss average pay during bids or all?

I mean that um we don't discuss the the pay for the drivers and process.

Okay.

I think that would be factored if they make that rush to consider and turn.

Yeah, we charge a flat um hourly fee.

Um, so that's our revenue hour.

So like whenever a bus is in operation, so whenever the sign above it says something and not not in service, that's what our buildable time is.

And so they have to look at their entire system and figure out what that hour rate would be for them to be profitable.

paid in bids or all that um we don't discuss the the pay for the drivers and process okay i think that would be factored if they make that for us uh sitter and turf yeah we charge a flat um hourly fee um so that's our revenue hour so like whenever our bus is in operation so whenever the sign above it says something and not not in service that's what our our billionable time is and so they have to look at their entire system and figure out what that hour rate would be um for them to be profitable just one last question just for clarification our fleet for the unpair side we have bands as well we have we have some vans we have blazers we have cutaways okay um remembering I think that's it okay sure and then the cutaways are kind of industry standard when it comes to paratransit because it allows for more um appropriate uh wheelchair and um ADA access okay and a cutaway is just a vehicle with a modified chassis in case you're that's chassis it's like the undercarry so it's like it's the undercarriage of the car so it goes out takes well it's like it's a skeleton right it's a skeleton yeah so like it's like a you've cut away parts of the skeleton yeah is like like lengthwise you cut away no it's just like the inside is different yeah that's just but we tend to like it's a normal term and I know it's not I know sorry we could I was wondering about like the what are like those uh trucks from Japan that are like on the college and you know I was talking about like the ones the the ones that they have in I think they have a lot in uh Caribbean countries where they got big hill the narrow roads oh yeah that's your question uh this is I should do one that research but is there such thing as owner operators that cities have ever worked with as far as like paratransit um do we work with I guess a different like a third party organization ever or is that ever been on the so I mean technically right now like paratransit is subcontract of our contracts oh okay and that's pretty typical uh it's a specialized uh it's a special set of skills um to be able to to run the system like that it requires a lot of scheduling and coordination um because we we are we we're shooting for 2.8 pickups an hour um and Rochester's pretty big and so like you have to be able to say okay this driver's gonna grab this person this person this person because they're like in this and and they would sorry last question they would fall under the FTA regulations okay thank you sounds good oh uh does everyone okay with the the RF that's they being in March yes yes and uh along with drive retention we could also maybe talk about like drive recruitment although I guess it's more transferred but we can ask transit to prepare a presentation yeah yeah that's good yeah do we have to make a motion to do that or is that just a recommendation to do that that's a recommendation okay sounds good we bring all rights is there a motion to adjourn can I make comment yeah so for next week's next month's meeting we'll have makeup dates incident I usage most important attention that sounds like a I think remote shift isn't next month okay um because Matt is not available in February so it would be the income dates is the that all usage and the general attention does that sound okay good meeting and then that'll be at the February meeting for now all right um remember that once the meeting is adjourned we are not allowed to talk to each other about transit related items but we can talk about other subjects so um with that being said is there anything else that needs to be said prior to motion to adjourn so Matt is sending out an email to us with the letter and we're all going to say we approve it well if we have any concerns and we'll talk about it with him and you'll have a letter from us.

And it's supposed to be due by Monday by this this upcoming Monday okay.

Yeah remember we because you can communicate with them you can I can again like a hand but we can't communicate like when okay sounds good all right good to go and then motion to adjourn motion to adjourn.

Second any objections all those in favor?

Aye journal unanimously good job just remember five p.m.

So you you done