New North Transportation Alliance
Advisory Board Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, May 12, 2010 8:00am
Attendance
Fredric Zerla
University Square Civic Association
Pete Hewitt
Bavarian Village
Rick Fallin
USF Parking and Transportation Services
Manuel Lopez
USF Parking and Transportation Services (Presenter)
Sandi Moody
TBARTA
Ned Baier
Hillsborough County
Lorraine Duffy-Suarez Hillsborough County Public Schools
Chas Marino
Citizens for West Meadows
Ron Cook
Busch Gardens
Nina Mabilleau
City of Tampa
Brad Parrish
City of Temple Terrace
Barbara Donerly
USF Facilities Planning and Construction
Melissa Zornitta
Hillsborough County City-County Planning Commission (Presenter)
Sara Hendricks
NNTA Co-director, CUTR
Jennifer Iley
CUTR
Ed Hillsman
CUTR
Welcome
Fred Zerla called the meeting to order. Sara Hendricks led a tribute to the contributions of Frank
Margarella, former co-chair of NNTA, who passed away shortly after the March NNTA meeting.
Sara reported that Tom Locke would like to step down as co-chair, and the Board should be
considering who they would like to nominate for the chair and co-chair positions.
The March 2010 minutes were sent and approved via electronic delivery.
Presentations and Discussion
Melissa Zornitta, from the Hillsborough County City-County Planning Commission delivered a
presentation on Transit Oriented Development: The Transit-Land Use Connection. *To view the
presentation, visit http://www.newnorthalliance.com/transportation-resources-andlinks/presentations/.
Question – Nina Mabilleau: Do you know what the station spacing is, and does it change as you
move HART around?
Melissa Zornitta: I haven’t heard specifics from HART on that. Id o know depending on
the type of technology they choose, they spacing may be wider as they pick up speed. I
do think as they get further out, they become further apart. Overall, I don’t know.
Lorraine Duffy-Suarez: Stations are being referred to as stops. The stations will be more like
“glorified” bus stops, more like a small shelter. Even if it’s a small stop, if enough people can
get to it, it could work. We plan, plan, plan, and then we wait for the private sector to come in
and assemble the land to make the plan come true. In the past, Bob Riley came to town and
talked about using the power of government to create these areas so that when a developer wants
to come in, we don’t have the people who say “not in my neighborhood”. Is there any talk of
having government participation in making these plans come true?
Melissa Zornitta: Absolutely, there has been talk about it but we haven’t gotten that far
into implementation so there are not a lot of concrete things. We recognize that there
must be some public-private partnerships to make some of these things work. This
discussion comes up a lot in discussing parking. A good example is what Temple Terrace
has done; they have had some challenges, but are making some great progress. You’re
right that not every station is going to have a lot of development. In some cases, it was a
station that they had planned a lot of development but another station received the
development because the developer could get the land.
Ned Baier: Another example would be the high-speed rail station in downtown Tampa, FDOT
acquired the land for public interest/use. If you look down the entire high-speed rail line, the
other stations are land-acquired.
Lorraine Duffy-Suarez: Those are stations versus stops, development is more likely to occur
around a station. We are likely have more stops than stations according to the last meeting we
attended.
Ned Baier: The need for parking is going to be great, a big community issue. Circulators also,
but we have to accommodate parking in a major way. In Charlotte, toward the end of the line,
they had a 4-5 story parking garage that they worked with the school district and build an athletic
complex on the top floor. They were really creative.
Sandi Moody: In a lot of cases it’s an evolutionary process, because some areas where you might
start with something on a small scale like a stop. When the look of the neighborhood changes,
the stops can change too. For those of you who don’t know me, I am with BACS, now
TBARTA. I went on the 3-city tour the TBARTA board took a couple of years ago to visit
Dallas, Charlotte, and Denver. Especially in Texas, some of the areas we saw in the before and
after pictures, the changes were huge in terms of character and walkability. I think about
Washington Metro, and how they have stops and stations that have developed over time. This
floating concept is really good as it allows for growth over time.
Melissa Zornitta: In this area, we have been talking with Tom Locke and University Mall.
They’re in for some modifications to their zoning. We tried to building in some
flexibility for them so that they can adapt over time to the potential changing conditions
because they’re in a prime location. They already have a lot of transit facilities on their
site, but they could be another prime location depending on the alternative that HART
selects.
