HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-10-06 TranscriptionPage 1
Council Present: Bergus, Mims, Salih, Teague, Taylor, Thomas, Weiner
Staff Present: Frain, Monroe, Kilburg, Nagle -Gamin, Dilkes, Fruehling, Hightshoe, Havel,
Ford, Bockenstedt
Others Present: Van Heukelom, Longenecker (UISG)
Review Recommendations from the Iowa City Area Transit Study:
Teague/ Hello and welcome (clears throat) to the Iowa City City Council work session. Can everybody
hear me okay? All right, well, happy that, um, we are here tonight. Um, we have some excitin'
things on our work agenda, which is, um, going to start off with the transit study
recommendations by staff. I'm going to introduce our City Manager Geoff Frain, uh, to open us
up there.
Frain/ Well thank you, Mayor, and, uh, nice to see you and the, uh, Council here tonight. I'm very
excited to be talking Iowa City Transit with ya. As Council knows, this is one of your, uh,
strategic priorities, uh, and our transit system is really a major key to our climate action goals in
the future. So, uh, tonight's discussion hopefully is kind of a launch pad into, uh, reimagining
what we want our transit system to become here in Iowa City. Um, just a couple of comments.
Um, one, we do have some pretty ambitious goals and ... and you're gonna hear about those, uh,
in .... in tonight's presentation. And, uh, those goals are gonna be difficult to reach. It's going to
take some significant changes to our system and .... and change is hard. Um, it's going to
impact, uh.... uh, people in different ways. But ultimately, the recommendations we're sharing
tonight we think will, uh, better serve, uh, the Iowa City community as a whole. Um,
and .... and I think, uh, as we ... as we, um, look ahead in the next few years, if we truly want to
reach our goals, we're gonna have to be willing to invest more in our transit system. Uh,
we .... we simply, uh, cannot meet our goals, uh, just by realigning our routes and our ...and our
fare system. So we're gonna have to find those strategic opportunities to .... to invest and expand
our system, and we'll outline some of those options for you, uh, tonight to kind of kick off that
discussion, which will, uh, be....be a long time, urn ... uh.... um ..... will take considerable months
for us to consider. Um, you are going to receive a lot of material tonight. Um, I, uh, think
Darian and our consulting team will share probably over 50 slides with you. It is gonna be a lot
to take in. It may be overwhelming at times. Uh, what I would encourage you to do is if you
have questions or if you need something repeated, just speak up, just unrnute yourself and speak
up and ask the presenter to ... to clarify something, cause it's really important that, uh.... uh, that,
um, you have a good understanding of...of what's being presented, and I understand that not all
of you ride every route that we have, uh, and visited every neighborhood on the .... on the buses
that we have. So , uh, please do interrupt if you ... if you have questions, um, and of course
you'll have time at the end, uh, to ... to speak as well. Um, we're obviously not asking you to
vote on anything tonight. We're really just looking for some initial feedback so that we can go
and make refinements and begin, uh, to take these recommendations out to the public. Uh,
before we ask for that final vote, um, later on this year or early next year, so that we can start to
look towards implementation next summer. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to our
Transportation Services Director Darian Nagel -Gamin and she's going to kick things off tonight.
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Nagle -Gamin/ All right. Can you all hear me okay? Okay, great. All right, let me go ahead and share
my screen. And we'll go ahead and get started. Okay. Can you all see my screen now? Okay,
great. Okay. Excellent. Thank you so much. All right, so .... very excited to be here tonight.
Um, again I'm Darian Nagle-Gamm. I'm the Director of Transportation Services with the City
of Iowa City and (mumbled) tonight is Thomas Wittmann (garbled) Nelson/Nygaard, uh
(garbled) planning firm, and Thomas has assisted on well over 30 communities, um, small, big,
uh, any size throughout the United States, um, to reimagine their transit system, and including
right here in Iowa, uh, that he helped out with a very successful, uh, transit system redesign in
Ames. So although Thomas may not be from Iowa, um, be rest assured now that he has worked
in both Iowa City and Ames. He is well aware of our friendly in-state rivalry, so, um, so that
was fun to introduce him to that. And so what Tom and I are going to do tonight is we're going
to walk you through, urn ... uh, the recommendations from our.... from our transit study. So I'm
just gonna give you a brief rundown of what's on our agenda for tonight. Uh, first and
foremost, we're gonna talk to you a little bit about the background, just real high-level, talk to
you about our transit service, um, in Iowa City. We're gonna give you a bit of a project
refresher. It's been a few months since we've, um, spoken with you directly about the transit
study and, um, it's ... it's taken a little bit longer to get through it, of course. Um, due to COVID
we had to kind of press pause while we're working through, um, pandemic operations. Um, so
we thought it would be good to give you a refresher on where we're at today and how we got to
the recommendations you will see before you tonight. We are going to present the preferred
alternative, which is really the recommendation, uh, for the transit system redesign, um, and of
course that's using all of our funding, our existing funding that we have today, our staffing, our
buses, and all of that public feedback, that great feedback we got through our public input
process, um, and this .... this is the recommended changes to our system that we'll review. We
also will talk through some, um, recommendations regarding our stop infrastructure. We'll talk
through, um, what we're calling the vision for transit and that's really, you know, of all the
feedback that we create, feedback we got from the community, how, um, we...we've sort of
translated those into nine potential enhancements for transit or for mobility in Iowa City that are
really outside of our current funding. Um, and our current funding, our staffing, and our, you
know, our level of equipment that we have, but, um, they won't be providing an overview of
what some of those enhancements might be. And fare policy will the next thing we'll just
discuss really briefly. Um, really we took a deep dive into our fare policy within the City of
Iowa City and across the metro area and really looked at ways we can improve the experience
for our customers and bring those fares and fare policies in better alignment. And then last but
not least, we're gonna discuss the next steps and where we go from here! So I will kick it off
with some background, and again, this is just a real high-level, uh, information on our transit
system. So today we have 26 routes and we have over 600 stops in Iowa City, if you can
believe it. There's 600 places where people can board and ... and hop off transit. That is .... boils
down to 20 routes on our weekdays. Our service hours are from about 6:00 in the morning,
to ... we run about as late as 11:00 on weekdays, and that's just a few routes. We really only have
about four routes that run that late. Really most of our routes currently wrap up around 6:00 or
7:00, and then on Saturdays, we run six routes on our Saturday service and that runs from about
6:00 to 7:00 P.M., and of course at this time, we don't have Sunday service. We provide all of
that service, um, using 26 diesel buses, but I am so excited, uh, to tell you that ... that summer,
we will have four fully electric Proterra buses, um, on the road, replacing four of our oldest
diesel buses, uh, which we are very excited about, and we're working with Proterra, um, on a
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daily basis to get those buses prepped, inspect, and ready to roll, um, for next summer. Course
in addition to our buses and our routes in our system., you know, it takes a lot of employees,
um, to ... to run our transit system every day, and from our administrators, uh, supervisors. We've
got 43 drivers, both part time and full time. We've got a mechanic staff to make sure our buses
are, um, ready to go every single day. We've got maintenance staff, which helps keeps our
facilities and our buses, um, sharp, clean, uh, and now during the pandemic, of course, you
know, disinfected. That's a big .... that's a big priority, um, shift in ... in this year. And we also
have customer service representatives who really help us, uh, with our customer service,
anything that the customers need - calling in about, have questions about routes. Um, lots are...
kind of a high-level, at a glance, and then this picture you see here is our transit system. So it's
just a... just a real quick glance, um, at our overall system. Each color is our route and that's
kind of what our system looks like today. All right, let's talk a little bit about transit ridership.
So last fiscal year, which would have just ended as of June 30th, um, we served 1.15 million
passengers in the last fiscal year, which is a lot of riders. That said, our ridership last fiscal year
actually decreased 22%, which is the double our largest decrease we've ever had. Um, and it's
probably not a surprise to anybody and I'm talking to right now, but it really...it was the
pandemic. The last four months of the fiscal year, uh, were under a .... the state of the pandemic,
and really our daily ridership during that time frame, those last four months, um, March through
June, was 60, 70, 80% of what we would normally see. So we definitely, um, we definitely saw
the beginning of the ridership hit in our ...in our last fiscal year ridership. We do expect an even
greater decrease in FYI 21 and that's because, as opposed to having one quarter of, um, you
know pandemic -affected ridership decreases this year, this fiscal year, we expect, um, that three
or four of our quarters will likely experience ridership decreases. So, um, it's ... it's something
for us to be, you know, aware of as ... as we're working through this process. Outside of the
pandemic, um, setting, that aside, our ridership did decline, you know, 25% from 2009 to 2019.
So ... and you can see that ... you can see my...my pointer there, that's really kind of the slow
decrease we've had, um, over the last 10 years. And there's a few factors, um, that have
been ... that you can point to outside of the pandemic, of course, and one is competing
transportation resources, um, Uber, Lyft, um, for example, um, any ride sharing. Um, fuel has
been incredibly cheap, um, for the last, um, many years, um, and really there's been this
economic recovery past, uh, post the Great Recession. So there's been a lot more people able to
have more choices in their transportation, able to afford vehicles for transportation, and the
associated costs. All right, so now that we've gotten through a little bit of that background
and ... and where we're at and ... and try level overview of transit, we'll talk for a second about,
you know, the project refresher. We're gonna walk you through sort of what we've gone through
in the last year to get to the recommendations, where we're at, and first and foremost to remind
you of who was all on the team for the Iowa City area transit study, and of course, um, Iowa
City wanted the deepest dive into our transit system and we took the lead on ... on organizing and
facilitating the study, but we also partnered with the City of Coralville and with the University
of Iowa's Cambus operations for the study. And of course we had Nelson/Nygaard, the transit
consultants, on board. Um, you're gonna hear from Thomas in just a few seconds, um, and we
had stakeholders from a variety of different groups and backgrounds that we engaged early in
the process to really get a good, full, and complete understanding of what the needs are for our
community. And last but not least, the public! So we really tried to reach out to transit riders
and potential riders, because you know we really want to both make the service better for those
that use it, rely on it every day, but really find ways that we can draw people to transit in the
future. So, goals of the study. All right, so I think we could basically boil it down to four main
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goals. And the first one is really to remove barriers to transit use. So one of the ways you do
that is you provide faster, more frequent, and more reliable, more on-time service, and going
through exercises such as this, this comprehensive, um, in-depth analysis is the way that you
find ways to get to those ends. So, that was one of our major goals. Uh, you know, we heard
from the public. Um, it's pretty clear that our system could be simplified in some way, just to
make it easier for people to understand. Um, that can be a barrier for people to choose transit or
to use it more. We want to improve communication so riders have complete up-to-date
information on routes, fares, stops, service alerts, um, and trip planning tools. And we also
really want to make our transit stops just more comfortable for use, especially our highest ... urn,
our highest ridership stops. The second kind of big overarching goal in the reason we went into
this, um, in-depth study for the transit system is really to increase ridership. So, you know, I
think we really want to make transit more dependable for those that rely on it, that need it, that
use it every day. But we also need to think about how to make it an easier choice for other
people. Um, you've heard, um, Geoff alluded to this earlier, and you've heard us throughout this
process allude to our very lofty goal of doubling ridership in the next 10 years. So, you know,
the first step to ... to (garbled) goal like that is to really take an in-depth look at your transit
system, which is why we are where we are at today having this discussion, and also, the climate
action plan calls for the shift of 55% of vehicle trips. So over half of the vehicle trips that you
see every day out in the community, shifting half of those, over half, the more sustainable
methods such as biking, walking, and transit by 2050, in order to meet greenhouse gas reduction
goals. So again, another lofty goal, um, that can be achieved, um ... uh.... and the first step really
is to just really evaluate your transit system. And then in terms of ridership, last but not least,
this was not on our radar. This was not a thought. This was not even, um, you know, something
