Second.

And movement seconded to call the order.

Unless there are any objections, we're going to call to order.

We will move to we need to do roll call.

Okay.

Soundra, do you have the list called up and you can just read it?

Yeah.

No pressure.

No pressure.

Here.

Kenneth.

Here.

Kristen.

Here.

Jennifer.

Here.

Jesse.

Kind of.

And Mike.

Here.

Perfect.

So next order of business is approval of the past minutes.

Do we have a motion to approve the past minutes?

I have a question.

Yes, ma'am.

So the last minutes were in May and we did not have quorums.

Or are those the ones we're approving or are we approving April's?

We're approving May's.

We didn't have quorum in June.

Oh, okay.

Right.

I moved to approve minutes from May.

House time.

There's a first and second.

Previously, I'm gonna ask a question.

Jesse, you had mentioned that there were some uh include Rudy's on uh May minutes.

Did you get those uh changed before their uh before what we have here?

I can open that up.

You had mentioned uh Jesse had mentioned that it was showing him as yes, we got that corrected.

Okay, that's all taken care of.

Okay.

Other than that, approval of the minutes has been moved and seconded.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

All those opposed.

We'll move on to uh open comment.

I don't think anybody is here to openly comment.

Uh we'll move on to reports.

So as usual, every month we give the transit reports and you get about data two months.

So we are in July and we are going over the May report.

And I usually update this a week before the meetings so you can go through review it and bring any questions you might have.

I'll just run to a few of the highlights.

So yeah, to date our ridership is at 283,310.

That puts us at around 40 percent of what ridership we had in 2025 with monthly ridership every year, every month this year we've been above where we were in 2025, with May being our lowest ridership month, and that was weekly impacted by our service changes.

So in April we did a service change where we increased frequency on a few routes, we consolidated a few other routes and lost coverage on some of the other areas.

And that change did impact us, but as every service change, people take time to adjust to it.

So the main the June numbers are looking much better than May, and we hope that people get adjusted and the ridership keeps going up.

On our complete trips, that's basically how many of the trips we scheduled every month were we able to complete.

We schedule around 12,000 trips every month, and our goal is to be able to complete 100% of that.

So far in 2026, we haven't reached that target yet.

The lowest we've had was in May, which was 99.228%, which basically is we missing around 80 of the 12,000 trips we have scheduled.

Not to say 80 trips is nothing.

Our goal is to complete 100%, but sometimes driver shortages and a few other issues contribute to we not being able to complete all our trips.

But again, our goal is to complete 100% and via with help us achieve that.

And that's um, sorry, I did run the numbers on that.

And so we're trending at about a 10% increase in ridership this year comparatively to last year.

Um it's a little bit difficult when we're looking at May numbers and we're sitting in July, and so you're trying to conceptualize what that looks like at about a 10% increase.

Ridership is a metric we use to assess our effectiveness.

So that's basically how many rides did we provide every service hour we scheduled.

Um for IPA agencies like Mencato, Duluth, the average is around 9.3, and we hope to get there as well.

But May, we stand at 6.5.

The lowest for the year has been 6.4, and the highest has been 6.6.

We hope this trends higher with all the changes we are making in our system.

Mayor ridership is 54% of our total ridership.

And we like to highlight this number because we do have a partnership with Mayo where male riders get on our buses, they just show their batch, and then we invoice mail at the end of every month and they pay us.

So that's a good partnership, and we like to highlight these.

I think it's also a really good reflection too of although 50%, around 50% of our ridership are male riders, around 50% are not.

Um, so and what we've noticed too is when ridership uptifts, it seems to be spread out over both margins.

And so we sit pretty close to 53, 54% for male ridership.

So whatever is boosting the entire system is boosting both parties.

For ZIPSIFS is our power transit service for persons with a disability who are not able to use our regular fixture system.

Yeah, today we spend a 20,487.

You would see from these bar shots that every month this year we've been a bit lower than where we were last year.

We did get a new subcontractor sometime last year, and they've done a really good job by helping us get our service intact and helping us grow our ridership.

So we hope these numbers grow as well.

Zips on time percentage, that's basically what did we get there when we said we're going to get there for a trip.

The target for zips is 90%.

And aside January, February, March, April, May, ZIPS has been over that target of 90%, which is really exciting to see.

For ridership per R for zips, again, it's been a bit lower than where it was last year, but we hope these trends continue to go up with better service.

The rest of the pages mainly highlight our financial situation.

I'll just highlight here that obviously most of our expenses come with come from what we pay our contractor.

So that's the contract.

Our revenue is mainly from the state.

Um, so fair revenue per ride.

A ride in our system is $2, but fair revenue is 1.39.

We do have a few reduced passes.

So if you are a senior or we get to ride for a dollar instead of two.

So all that sort of reduces how much we get per ride.

