City of Shawnee Transportation Task Force Minutes
February 12, 2015
9:00 a.m.
City Hall
Vicki called the meeting to order at 9:05 AM. Members present included: Vicki
Charlesworth, Stephen Powell, Teresa Wolken, Bill Daniels, Joyce Pisani, Rod
Houck, Shirley Douglas, Jim Courtney and Neil Holman.
1.
Approve Minutes from December 2, 2014 Meeting
Shirley/Joyce, moved/seconded to approve the minutes. The motion carried
unanimously.
2.
Ridership
a.
b.
c.
Review of rides
Report on Voucher Sales/Budget Projections
Update on New Card System
Vicki reported that we have moved almost exclusively to the card system and we
are working some bugs out. There are some rides that don't have drop-off/pickup addresses.
Teresa said she will go back to Ted Buffington at CabConnect to figure out why
the addresses are not pulling into the transactions if there are GPS coordinates.
Rod reported there was an address along Shawnee Mission Parkway as a
Frontage Road address.
Teresa said the frontage road along SMPKY says "Frontage Road" on Google
Maps.
Stephen provided an update on the buffer zones. We are working with our GIS
department and CabConnect to figure out what they need. We sent GIS files for
10 areas and there was some confusion on CabConnects side.
Rod reported on other addresses that were not correct. He gave specific
examples of where the GPS coordinates were in the middle of a road on a
highway ramp.
Teresa said that is caused because the driver tuns off/on the meter in the cab so
the rider can start the payment process. This expedites the off-boarding process.
Rod asked if it's possible to receive the ordered pick-up/drop-off location.
Teresa said she still has a report that shows that information. She stopped
sending it to the City once we went live with CabConnect. A lot of work has to go
into cleaning up the list to remove no-shows and clean up the data. Ideally the
drivers would turn-on/off the meter in the correct way so the data in CabConnect
is more accurate.
Shirley asked if the person's address could automatically pull in the rider's
address.
Teresa said that was a question for CabConnect. She also mentioned that the
last ping on the CabConnect is the GPS coordinate that is assigned.She wasn't
sure if it re-pings when the card is swiped. She said that would be a question for
CabConnect.
Rod said that 34% of trips are medical trips. He reported there was more activity
at Target and Kohl's this month. He reported 33% of riders are either being
picked up or taken to private residences. He reported riders in new apartment
complexes used the service that had not been seen before. Average ridership is
8 customers taking 6 rides each. He reported that 18% of the trips are from
Shawnee Mission Medical Center. He reported that 2% of rides are for dialysis
services. He reported there were two trips in/out of the new Overland Parks
Regional Shawnee ER.
Vicki said we will check with CabConnect to include additional riders in the
report.
Teresa said CabConnect may be able to modify the system. The backseat
system that the riders uses is called "Curb" and would have to interface with
CabConnect. She said the interface accepts data entry by the passenger (ie. tip
for driver) but she didn't know if additional information could be accepted. She
said there may be a cost for those changes, but wasn't sure.
Vicki and Stephen will have the GIS department do a map of the rides and have
a list of rides taken for the next meeting.
Teresa said the swiped coordinates are not always the destination the
destination. The two coordinates are "meter on" and "swiped." She said "meter
off" coordinates would be less accurate than "swiped" because the card swipe
has to happen after the meter is off.
Vicki asked if the group was ok with only having a polygon around a shopping
center rather than identifying specific stores.
Bill said some of our destinations provide some funding and other do not.
Rod said that Shawnee Station Apartments and Wal-Mart are across the street.
When you look at the coordinates it can be difficult to determine where the trip
originated/ended. Rod asked the task force what type of report they want. He
said this month's report took 26 hours.
Vicki said we will work with CabConnect to lessen the amount of work Rod has to
spend on the reports.
Rod said it took about 7-8 hours before we moved to CabConnect.
Shirley said it would be nice to have the information but not if it takes 26 hours.
Teresa said she has time to look into finding some solutions.
Vicki said it was important to know who is using the system and where they are
going.
Jim asked if what the task force was receiving before CabConnect was what they
needed then we need to determine how we can get CabConnect to produce the
same report.
Teresa said having a call with CabConnect some of these issue might be
resolved.
Vicki said we would involve our GIS department too.
Vicki reported that 6,048 vouchers were sold in 2014.
Stephen and Jim provided a brief update on the Mobility Advisory Committee.
Shawnee is now a member of the committee.
Jim described some of the components that are being looked at (travel training,
common fares, link for care database). He reported that a consultant has
identified various services that are in the area and what items can be done to
improve the services. He said the other part of the committee is to review
funding, prioritize projects, and make recommendations.
Jim reported that MAC does the ranking. The RTCC does the final approval. The
MAC has taken the info from the ranking and asked applicants how scalable their
projects are. There will be a recommendation to the RTCC on March 3, 2015. He
believes the recommendation will be to accept the ranking. He said the Shawnee
grant was ranked high, but he wasn't sure what would happen. He anticipates
that we will get some funding, but had no guarantees.
3.
Review and approve rule changes
Rod/Bill, moved/seconded to approve the rule changes. Motion carried
unanimously.
4.
Grant Update
Jim provided an update under 2.b on the agenda.
5.
New Business
Stephen left a message with a manager with Hy-Vee about providing a discount
if a rider shows their CityRide card. He reported on an idea of working with the
Shawnee Downtown Business Association about offering discounts to CityRide
Riders.
Rod asked if drivers can be called directly instead of going through dispatch.
Teresa confirmed that they can.
6.
Next Meeting
a. Day/Time – City Hall
i. Thursday, April 23, 2015 at 9:00 am
This date/time was alright with everyone.
Jim reported on March 10 in Topeka they are having a transportation day for
older adults and others in important in Kansas.
Bill/Jim, moved/seconded to adjourn. The motion carried unanimously.