Sara Hendricks: In our area, the MPO recently completed the study for the multimodal
transportation district. If it turns out that some type of rapid transit service does go through this
Northeast corner (Bruce B Downs Blvd), it will bisect the multimodal transportation district area.
I would assume there is a lot of coordination between efforts to develop the TOD overlays and
the multimodal transportation district.
Melissa Zornitta: Yes, there is.
Fred Zerla: Every time I hear one of these presentations, it sounds much more complex. It seems
that the development has been going on rather well over the past several years, and that you have
been thinking about these things. Your presentation is the most complex I have seen. Our
neighborhood backs Tom Locke’s contention that the light rail should go down Fowler Avenue
and have a station stop right at the entrance to the Mall on 22nd Street. The fact that this is a
walking distance to my neighborhood is a happy accident. It is true that land prices go up around
stations, and everything else booms in that area.
I am also with Tampa Homeowners Association of Neighborhoods (THAN). The VP and I
attended the Moving Hillsborough Forward meeting in April. Tomorrow evening at 6pm, the
Hillsborough County Commission is having a meeting at the All People’s Life Center 6105 E
Sligh Avenue, 1 block East of 56th Street, behind King High School. People who are in favor of
the tax increase going on the ballot are suggested to attend and voice their support. The St Pete
Times had a strong endorsement in today’s paper for the Hillsborough County Commissioners to
allow the citizens to vote on this issue in November. Sara is passing out copies of the meeting
notice, and a letter of support for the 1 cent sales tax referendum we approved in October 2009.
Manuel Lopez, from USF Parking and Transportation Services delivered a demonstration on
Automated Vehicle Locator (AVL) and the Bull Runner Shuttle system.
http://www.usfbullrunner.com/
The Bull Tracker system was implemented in March 2010, and allows users to access a Live Bus
Map, and monitor Bull Runner shuttle arrival times.
Pete Hewitt: I have seen two buses very close on 42nd Street. Does that mean you have a double
load that day, or have they caught up? If they have caught up, when is it that they make their
distance again?
Manuel Lopez: I will attempt to answer that question in different ways, and if I can’t do
it, we have Rick Fallin here who can assist. Once the system was implanted, we are now
able to manage the headway and drivers are able to manage themselves. But there are
still times during the day, when we have excess demand on the C route and more buses
for a period of time. Once the demand subsides, one of the buses comes out.
Rick Fallin: Especially in the mornings, it can be an issue. We often stage a bus up at the
driving range because we will fill up the buses so one will just be waiting to go on-line.
We routinely fill buses up as we circulate on the C route.
Fred Zerla: Can you get it only on laptop?
Manuel Lopez: Anywhere you have a WIFI connection
Ned Baier: Is HART using a similar technology?
Manuel Lopez: They are; in my conversations with them, they have been looking at
similar technology but I don’t know if they are about to implement, or where they are in
the process.
Lorraine Duffy-Suarez: I think the school district is putting GPS into some school buses over the
summer. Did you build this system yourself?
Manuel Lopez: This is a company out of California, called Synchromatics who has been
excellent and very user-friendly.
Ned Baier: Could you go through the routes?
Manuel Lopez: Route A and E are basically the same route, except going in opposite
directions. Route B is basically designed to serve the health area: USF clinics, College of
Public Health, Park-and-Ride lot so they can get to their office in 7 minutes or less.
Route C goes off-campus to the North and 42nd and 46th Streets. Route D is the route that
goes off-campus to the West to the residence halls and the University Transit Center, and
the University Mall. We now have a passenger counting system installed in the buses to
capture occupancy information.
Ned Baier: How many buses in the fleet?
Manuel Lopez: 33 buses, and 5 routes, with normally 17 to 18 buses running
simultaneously
Sandi Moody: HART does now have Route Shout, a similar system.
Brad Parrish: What about working with HART to at least have the same system for the bus
routes that come onto campus?
Manuel Lopez: I don’t know – they would have to install the same software we are using.
Lorraine Duffy-Suarez: Do you pay a monthly service fee?
Manuel Lopez: We pay for maintenance and storage of the data, they host it and we
access it.
Pete Hewitt: When you started out, was it state or federal funding for the Bull Runner? Is it still
coming in?
Rick Fallin: The only funding we have received from government is the concurrency
money from City of Tampa via the Pilot Circulator Study. Now it is self-funded through
the University. The study funds ended a couple of years ago.
There are some new complexes on Mckinley. Have you thought of extending to accommodate
them?