So you might think we pay, we take $2 per ride, but really what we are really assessing is 1.39 per ride.

And I have a question, yes.

So if you scroll up in that uh non-grant revenue earned that mayo sponsorship, that's 11%.

Is that in addition to what they're paying for the mayor ridership, or is that including what they're paying for the male riders?

Oh in this pie chart, yes.

And we're looking at right here, mayo sponsorship.

Yeah, so that's just the way that we we put that into our accounting.

It's but that would be the mayo fares.

Um, but additionally, uh Mayo pays for the leasing of our parking ride lots as well.

Um, so like the the North Broadway parking ride at the theater, Mayo pays for that lease.

Um, so that would fall under that bucket of money too.

Okay.

Yeah, because I guess the reason I'm asking is because if male ridership is half, but their contribution, including those fares, which should cover half of it is only 11%, then we're seeing some, it would seem to me uh uneven preference, like the more thing.

Yeah, maybe it pays more per ride than our traditional rider does.

So that would most of their fares fall under that bucket, but there are some things that are separate that fall under the Oh, so the male fares are in the yellow part of the fairs.

Oh, okay, that was my question.

All right, we got you.

Okay, so the rest of the pages just go over what our capital and operating expense.

Jesse, I see your hands up.

Yes, I just wanted to clarify.

Um, on some of the past couple of slides, we've had um the same sort of dark teal color used for the little, like for example, percent male ridership or this 573,000 number, the same color used as one of the colors on the pie chart or the bar graph, for example.

If it's I don't know, I I don't want to cause too much work for you, but do I understand correctly that it has nothing to do with the pie chart itself?

It would for I think what he's saying is from a data visualization perspective, if the same colors are consistently used for the same things, it would be a lot easier to chart meeting across meaning across multiple charts.

So like on any given slide, if two different things have the same dark teal color, my mind's going to think they're talking about the same thing.

Yeah, yeah, he's got a point.

Are you those choices because of uh visualization?

Like I'm saying being uh being cognizant of what is and what is easily not so people with uh visual issues have an easier time reading it.

Is it is that the reason we're using that teal, or can we use a different color uh throughout?

That would be my concern.

Because as a government entity, we need to be very concerned that that information is being visually represented correctly.

So if somebody with visual problems has the ability to see it.

Uh all of our all of our PDFs pass accessibility checkers.

So is that the reason we're reusing the teal?

I think we are just trying to much to the RPT color, they're just RPT colors.

Okay, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it's not that it's not paper deep, it's just a repeating colors.

Yeah, and there's not necessarily any correlation between your own keys, right?

Yeah, yeah.

So there's there's no there is, but when you're trying to compare information between two different charts, it would be helpful if there was some consistency and meaning with the colors across.

Yeah, I see, yeah, I understand uh the statement, but I would look at each page as its own individual report.

They are all generated separately and don't often have corporate, like they are correlated because they all fall within transit, but like this one specifically doesn't break out fair revenues, right?

And so this is just our grant revenues, and so that doesn't have the same data as the previous charts do.

Oh, we could take the feedback button and see what we can do something.

Didn't mean to cause a whole stir here, just wanted to make sure I was following things correctly.

So the mess of the pay through uh revenue uh expenses, how much of our copetal expenses we spend so far, what we spent it on, and if you want to bring in questions you have, I would be happy to answer those.

And that's everything I have on the report.

Any additional questions.

If not, we'll move on to order of agenda.

Uh comments uh well, excuse me.

We'll move on to old business.

Old business is the approval of Elton Hills Drive.

Do we want to open that to take action on it?

So we do have some here to answer any questions, and I also attached this sectional extensives you show with us just so we could refresh our menues before we make a code.

Do you want to introduce yourself so people know who we can talk to me to if they have questions?

Sure.

Sam Badzina, um, city traffic engineer.

Uh, did present on this topic last month.

Uh there was not a quorum, but we had some good discussion.

Um I didn't prepare anything for today.

I'm mostly here to document because I have to turn in my memo for or the July 20th City Council meeting where they will hopefully select one of these alternatives.

So if you have a preferred recommended alternative that you would like city council to be aware of, um hopefully today we can vote on that.

And if you have any questions, let me know.

Sam, what is the recommendation from city staff?

I understand that we can make whatever decision we want to make regardless.

Well, what is the recommendation of city staff?

Yeah, so we presented a study session last month also uh on the 22nd.

Um so we narrowed it down to uh represented two options.

So there was uh so the the middle option.

Well, that's not one of the ones that we presented, but um acting president wall at the time that day, um, asked to see a four-lane option come back.

So we will present the four lanes with uh curve extensions at intersections, it'd be that labeled as all three in the middle there, it's basically leaving the four-lane undivided.

Um I have a can you I have is can I like uh yeah the flirting question on that is for that curve extension that says seven foot wide parking and three to four feet for cycling?

Does that mean cyclists are gonna get doored every time they drive on those lane?

Like what does that actually mean?

Are separate lanes, or is it either one and the cyclists have to swerve around the cars if they're parked there?

That's not clear based on that.

Um so looking at that middle cross section there, um, where the parking lane would be seven feet wide, when you get closer to the intersection, we wouldn't have curb extensions, so there would not be parking directly at the intersection.

Can't park than 20 feet of a crosswalk anyway.

Um, but in that scenario, there's there is no bicycle facility with that option.

All right, so we're we're kicking the bikes off of that road with that option.

Well, they can legally still ride in the lane, they just want to have their own facility.

It's also legal in this neighborhood to write on the sidewalk.

Yeah, it's just really okay.

All right, I hear what you're saying.

Now I have a question about it as it relates to transit.

So buses, they would go in either you know, in the tent, probably in the outer lanes most of the time, right?

And then when they stop, are our bus stops normally on the corners, or are they more along out in the hills?

Um, I believe these are not directly at the corners, but uh we're also hoping to identify some bus loading pads along the curb.

So like along the curb cuts.

Um just like adjacent to the parking line.

So I wouldn't have to be somebody wouldn't have to go all the way down to the intersection to use that a less busy analysis analogous um bus loading and unloading zone would be like Broadway or Broadway is more busy, but it's also four lanes, both directions the buses tend to pull out where there's where there is parking, drop people off and then have to get back on.

I've also had to flag buses down who have been going down the middle aisle and have to like cut across.

Um so like from a bus strand perspective, this seems really unappealing to me.

Obviously, the intent is that you would like us to write a letter support for the decision that city staff who've done the studies and a wonderful presentation of stuff, but I feel as though because none of the plans specifically affect transit, and as this has been for 16 years pushed back and forth, the decision is likely will our impact will have very little impact on any of this decision making.

So for that, I'm just gonna put forward that I would suggest I would vote that we decline providing any letter of support solely based on the fact that this is not positively impact or negatively impact transit.

Some piece correct me or if I'm wrong, you're not asking them to choose that alternative.

They can choose any alternative they find suitable, right?

Right.

If there is a preferred alternative that you feel would best meet the needs of transit, um if you can identify that or explain why in a motion, I mean a memo, just a motion uh that I can convey to the council.

And I do just want to back up quick.

I talked about that one first because it was on the screen.

That is not the recommended alternative.

Um I think you have a few options here.

We don't have to stick to the one he presented.

But as far as the city engineers get this is a very well thought out, it's been at it for a long time, lots of different pushes to it.

So I think that I don't think any of us are in a position where we can give you any feedback that would enable a specific one to pick.

Because for me, I'm gonna say something no one else can like I'll say repaint the lines as it is from the feedback that I get.

And I know that that's not you'd said previously.

If you built that road now, you'd never have a road that looked like that.

So and I totally understand that there's a lot of different opinions, but uh but that's kind of where I would say just to vote against providing our or do we just record and say, look, we have we have different opinions on the transit council?

I mean, I think that's also a legitimate thing to say that if we do not have unanimous agreement on the alternative that we prefer, so that's also document.

I will make a point that we don't have to have unanimous agreement.

Absolutely.

We only have to have majority agreement, and if it's majority agreement, that is the decision of the transit committee because of the nature of this specific group.

That being said, if we choose not to say anything, we can choose not to say anything.

Now Sam, is there one of these that from city staff perspective works well for transit, or is there you know, one of the things we had talked about previously is that with almost every alternative, there's not a clean way to uh set up transit.

It I'm curious what your thoughts are.

Um, I'll try to answer that by answering.

I'm gonna finish answering the first question that I got here, which is go through the other two alternatives that uh council will be considering, which is gonna be the top one and the bottom one.

So the top one, um three lanes parking on both sides, again, no bike facilities, and then the bottom one is three lanes parking on one side and a two-way cycle track uh with separated with a six-foot buffer.

So um we do have to bring forward like asking council to approve this one.

So I have to pick one, and it's probably gonna be the top one uh with no bike facilities.

So again, in that situation, a transit bus would be pulling over to the curb uh where we again would provide those loading pads.

The option with the cycle track on the bottom there, you know, the one side uh towards the left would be pretty easy again.

They're just pulling over to the curb and the parking lane.

The side of the cycle track might be a little bit trickier, uh, as there's a desire to have some sort of protection within that buffer, some sort of physical barrier.

Um so we would need to be more intentional about do we put a gap in the barrier and allow the bus to drive in the cycle track to reach the curb, or do we uh just leave a gap for people to walk across the cycle track and buffer space in order to reach the bus with the bus stopping in the lane?

So that one will be a little bit trickier to get it right.

But which one did you say that city staff is recommending?

The the one that we will, yeah, it'll be the top one that will be bringing for the request for action will be to approve the top one.

And then what would buses do when that just stop traffic?

Because like if the parking is occupied, then and then what's the transition?

The other thing is like for for cyclists, what's the transition onto the sidewalks?

Because in other parts of like Elton Hills is just one part of somebody's commute to work, and so if if we're trying to create like seamless so you can use bus and bike, okay, how are you going to get onto that sidewalk from the rest of your commute?

Is it is it possible to do so safely?

Because this you're gonna get killed, right?

You've got you've got parking, so you're gonna get doored.

Like it is absolutely not safe for cyclists.

So shove them onto the sidewalk where it's legal for them to be, but is the transition onto the sidewalk safe for them?

And then if a bus is letting people out, but there's parking, like they're blocking all traffic.

So I I don't I don't see that alternative as something that suits a lot of people, like ex drivers, but no one else, it would be how I would view that one.

Yeah, there's definitely going to be transitions on on either end of the corridor to get from what's existing out there today down to this and then back to the existing again.

Um as far as you know, the way it works at the cycle track, you know, we do have cycle tracks on North Broadway.

Um there's I can tell you there's gonna be more and more, especially through downtown.

Um East Center Street, we're building a cycle track out there as well.

So but those are all more raised, like behind the curb, protect it a little bit better.

Yeah, well, this is just no cyclists, right?

So shove them onto the sidewalk and forget about them.

But as long as there's a two, right?

Yeah, okay.

The top one, right?

Correct.

So uh, and I don't see how that serves the bus public either.

Well, this is pretty similar to we have nearly 800 bus stops, and a majority of our bus stops don't pull over.

Okay.

They're in in driving lanes, and so they stop within the driving lane, and and that's what the majority of our bus stops would would look like.

Um so this isn't like an obtuse like situation.

But there is also an ordinance, a city ordinance, or it might even be a statute, I'm not sure, but the no parking within so many feet of a bus stop or no parking at a bus stop.

But if there is a problematic area, especially if we construct a loading pad and people are always parking in front of it, but we can put up signs and actually formally restrict parking at that location.

So I mean, if there's if there's ways to like carve out how many bus stops are on Elton Hills, I guess I should have asked that first.

Two in each direction.

Okay.

And so the in the project area.

Yeah, yeah.

And they're clearly delineated.

So even if part, even if alternative two is adopted, there will still be separated sections for the buses to pull in and out, right?

That the parking is not allowed in those areas.

The bus will be able to pull over to those bus stops.

There certainly can be.

I mean, if it's problematic, we could put up signs.

I can tell you that they that's what they do today.

And then for the bottom one, which would be the other one, how would uh the bus?

So it would say the same on the left side down there.

Yep.

Right.

And then how would that work with the cyclist facility for the bus stop?

So again, that's something we'd have to be much more intentional about.

If the bus is not pulling over to the curb, but we have the bus stop, you know, mid-block, then we'll have to probably construct a curb ramp to allow people to get down to the street level and cross that facility and get to the bus.

Um the other option is they could stop in the lane.

Or well, that would be the same thing.

Um they could pull all the way over to the curb, it could have a gap in a barrier.

Um do we have traffic counts?

Because if the if I mean that would be this the best for the bus people.

Do we have traffic counts that shows okay?

We only get this many cyclists and we know what time of day it is, so it's not likely to conflict, then might not be an might not be a problem.

We did do a full traffic study and collected all that data and everything.

I'll say, you know, if we were to build something like this, ideally the the volume of cyclists would increase.

So I don't think we're we'd be building it based on today's volumes.

Okay.

Yeah, the expectation is that if you make out and hills significantly safer for bicyclists that you'll see more bicyclists.

Right.

That's a comment that I have heard a lot as well.

I would never ride my bike on outs.

And I I probably wouldn't either today, but if we create the safer facilities, and I think a lot of people would.

And and do we know the difference in because a lot of the opposition has come from drivers.

Do we know how much time?

Like, are they adding two minutes, 10 minutes, 20?

Like, what's the actual time of increased travel that a driver would have with altern with these different alternatives within the project area?

Well, right now there's a big speeding problem.

So our goal is to increase those travel times and get people to actually drive the speed limit.

Because it is classified as a residential road, right?

It it's the rook hog's future functional classification is a primary arterial.

So it is a higher level street, but it is very residential in nature and it has a 30 mile per hour speed limit.

Um so typically we look at the 85th percentile speed.

Uh so 85% of drivers are going 38 miles per hour or less.

Um, and that's that's higher than we would hope to see on a street like that.

So this speed limit is 30, right?

Right.

But still, we're not talking about 10 extra minutes, we're talking 20 to 30 seconds at most.

Okay, so other than speed, what is the other main uh driver concern?

That's your constituency, right?

That's you're mostly dealing with.

Yeah, I was gonna say the idea that there's residential homes both sides, if any one of these with the changes for parking, then because you can only park on one side, um, that's non-viable.

The concept of changes regarding the speed, amazing, but congestion.

Okay, and then the is the parking for the don't they have I guess aren't they parking in their own driveways?

This is a much older single car garage.

It's not designed for neighborhood to be.

Yeah, it was like if you drive on Elton Hills right now, the number of people that park on the street is substantial on both sides.

So that was one of the conversations we had last time was about parking and what impact that is going to have, which is why moving parking completely to one side is basically untenable, at least in my opinion.

But that's that was part of the conversation because yeah I mean if you if you drive it or bike on it right now the number of people that are parked on the street is significant.

Along the entire length or just a while part of it?

Oh well along a lot of it I wouldn't necessarily say the entire length but portions of the entire length you're gonna find pretty significant uh parking on the street depending on the time and day.

So not to end the discussion but we have 25 minutes more and we have another presentation.

So if we could this I'm gonna make it for does anybody have a recommendation for a specific alternative that they feel that we'd be most supportive of I do have some thoughts if the chairman will recognize yets yeah so you made some good points about the the parking I did send you an email earlier that I didn't get to send everybody but um one thing is I think many of these will fail if we don't address the crosswalk shortages especially any that does not have parking on the north side because many of the houses have short driveways imagine what happens at any Thanksgiving gathering or any graduation party if we don't have north side parking and we don't have good crosswalks like more of them.

Secondly I will say in terms of compromises many of the three lane ones look like good compromises on uh paper but there is a long-term danger of the two-way left turns uh as the roads become more congested over time a lot of people you know aren't as familiar with the nuances of the double way left turn and considering how many visitors we have in Rochester from you know other parts of the country other parts of the world um as a person who's been to many different countries myself I can imagine that people accustomed to different driving cultures will begin to see the empty middle lane as more of a free space as a sort of fast normal lane and with drivers coming from both directions I think that's a disaster waiting to happen and uh therefore it's not planning ahead and accounting for human nature to have infrastructure that is contingent on maintaining the current customs precisely as they are when we anticipate Rockstar becoming more cosmopolitan um therefore I'm concerned about any of the ones with the double lane personally I think the um four lane alt three while not perfect it does add a foot of space for those who park which does reduce the risks of accidents from people stepping into or out of cars or people passing by when car doors are being opened to the cyclist concern and um I do think this is also necessary because vehicle manufacturers are increasingly making their cars wider which personally I'm not a fan of but it's the reality okay being cognizant of the fact that we're running out of time and we have uh we have another presentation is there any motion uh for us on whether or not we're going to take a uh we're going to support one option or another and I will say you could also just go um to support a plan that supports transit there was a requested action uh supporting the project goals and then a second um recommending an option is for one and two on there but Rachel's point to make other motions too well just for the sake of fun i i make a motion the four lanes parking north and south is there a motion has been made is there a second seeing no second we will continue discussion I would motion to support the project goals and not put forth a recommendation so option one up there well those are those are two requests so I would motion to support request number one and not provide any kind of recommendation for option or for it number two specifically saying we're supporting the project goals through transit without anywhere okay second spend moved and seconded is there any other discussion seeing no discussion all in favor of supporting the project but not providing any specific support of a alternative please signify by saying aye aye all those opposed aye motion passes we will move on to new business all right well

All in favor of supporting the project, but not providing any specific support of a alternative.

Please signify by saying aye.

All those opposed?

Aye.

Motion passes.

We will move on to new business.

All right.

Well, I'll um I'll take that off.

Thank you, Sam.

Thank you.

Um, so Monday night, we brought forth to council a uh proposal to award uh our fiat for operations and maintenance to a new contractor.

Um currently our contractor is transdev and um effective and tasked by council on Monday was to have via transit uh become our new operator effective September 1st.

Um so I we have Justin here from the VIA team, um, and he'll be here through the transition process and uh and in kind of a uh face amongst our our local team.

So I'll hand off to Justin now for an introduction and to talk about via.

Thanks, Rachel.

Um it's great to meet all of you.

We're very excited to be here.

Um we were very excited to be earlier this week, excited to continue being here over the next several as we learn more and more about the network and kind of start the um integration process.

So for today, I just thought I'd voice over um a little bit about VIA so you can get to know us a little bit just as a company and kind of what what to expect um based on how some of our other services have kind of gone as well.

So we we're we're the leading provider of public mobility services.

We have over 750 partners globally.

We operate in 40 countries.

The vast majority of those um that we operate are here in North America.

Um, but we do have uh we are, you know, for all intents and purposes, a very cool company.

Um we've served millions and millions of rides.

We've done over 165 millions.

Um and we we work with large transit agencies, we work with small transit agencies and anyone and everyone in between as well.

So we have a very diverse group and of you know complex and more more straightforward services that we work with.

Um our core business is around building and operating custom and tech enabled transit systems.

Now, what does that mean?

Um we're we're first and foremost a transit tech company.

We like to take all of the power that data and AI and all of that um infrastructure that tech can bring and transform the communities that we operate in.

So we have best in class software.

Um we use that software to make the lives of our employees and make lives of our riders more um straightforward.

Um so we bring tools to the rider experience, we bring tools to the driver experience, the dispatcher experience, um, kind of throughout the entire organization, including maintenance.

Um and our focuses are generally around making sure that we run a very safe service.

Um, a very we always say delightful service.

You should have a delightful experience when you're working with us, you should have delightful experience while riding the bus and efficient as well.

And it's very important that whatever we're doing, you know, it'd be, I'm sure everyone would love, you know, to have five minute frequencies everywhere, but we do have a finite amount of budget.

And so we want to do this in as efficient a way as possible and make sure that we extend our network um to as many people as much as we possibly can.

We do that by remaining uh we do have dedicated community engagement as well, so that we make sure that we stay in touch with the community at events like this as well.

And so a lot of this is going to come together for the city of Rochester's kind of one unified transit solution across all of the modes that you've seen.

Um we directly operate transit services again, worldwide, but the majority of that is here in the US.

Um, some stats just about our services.

We're we're we have a 35% lower um accident rate versus the FTA average.

Um, so we do operate some very safe services.

We work with over 5,000 drivers globally um every month.

We're driving over six million miles, which is a lot.

And for our own internal ops team, you know, this isn't including drivers, but our whole team of who's running this, who's kind of doing the day today.

We have over 250 members of our operations team um across our company.

Um the operations that we run kind of extend to fixed route networks and entire transit networks, like here, like in Suit Paul, South Dakota.

Um, we have ADA paratransit, we run microtransit as well.

Um we also run services where we mix them all together.

So I'll talk a little bit about that as well.

Um we most recently um have worked with services similar to Rochester and in both Mobile, Alabama and in Sioux Falls, and we've we've gotten really great results since we've kind of worked with those cities in particular.

We have a few others, but these are these are two, I think that um kind of will will resonate with this team.

So in Mobile, um while this one's a little bit newer since we've taken over um within a few months, we had seen already a 20% increase in driver staffing levels.

Um this is something that we've been able to do.

We were able to recruit drivers, keep drivers, make sure our staffing in mobile um was much stronger than it had been going in.

Um so we closed some really critical driver shortages.

And so they were free to spend more time engaging with riders, making sure that um they're efficiently dispatching trips, spending more time with the frontline um staff on and with our riders to improve the rider experience.

Sioux Falls is uh is another one that we've recent recently taken over and done a little bit more extensive network redesign um work.

So since we've kind of worked with the Suitball South Dakota team um we gradually redesign the entire transit network we had months and months of gathering feedback gathering data um on the community to hear the pain points and a lot of it was oh I can't get there because the bus system doesn't cover there I'm not even covered by public transit so I can't access it.

I have no idea when the bus is showing up things like that.

And so over time we we definitely saw an opportunity to kind of merge and integrate all of our methods of transportation.

So there we actually um took coverage um in the city of Sioux Falls from 40% roughly of the city having access to public transit to 100% by making our fixed routes um more streamlined more frequent um and opening up um microtransit to the entire city with all the modes working together here and so as a result of that 100% of the city now had access to public transit um and the network there was access to about 7000 jobs in the new network we have access to about 124000 jobs within the system um with some more coming in we did this in a cost neutral way so since we've introduced this um since we've introduced this new network our ridership has gone up by 34% which is pretty hefty so we got a lot of people riding um our cost per ride a great measure of our you know efficiency of the total network has gone down by 18% there.

And so with all of this coming through um we plan on doing a lot of the similar opportunities here for Rochester I think first and foremost making sure that um we get to know the team get to know the drivers get to know the dispatchers get to know the community and learn about where the opportunities are and that's you know why I'm here today I'm definitely open for questions after I wrap up here in another minute or two but um our goal is to get to know the team get to know the opportunities um start implementing our technology as soon as possible in phases we don't want to implement everything at one time and overload everyone but we'll start seeing improvements I think pretty quickly here um after we're able to to take over the system in a few months so we've got some great stats that I went over today on some of the other services that we've uh worked with and I look forward to being able to you know in a few months hopefully go over some of those stats with all of you all as well.

So I I wanted to keep it brief here.

It's my first time kind of meeting you all so um wanted to see if there's any questions I can answer for you about via about our team about our plan here.

Or the transition process or the transition process.

