John Tayer - RTD District O Director » Customer Service

Proposed 2012 Service Cuts and Fiscal Sustainability

John — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 22:32:05 +0000

RTD is in the midst of wrestling with budget challenges that are forcing the agency to consider a proposed $12 million in bus and rail service cuts. The initial menu of cuts that staff presented attempts to eliminate low performing routes and run periods while considering a variety of other factors, such as regional equity. The full staff proposal is available here: Proposed 2012 RTD Service Cuts.

You can read about my initial response to the proposed service cuts in the Denver Post coverage from a recent RTD Board meeting: “RTD staff backs bus, light-rail cuts to close budget deficit“. Fundamentally, as I said in the article, the service reduction proposal is the “most powerful rationale for making (RTD’s) revenue stream more sustainable.” That is why I spearheaded the effort to identify operating efficiencies and revenue enhancements through the Long Range Fiscal Sustainability Task Force. The Task Force recommendations (which are available here: Sustainability Task Force Report) provide a host of options that the RTD Board and staff are assessing for implementation over the course of the next few years.

In the meantime, as RTD confronts an immediate $12 million funding gap, service cuts and fare increases are the only two significant budget-balancing options. I have received a great deal of comments regarding the service cuts that RTD staff is proposing and share your concerns about protecting the Boulder area’s high performing local and regional routes. We must ensure that RTD truly is making the best use of its limited transit dollars, as I explained in a recent Daily Camera article: “Boulder fears ‘profound impact on transit’ — including Skip, Jump routes –from RTD cuts“.

In the coming weeks, I will be making the case for a more targeted focus on service optimization in the face of necessary service cuts. I also will work with my RTD Board colleagues to identify funding which will help us maintain the most possible service during these challenging economic times. Your continued input is appreciated during this analysis period.

Real-Time Bus Information . . . in Due Time

John — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 23:35:43 +0000

One of my priority customer services goals has been to offer real-time bus location and arrival time information to RTD patrons.

RTD once experimented with a software program that promised to provide this real-time information, Next Bus. The program was a failure, I hear, due to predictive software that estimated bus arrival times based on historic trends. Clearly, when traffic conditions upset bus travel speeds on a particular trip, reliance on historic trend data will give you the incorrect arrival time report.

My technology-savvy friends swear there must be a cheap and easy way to provide real-time bus location and arrival time information. They suggest, slightly tongue and cheek, that it would be as simple as strapping a smart phone to the bottom of each bus and making the location signal publicly available. While I don’t discount the potential for such simple solutions, and I share the frustration that is at the heart of these suggestions, no simple technology has emerged which RTD staff believes it can readily implement.

Providing some relief for my frustration regarding real-time bus information is the chance I had the other day to support moving forward with installation of a new Computer Aided Dispatch and Automatic Vehicle Location (CAD/AVL) system for RTD’s bus fleet. There are a number of reasons RTD is proceeding with this project, including federal mandates to meet narrower communication bandwidth standards. However, as a side benefit of this project, staff recognizes the opportunity its new CAD/AVL system offers for providing real-time bus location and arrival time information to its customers.

Having approved the contract for implementation of the CAD/AVL system, RTD staff expects to have the new equipment installed by the end of 2012. In the meantime, staff has assured me that they will begin planning for integrating the real-time bus information service. I will be monitoring progress in this area closely and will provide updates as we get deeper into the planning phases. At this point, though, I am glad that we are finally moving in the right direction on this important customer service program.

Additional Revenue Helps Preserve Service

John — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:24:21 +0000

I am pleased to report that, due to some unanticipated additional revenue for 2010, the RTD Board voted to preserve most of the service that was slated for cuts in January. This includes the initial proposal to reduce service frequencies along Route 205, Route 228, and the Stampede. The only remaining service efficiencies the Board approved were warranted due to low ridership rates.

I have been very clear, throughout this recent discussion of proposed service adjustments, that eliminating productive service should be among the last tools that RTD uses to balance its budget. As I said to my Board colleagues during last week’s committee discussion: “[Transit] service is our business. Let’s hold the line on service and keep doing the job that we are sent here to do.” I am pleased there was overwhelming majority support from my Board colleagues for keeping more transit service on the road.

You can read more about tonight’s decision following Daily Camera story: http://www.dailycamera.com/news/ci_13605938.

New iPhone Application for Bus Schedules

John — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 01:43:35 +0000

A local CU student, Zach Shapiro, has developed an iPhone application that lets you know when the next bus is scheduled to arrive. I met Zach at the recent hearings concering RTD service adjustments and was very impressed with this tool.

You read about this iPhone application, RTD Mobile Bus Times, in the Daily Camera, http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_13200485?IADID=Search-www.dailycamera.com-www.dailycamera.com#. Zach provides an update 0n the application on his own website: http://shutupinternet.com/post/213863559/rtd-mobile-bus-times-1-1. Check it out . . .

Proposed RTD Service Changes: Attention Route 205 Riders!

John — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:18:29 +0000

As some of you may have already heard, RTD is proposing significant changes for some bus routes in Boulder County. You can access information on all of the proposed changes at the following link: http://www.rtd-denver.com/ServiceChanges.shtml.

The Camera has done a very good job covering the discussions around these proposed service changes. You can access their stories at the following links:

http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_13475356?IADID=Search-www.dailycamera.com-www.dailycamera.com

http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_13494759?IADID=Search-www.dailycamera.com-www.dailycamera.com

As you can see from the coverage, the changes to Route 205 are the most significant and would have the most serious impacts to our local riders. I know that RTD staff and City of Boulder officials are discussing alternative adjustments in the Route 205 service which will preserve the 15 minute peak-hour frequencies. I am encouraging these efforts.

However, I am not certain where the final staff recommendation will land. I will try to keep this site up to date on the latest information, but please let me know if you have further input on the proposed service changes.

Bikes on Busses and Trains: RTD Activity Update

John — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 06:13:00 +0000

As many of us know, there are few things more frustrating then getting turned away from a bus or train because they can’t accomodate your bike. I heard a horror story from one friend who had this experience in the midst of a blinding snow storm.

It had been my goal to address this important customer service issue by working with RTD staff to increase the capacity of bikes on transit vehicles and to develop more sensible accomodation policies. After some sporadic efforts to tackle these issues in the face of rising demand for bike access to RTD’s transit vehicles, RTD staff recognized the need to take a more holistic approach.

The following is a summary of RTD efforts in this area and the dimensions of the challenge the agency is facing: Bikes on Transit Demand and Denver Union Station (DUS). For those of you who are interested in tracking this issue more closely and/or becoming involved with the Bicycle Advisory Group, please contact Genevieve Hutchison at 303-299-2054 or Genevieve.Hutchison@rtd-fastracks.com.

I will be monitoring the staff efforts closely, but please continue to let me know if you have recommendations for steps RTD can take to improve bike access on its transit vehicles.

My Opposition to the Route 201 Service Cuts

John — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 22:15:13 +0000

Many District O residents e-mailed me concerning the proposal to cut Route 201. Unfortunately, only one of my fellow Board members joined me in opposition to the final package of staff recommended service cuts. The Board approved the staff recommended package of service cuts that included the 201 while providing a reprieve for one route, the U, in the face of organized opposition at the Board meeting from residents in the 285 corridor.

The following is my statement, as recorded in the adopted minutes from the June Board meeting, in opposition to the final service cuts:

“I hate to be here in this position. At a time when public demand for transit has never been higher, it is a travesty that we are confronted with service cuts as the only option on the table for balancing the budget. Call it a paradox, a conundrum, whatever … it is a terrible disservice to our customers. We need to position RTD financially to meet rising service demands. This includes options for increasing RTD’s commitment to alternative fuel vehicles that wean us from reliance on fossil fuel costs and work to secure funding that is proportionate to our region’s transit need.

Having said that, I was prepared to support a universal position from the staff’s recommendation. However, given the chain of events that have occured here tonight, I must state that I will be voting against this recommendation.

I will argue that the route 201 citizens in my community wish that they were as organized as the US 285 citizens tonight. The number one criticism that they brought to me was the public notice was insufficient and came at the last minute and during a time when an adjustment in the school schedule.

201 has higher ridership on boarding per service vehicle hour than the U (17.3 versus 12.8). The savings on the 201 is $177K versus the U of $400K. I say this to argue that if the 201 folks were here, they would be placing just as compelling an argument as the folks from the U route.

For this reason, I will be voting against this recommended action and to ask that we re-consider all these cuts in light of all citizens who are affected by these service cuts to be able to come back with options for consideration.”