Manuel Lopez: Our main issue is a matter of funding. Each one of these routes costs
about 1 million dollars to implement. Because we are self-supported, we have to maintain
a balance in attempting to generate more revenue. But we are looking at a potential route
to cover that area and parts of Temple Terrace. There is a possibility of concurrency
money coming back into the picture.
Ed Hillsman: Regarding the coordination of this with the HART service. What has happened in
other metropolitan areas where this kind of svc has become available and where the transit
agencies have exposed the data where people can access the data. You will get people who write
cell phone and internet applications in useful ways. The Bull Runner service data is exposed in a
way that the data can be used. If HART is doing the same thing, some bright student may tie
these things together and develop an application that combined the two. Not all transit agencies
expose the data, but I am not aware of what HART is doing.
Manuel Lopez: USF is the only university in Florida who owns their buses and has this kind of
system. A plug for Ed Hillsman, who is doing a project called Walk-A-Bull which is integrating
this with a pedestrian version where you can access on your mobile device or computer. You
can work to query the system for the best route based on your needs.
Ed Hillsman: We have an application in for funding to bring this to campus. We have been in
touch with the University of Maryland, which has developed a similar system for their campus as
a student project. We should hear back in the next six weeks or so.
Manuel Lopez: We are a little under 1 million riders this year on 17 to 18 buses running at one
time.
Sara Hendricks: Is there a way to track by individual trip the origin and destination?
Rick Fallin: We don’t track individual data. We have general numbers, but no specific
information.
Sara Hendricks formally recognized Sandi Moody, of Bay Area Commuter Services (BACS).
BACS officially merged with Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Association
(TBARTA).
Sandi Moody: TBARTA will now include the commuter assistance services previously offered
by BACS. The roles and responsibilities have not been decided, but all of the BACS staff moved
over to TBARTA. There is a Transit Management Committee meeting at 10am across the street
at the Research Building. This afternoon at 1:30pm, the Advisory Committee will meet. The
board meeting this month is a workshop; anyone is encouraged to attend TBARTA board
meetings.
Ned Baier: This is a public hearing. The venue can seat 1,000 people. If it gets too late, the
Board has the discretion of continuing the public hearing to June 10. They run the risk of
upsetting people either way. The referendum language has been crafted. The meeting will begin
with short presentations; David Armijo will present the HART plan, and others approximately 20
to 30 minutes. For public comment, there is a sign-up sheet. You cannot deny the public their
right to speak so it could be a very long meeting.
Fred Zerla: Assuming that it passes and will be put on the ballot, the comments that were made
at the Moving Hillsborough Forward meeting, there are so many of these groups (HART, MPO,
etc.), and that is confusing the public. The public should be urged to compare the costs between
road-building and other transportation options.
Sara Hendricks: Our co-director Julie Bond is attending the Pro-Walk/Pro-Bike Conference in
Lakeland to receive an award for Tampa BayCycle, which won Program of the Year. Our partner
in that is the Tampa Downtown Partnership.
Barbara Donerly: Do we have any kind of a press release on that? If so, please send.
Sara Hendricks: We should, I will check with Julie. We recently completed the data collection
phase of a commuting survey with about 2,700 responses from students, staff, and faculty. That
data will be made available to various departments on campus and we are planning to conduct a
similar survey of employers in the New North area.
Barbara Donerly: Please put Christian Wells, Director of Sustainability on the NNTA email list.
He was not able to attend the meeting today.
Member Updates
City of Temple Terrace will have the ground-breaking ceremony for downtown redevelopment
sometime in July, will send exact details via email.
City of Tampa – We did a safety study around the New Tampa Blvd extension/bridge over I-75
project because the Tampa Palms/West Meadows residents were concerned about safety in their
area. We did a study with recommendations that is just being finalized that will be available on
the City of Tampa website. In April, the BCC voted that the EPC review the New Tampa Blvd
extension/bridge over I-75 again. It is still in limbo, the City attorney may make some kind of
appeal.
Sara Hendricks – FDOT is currently conducting their numerous regional workshops across the
state to get public/partner input on the Year 2060 State of Florida Transportation Plan. This is a
year and a half long effort underway. People in our area can attend Monday, June 7 from 2:30 to
5:00pm held in the FDOT District 7 Auditorium on N McKinley Avenue.
The next meeting is scheduled for July 14, 2010. Tentative Speaker Scheduled for July: Eric
Carlson at the St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership.