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Record of Proceedings

Rochester City Committee Meeting - June 25, 2026: Transit Report and Elton Hills Drive Discussion

Boards and CommissionsThursday, June 25, 2026
BodyRochester, Minnesota
SessionBoards and Commissions
DateThursday, June 25, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 58:31

Transcript — Verbatim
0:42

Just because we have only a set amount of time, 55 minutes from right now, uh, let's get started with the transit of the April transit report.

0:53

Do you want to call the maybe order?

0:55

We can't.

0:56

We don't have quorum.

0:59

So I would I I would love to, but right now we don't have forum.

1:04

So uh let's let's get the uh transit report and then we can uh if there are any questions we can move forward from there.

1:19

Sandra, are you ready?

1:21

Yeah tell me if you want to go back to the other and who didn't have report right.

2:03

So every month we provide you with a transit state of transit or transfer report and you would always get it two months backwards.

2:12

So we are in June and then the April report and July you get a Mayor report and that's how it goes.

2:17

And it's basically a state of our ridership, our effectiveness in terms of wild care are and our completed trips for both fish route and zips and our financial performance.

2:29

So I'll go over the fruit of our ridership from January to April, you would see we are our ridership is a bit higher than what they used to be last year.

2:39

So the green bars are for 2025 and the bluish is for 2026.

2:46

So we seem to be trending a bit outwards this year.

2:50

We did our service change in April that caused a few issues because we did some big changes where we moved a few routes from loop sub loop service to bidirectional.

3:00

So I would expect that our main ridership would be a bit low, but over time riders are beginning to understand the lead system and it should pick up over the next month.

3:10

Um you could also see that the ridership per year right on the right side for 2022.

3:20

We were over 900,000, 2023, 304 is been going down.

3:25

But looking at the trends for this year, we'd expect that we would be a bit higher than we were in 2025.

3:32

Complete our trips is basically how many trips we scheduled and how many we were able to complete.

3:37

In a month, we do about 12,000 trips.

3:40

So a completion rate of 99.97 is we missing about 120 trips in the month.

3:59

Providership pair are for clear agencies like Delou, Makeo, the average they have is 9.3.

4:09

For the month of April was 6.5.

4:11

Nowhere we want to be, but we are still working to make sure the number is a bit high.

4:16

And that's basically how many people are line in our system area.

4:19

Our target is somewhere around nine.

4:21

We are still on 645, but still that we higher than we were in 2025.

4:26

And our goal is is lofty, it's 14.

4:30

Yeah.

4:42

Is for any person who is unable to use our future service.

4:45

So any person with a disability or anybody who would not be able to use a regular system in referred to the flip service.

4:51

But our rich ridership for the month of April were around 4,333.

4:57

A bit lower than where we were in 2025.

5:02

But mobility coordinator demon has been working really hard with our stop contract on ICD to ensure that this number goes up and we are trending in the right direction.

5:14

Complete trips and on-time performance for ZIPs was a bit over was not a bit, it was actually over our target of 90%.

5:24

And our ridership it's also trending that they have ports whole bubble.

5:30

We tended to so last this year.

5:34

We are this month we are 2.03 agents as well on TV, and that's where we hope to be.

6:20

But we'll be at 6.5.

6:22

So we need a bit more.

6:24

Are there any surveys that ask like what people are reporting as barriers to riding?

6:33

Yeah.

6:33

So we do a survey every almost every service change we've done a survey, and that survey is usually well filled out with 400 to 3500 um completions of it.

6:45

So pretty good.

6:46

And the barriers are they they're they're known, and it's really points towards frequency more than anything.

6:54

We do have some conversations around um coverage, but that doesn't seem to align with the majority of those that are filling out the survey data.

7:01

Okay.

7:02

So the people who are filling out the survey, the people that already utilize the service, correct?

7:09

Yeah, so we asked that question if they're a current writer or not a current writer.

7:14

And so we get a little bit of both.

7:15

The majority are current writers of the system and how they would utilize it more.

7:21

Um we'll have another survey going out next month um to cover the next kind of six months of potential service changes that we have throughout the system, but those are constant questions that we ask.

7:34

How did those go out?

7:35

I've probably filled the survey out.

7:38

Um yeah, so the push-up to anybody who's already signed up uh through the the city service or service, okay um receives the email, but also we do um social media posts that we sponsor, um, and we do a notification through the app.

7:56

And I would say aside the data we have shaped in our service changes, we use a lot of the responses we get for the surveys to put out to inform our service changes.

8:05

So the next change is coming up in fall, sometime October, November this year.

8:09

And we would have surveyed this early because it's been a month since we did our latest change.

8:14

So we want to see how this change is working, and whatever results we get would inform the changes we did in the fall.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Transportation Safety█████████████████████████████████████████████63%
Active Transportation████████████████23%
Engineering And Infrastructure████6%
Public Engagement████5%
Public Safety2%
Disability Rights1%
Summary of Proceedings

Rochester City Committee Meeting - June 25, 2026: Transit Report and Elton Hills Drive Discussion

On June 25, 2026, the committee met to discuss the April transit report and the proposed reconfiguration of Elton Hills Drive. The meeting lacked a quorum, so no formal votes were taken, but members engaged in detailed discussion and planned to make a recommendation at the July meeting.

Discussion Items

  • April Transit Report (Sandra, Transit Team): The report covered ridership trends, completion rates, and on-time performance for fixed-route and ZIP services. Ridership in January–April 2026 was slightly higher than 2025, but a service change on April 23 caused initial confusion and decreased ridership on routes shifted from loop to bidirectional service. The completion rate was 99.97% (missing about 120 of 12,000 trips). Boardings per revenue hour (productivity) were 6.5 in April, below the target of 9, but higher than 2025. The target is 14. For ZIPs (paratransit), ridership was 4,333, lower than 2025, but on-time performance exceeded the 90% target. Barriers to ridership, identified through surveys, pointed primarily to frequency. Transit staff implemented a reblocking (rescheduling) in early June, improving on-time performance by 20% for weekday service. Deadheading increased due to construction, causing early morning delays. The committee discussed the shift of a route from bidirectional to loop on Route 1, noting community dissatisfaction. Staff emphasized that route changes are based on ridership data and resource allocation. A new survey will inform fall service changes.

  • Elton Hills Drive Corridor Project (Sam, City Traffic Engineer): The project is a mill and overlay pavement preservation, with a goal to improve safety and align with planning documents. The corridor has been studied since 2012, with previous council rejections. A 2022 active transportation plan identified it as a top-10 near-term gap. Six cross-section options were presented: three four-lane configurations (with and without bike lanes, bumps, etc.) and three three-lane configurations (with center turn lane, parking on both sides, one side, or a two-way cycle track). Sam noted that four-lane undivided roads are no longer designed, and three lanes would meet traffic service standards. Parking is underutilized but residents need it due to single-car garages. A two-way cycle track on the north side was a new option. The traffic signal at West River Parkway will be replaced as part of the project. A neighborhood meeting on May 20 yielded split survey results: some wanted to keep the road as is, others supported a three-lane conversion, and many supported a center turn lane. The committee discussed transit impacts: less parking is more transit-friendly; bike lanes on both sides are easier for buses to pull over, while a two-way cycle track may require design adjustments at bus stops. Staff recommended either a three-lane option with bike lanes on both sides or a two-way cycle track. The project will go to City Council for a study session on June 22 and a vote on July 20. The committee planned to discuss a formal recommendation at its July meeting.

Key Outcomes

  • No formal votes were taken due to lack of quorum.
  • The committee will consider a recommendation on Elton Hills Drive at its July 2026 meeting, after the City Council study session and vote.
  • Transit staff will continue monitoring ridership trends and implement service changes in fall 2026 based on survey results.
  • The committee acknowledged the rapid reblocking effort (four-week turnaround) that improved on-time performance.

Meeting Transcript

Just because we have only a set amount of time, 55 minutes from right now, uh, let's get started with the transit of the April transit report. Do you want to call the maybe order? We can't. We don't have quorum. So I would I I would love to, but right now we don't have forum. So uh let's let's get the uh transit report and then we can uh if there are any questions we can move forward from there. Sandra, are you ready? Yeah tell me if you want to go back to the other and who didn't have report right. So every month we provide you with a transit state of transit or transfer report and you would always get it two months backwards. So we are in June and then the April report and July you get a Mayor report and that's how it goes. And it's basically a state of our ridership, our effectiveness in terms of wild care are and our completed trips for both fish route and zips and our financial performance. So I'll go over the fruit of our ridership from January to April, you would see we are our ridership is a bit higher than what they used to be last year. So the green bars are for 2025 and the bluish is for 2026. So we seem to be trending a bit outwards this year. We did our service change in April that caused a few issues because we did some big changes where we moved a few routes from loop sub loop service to bidirectional. So I would expect that our main ridership would be a bit low, but over time riders are beginning to understand the lead system and it should pick up over the next month. Um you could also see that the ridership per year right on the right side for 2022. We were over 900,000, 2023, 304 is been going down. But looking at the trends for this year, we'd expect that we would be a bit higher than we were in 2025. Complete our trips is basically how many trips we scheduled and how many we were able to complete. In a month, we do about 12,000 trips. So a completion rate of 99.97 is we missing about 120 trips in the month. Providership pair are for clear agencies like Delou, Makeo, the average they have is 9.3. For the month of April was 6.5. Nowhere we want to be, but we are still working to make sure the number is a bit high. And that's basically how many people are line in our system area. Our target is somewhere around nine. We are still on 645, but still that we higher than we were in 2025. And our goal is is lofty, it's 14. Yeah. Is for any person who is unable to use our future service. So any person with a disability or anybody who would not be able to use a regular system in referred to the flip service. But our rich ridership for the month of April were around 4,333. A bit lower than where we were in 2025. But mobility coordinator demon has been working really hard with our stop contract on ICD to ensure that this number goes up and we are trending in the right direction. Complete trips and on-time performance for ZIPs was a bit over was not a bit, it was actually over our target of 90%. And our ridership it's also trending that they have ports whole bubble. We tended to so last this year. We are this month we are 2.03 agents as well on TV, and that's where we hope to be. But we'll be at 6.5. So we need a bit more. Are there any surveys that ask like what people are reporting as barriers to riding? Yeah. So we do a survey every almost every service change we've done a survey, and that survey is usually well filled out with 400 to 3500 um completions of it. So pretty good. And the barriers are they they're they're known, and it's really points towards frequency more than anything. We do have some conversations around um coverage, but that doesn't seem to align with the majority of those that are filling out the survey data. Okay. So the people who are filling out the survey, the people that already utilize the service, correct? Yeah, so we asked that question if they're a current writer or not a current writer.

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