Not very artfully stated (or, maybe it was the tape recording ( : ). . . but that is why I opposed the Route 201 cuts.

As I noted in my recent Daily Camera piece, “Rising Above the Transit Paradox” (http://www.johntayer.org/2008/06/26/rising-above-the-transit-paradox/), it is appropriate for RTD to make adjustments in under-performing transit routes. But they should only take such steps after efforts have been made to increase ridership and the affected customers have received sufficient notice. Further, all proposed service cuts should be based on the objective analysis of RTD staff, not the whim of political pressure.

New Google-Based Trip Planner Service

John — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 04:30:21 +0000

Trip Planner is a web-based service that is designed to help RTD customers design the most efficient transit trip to their desired destination. Unfortunately, the old Trip Planner program had many weaknesses, directing customers along exceptionally long and convoluted routes. The problems appeared to be most acute when reaching the planned destination entailed a transfer between two transit routes.

Aside from my personal experience with the shortcomings of the old Trip Planner function, I also heard numerous complaints regarding the system from District O constituents. After hearing these complaints from me and other dissatisfied customers, and recognizing that the old Trip Planner program was beyond repair, RTD staff took a different tack. Working with Google, they developed a completely new program for the Trip Planner system. At first blush, this new Trip Planner program appears to provide much more accurate and efficient route information.

You can find the Trip Planner service on the RTD web site, www.rtd-denver.com. If you get a chance, please give the new system a test-drive and let me know how it performs for you. Staff is still working-out a few kinks and would appreciate receiving customer feedback, good and bad, during this initiation phase.

RTD Agenda Materials – Now on the Web!

John — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 04:42:02 +0000

Democracy is best practiced by an educated public.

One means of public education is ensuring that citizens have convenient access to the information that policy leaders employ in their deliberations. This includes access to staff policy memorandums and other supporting materials.

Having worked at he city of Boulder for six years, where all non-confidential materials that staff prepares for Council meetings and most advisory board meetings are posted on the public web site, I assumed this was the norm for most government entities. It turns-out that is not the case.

Until recently, it was the practice of RTD only to post its Board and committee meeting agendas on the public web site. This provided citizens with minimal notice of issues that the Board planned to discuss because the listed agenda topics often are couched in broad terms (e.g. ”Special Services Fare Update”). Without access to the supporting materials for each agenda item, citizen are often unaware of Board debate concerning matters that impact them, let alone insufficient opportunity for them to prepare their advocacy positions.

Fortunately, after enduring my appeals for more convenient public access to Board meeting materials, RTD staff has responded. A new link, “WIP Information & Financial Packets,” under the “Board of Directors” section of the RTD web site, www.rtd-denver.com, contains all of the preliminary agenda materials for each RTD Board meeting and Finance & Administration Committee meeting.

This web link is an important new convenience for citizens who are interested in tracking RTD Board business and a significant demonstration of RTD’s commitment to open government.

BOLT and J Routes: Additional Trips Saved

John — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 23:37:44 +0000

As I explained earlier, the federal grant that funded increased frequencies on the BOLT and J routes has expired. This loss of resources forced RTD staff to propose extensive cuts to these two bus services.

While it was impossible to preserve all of the tripsalong these routes in the face of low ridership statistics and competing priorities, we were successful in saving some additional trips for the August schedule change. Specifically, through a combined effort of Longmont, Boulder and Boulder County (with each jurisdiction chipping-in about $8,800 to match a similar contribution from RTD), RTD staff agreed to continue operating the following additional runs:

BOLT: 8:13 a.m. southbound and 4:23 p.m. northbound

J Route: 8:34 a.m. southbound and 3:02 northbound

I applaud the affected communities for their financial contributions and RTD staff for its open approach to negotiations over preserving trips along these important routes. We now have additional time to demonstrate the continued value of the BOLT and J routes. In the coming months, I will be working with RTD staff to ensure that we are promoting these two services effectively. Ultimately, it is my hope that additional exposure to these services will entice a rising number of commuters to leave their cars at home and, instead, enjoy the pleasures of a transit trip.

For a good summary of the BOLT and J Route status, check-out John Fryar’s story in The Daily Times-Call: http://www.timescall.com/Local-Story.asp?ID=2933.