That's actually what I know because we talked earlier this this week how how does your transition of drivers and and everything look since everybody has to be like oh and then rehired by you all what does that look like and how did how did how is that going for your expectations?

Yeah for right now it's going exactly as I'd expect it to um we're actually a little bit ahead of schedule because we've gotten mostly everyone's contact information already usually that takes a little while when you've got dozens and dozens of employees um so we're we're a little bit ahead of the curve there.

Our goal is to you know bring on as many people as that that want to as well um kind of from the front lines staff here.

And so for our goal next week is um we we've got their information we want to fill some of the gaps there answer any questions that people have um they'll have to go through a contingency process similar to um you would do for any job but our goal would be that you know one day they turn the lights off and they turn the lights on the next day and they're with the new company.

So that's kind of our goal.

Could I say on one day I said the only difference our ridership feel is on Monday she'll be wearing red shirt is then on blue shirts.

Yeah.

Exactly said it way better than I think.

Any additional questions real quick you mentioned microtransit is there a plan to have that return to Rochester.

I think for right and do I can answer that again so one of the things that we did is like we do definitely want to entertain um that bring back a microtransit and we'll be working with Dina to do our transit um development um development plan.

But one thing we did do is just build in microtransit into the existing contract.

So what we can do is when we decide to bring it back as a mode if we decide to bring it back into the mode we can just activate that portion of the contract and there's no revisions or discussing needed um including down to what the pricing of that mode would be.

So all of that is already baked into the existing contract.

So really um kudos to our procurement specialists for for having that in there it makes things a lot easier for I think everybody involved um but we do want to uh get through link before we consider bringing microtransmights so nice I'll just uh I'll just ask for extat it's we definitely do want to to entertain bringing it back um but we want to be thoughtful about it make sure it's it's successful and bringing down two modes at one time is not something we want to do.

Um, but we want to be thoughtful about it and make sure it's successful and bringing down two modes at one time is not something we want to do.

And right now it's um, and I don't know if this is uh something that just has to be it could include via or not.

So let me know if my question's not okay.

But um, are we looking at um right now it's very downtown focused?

Um, is there a way to add uh I guess uh destinations or adding an increased focus on um low-wage destinations, getting people from you know, low-income sections to the mall where there's like a high density of like high density low-income people to or housing to high density low-income workplaces, which are not served by the current um the current system or like you know, our like I guess what beltway.

We're too small for a real beltway, but you know what I mean, where you have people who live in one place who have work destinations that are currently not served um by transit because you'd have to go all the way in and all the way back out.

So one of the things we have to balance pretty often is is cost.

Yep.

Um, and so with our last server, I'll use our last service um change as an example.

Um, we do want to serve well um economic areas, we just need the ridership to support that.

Um, and and we've had to reduce some of our coverage because we've had only two rides a week.

Sure.

Um, and so there's always a balance, but one of the things that we've been doing over the past uh six months is um as new developments are coming up, um, we're working with them to encourage um courage ridership with their with their residents.

Um, and so really highlighting that and reducing their own shuttle service as well to help encourage individuals to utilize um RPC in lieu of uh one of their residential shuttles, but it is something that we'll be looking at, and that's what the whole purpose of the TDP is.

And so we're and that's a five-year master plan that is a forecasting guiding document um for transit um authorities.

And so we are at the end of our five years right now, so it's time for us to get that plan started, but it will be a portion that we'll look at.

Another thing I'll highlight is um our partnership with RPS, so which has indicated some really interesting and and positive ridership data.

Um we did a pilot program for the last three months of the school year, and we actually did June and July to support summer school programs.

Um and we had over a thousand student rides in May.

Um, but we also had just under 600 student rides in June, um, which is really interesting data to me because um it really shows a higher adoption, especially over the summer with a reduced, I mean, a greatly reduced level of ridership.

Um, and additionally to that, uh we we can decode the adult separately and our adult ridership increased um with the summer school program, which would tell me that the adult riders are actually staff.

Um and there's a higher adoption of that over um over the summer.

So some really interesting data coming out of our our partnership with RPS right now, too, um, which is to help service some of those lower socioeconomic areas.

Um, and additionally, what I think we should do and um in an upcoming CAT meeting is the city of Rochester actually has an economic mobility specialist.

And so her entire role is to help see where the city can help um kind of bridge the gaps between um like between individuals and resources to to help with economic mobility throughout their lives.

And so um we're we're working really in close partnership with Amanda right now.

She's our um economic mobility specialist, and um we've kind of determined that transit isn't necessarily a focus area, but more of um the overarching theme for all of the different focus areas that she'll be working on and how does transit tap in and tie into those things?

And so, how do we work with um nonprofit agencies to help provide reduced fare passes and things like that to encourage ridership?

Any additional questions.

I think um I think for right now, not quite yet, but probably the next uh the next meeting we have some questions for you guys.

So uh Via will likely have a pretty consistent brilliance at our CAT uh moving forward, but not always have a presentation, but here to ask um answer specific operating questions.

Okay, seeing nothing else, we'll move on to other business.

Is there any other business?

Just to say, so I got a new job for me.

Um, but it means that the second this timing of the second one every month is when we have a standing meeting at work.

So this timing is very difficult for for me to use going forward.

And I happen to be fetching my kid from college when you guys had the first meeting and discussed it.

Yeah Mike when we met at the end this week you mentioned that if you might want us to give a letter of support to the drivers or something like that.

I mean if you still have another thank you for for reminding me uh one of the things that I talked about in my meeting earlier this week was the fact that it would be good to have something that came from CAT that was just encouraging drivers to move to the new uh since they all have to be let go and then rehired move to the new system as uh rehired just the support that we we greatly appreciate everything that they've done for the system and we hope they will continue to stay uh with us it was a thought that I had it's not necessarily something that's required obviously you all are doing a great job uh kind of inviting everybody back but just a way for us as the uh cat to encourage people to stay wonderful idea even just a letter saying thank you that sounds very positive on mine to that I think I agree with the support part my one question would be I think we'd have to be careful with the wording to make sure that it doesn't look like we're trying to coerce any sort of hiring decision right in either way that would be the one thing but to issue a letter of support for the drivers that that part I'm okay with I just think we have to be careful with the wording yeah I would I would second that you know having gone through contract changes like that in the past I would it can be very personal decision right when you're at evaluating whether or not you want to go work for another company or do whatever and I wouldn't want to feel like I pressured someone into making a decision to go go somewhere else.

Absolutely do we want to uh direct staff to write kind of what we're we're talking about like a thank you and a we hope he'll join us without asking uh anything specific okay I don't know if there's a well there's certainly a better way to voice it then I well let's see if I try I'd like to move that city staff uh compose a letter uh an open letter to existing drivers in a hallmark card manner of thanking them for the year of service and time and all that they do for our community specific to transit we're not saying keep your job keep doing your job but just thank you for what you've done looking forward to the future unless I make a motion two times and nobody seconds me do too I'll second and person seconded all the uh is there any additional comments I think that's fine I'll write it okay I have no I have a public relations background so I can do it we have somebody who's volunteered already yeah okay I think Jesse had a comment of risking it as a farewell all of this all of the drivers are aware um actually they received a pretty um intensely worded letter called a warrant notice um that indicates that they will be terminated at the end of August and that is a standard federally and state required letter um but we've already had conversations with them that they are welcome to join the via team or move on um to other um other employment if they choose not to thank you for bringing that up Jesse that's actually what that thought was what prompted this original discussion is the fact that we want them to know that hey you're not fired yeah I mean they are they've already they are fired because they have it I weren't to get required yeah yeah but as long as the thank you letter I have no problem with I just like you said we're getting a professional to make sure the phrasing is appropriate it's not okay that's okay.

I would do a small amendment with the permission of the person who moved it to basically direct that everything goes to the cat committee for final approval before it goes out our second amendment you don't even need to second it I would just do it if you're willing to take that as part of your your motion I have a motion on the floor it's been moved and seconded all those in favor signify by saying aye aye those opposed all right motion approved we have well that was other business we have a motion to adjourn to adjourn okay that no I just have the question on like because what it means is that this yeah for my scheduling if we keep this time I will not be able to attend yeah can you do this time on other days of the week or other Fridays yeah probably actually it could be like third Friday or first Friday I think should be fine.

uh person who moved it to basically direct that everything goes to the cat committee for final approval before it goes out my second amendment you don't even need to second it okay i would just do a if you're willing to take that as part of your your motion i have a motion on the floor it's been moved and seconded all those in favor signify by saying aye aye those posed all right motion approved we have well that was other business we have a motion to adjourn that okay that no i just have another question on like because what it means is that this yeah for my scheduling if we keep this time i will not be able to attend yeah can you do this time on other days of the week or other fridays yeah probably actually it could be like third friday or first Friday I think should be fine I'll double check but it's just that yeah we have the consistent meetings then can we direct staff to just send a note out to all of us to have that conversation about whether or not we can have it on yeah we can have it on the Democenda and yeah did you say third Friday third Friday I just have to check it's like I'm it's like my fifth day of my new job so I'm still learning the scheduling so that's why I don't know it very well yet I appreciate you you bringing that up and we certainly want to do whatever we can to keep you in around so if staff could just send something out for us to have that discussion over email that would be great.

We can do that there's been a movement to adjourn is there a second second all those in favor of adjourning signify by saying aye aye all those opposed same sign thank you all thank you thank you thank you and we were a minute late try thank you Jesse thank you guys thanks that'll be the best letter you guys have ever seen oh so and through thank you all