we could have imagined, um, at the beginning of this process last year ...at this time, but really
recovering from COVID-19 ridership losses is ... is a big, um, goal of the transit study, in my
mind, from this point forward, and quite frankly I'm really glad we're in the position that we're
doing this right now, because I think the, um, the transit study will help us, um, position
ourselves even stronger than it might have been had this happened, um, five years ago or, you
know, we have this, uh, we have potential ways to help increase our ridership and I think that's
only going to help us recover faster. Third goal is just to really improve inter -agency
coordination and I know I .... I hear from the public, and I know you all have heard too, you
know, how can we make it a more streamlined experience for customers who travel across the
metro area? How do we get more consistent fare and transfer policies? How do we make it
easier for the public to understand all of our systems and all of our, excuse me, agencies and
how they operate together. So that's been a goal and that's why we were really happy to have
Coralville and Cambus on board to help us find ways that we can do that. And then last but not
least, leveraging technology. We're just, you know, trying to determine how we can use some of
these new transportation technologies to help better serve our community. All right, now that
we've talked about our goals, um, two important objectives before we go forward and these
really kind of...can almost summarize, you know, everything that we did with the study and
with these recommendations, but our first objective was really to determine how we can best
allocate our existing resources to improve transit. So what that means is how our current
funding levels, our current staffing levels, our current capital, our current buses, everything that
we have now, how do we optimize what we've got currently and create a really solid foundation
for moving forward. That's job number one. Our second job was really to determine what
enhancements we could make that would further improve our transit system, community
mobility, you know, should additional resources be allocated, and what might those, um, you
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know, what might those needs be, financial needs or investments, what might those need to be.
So those are really our two ... two main objectives. Um, so we'll be walking you through how,
um, we use these objectives to present recommendations to you all tonight. And with that, I am
going to tum it over to Thomas Wittmann, who, um, is the lead on the team that's, um, has been
shepherding us through and the community through this process for the last year. He's going to
walk us through the transit setting process and ... up to date and recommendations.
Wittmann/ And hopefully you can see the screen still that shows the, uh, ICATS process on here, um,
and I'd also like to say thank you for having me here to present this. You know, I ... I want to
start off by saying that, you know, we looked at, you know, this ... this, the transit study and
looking at, you know, three different buckets of, you know, data. It's like, what is the market for
transit? How's your existing services working right now, and what are some of the priorities
that the public has, you know, to help, uh, make service better and enhance mobility throughout
the Ia.... Iowa City region. I want to talk about each one of these a little bit separately and start
off with operating data. Uh, the first piece of this is, you know, we ... we wanted to see where
are people using the service right now. How are they using the services right now? When are
they using the service? So we looked at where people are getting on and off each one of the bus
routes in Iowa City, and for that matter that graphic that's shown on here shows this for every,
you know, agency, uh, within the, uh (garbled) metro area, uh, to help us understand, are there
areas where there ridership's really high? Are there areas where riders really low? How well
utilized are the services right now? Uh, we also want to take a look at, you know, how on time
is a service. Is it reliable? Can people count on it or are there, you know, other areas and places
where the service just isn't as reliable as it could be. We also wanted to understand what some
of the priorities were for our existing (garbled) you know, region -wide onboard survey to our,
you know, how are they paying? Are they transferring from one route (garbled) to another? It
really gave us a clue as to, you know, what are some of the things that we could do (garbled) to
existing riders, you know (garbled) Uh, we supplemented this with, uh, you know (garbled)
input process (garbled) understand not just what we saw from a technical basis (garbled) from
not just existing customers, but also potential, about what some of the potential needs are for
their region, and we did this in, you know, who our existing riders are (garbled)
Fruin/ Thomas (both talking)
Wittmann/ (garbled) their priorities for and some of the top priorities that we heard from them or, uh,
yes?
Fruin/ I'm sorry, uh, Thomas, a couple of things. Um, would you mind going full screen with your
presentation, um, just, uh, starting that slideshow, and then your, uh, your sound is (both
talking) your sound is cutting out as well. I wonder if you might take your video off and see if
that ... that helps ...just ... . just get your sound through a little bit better.
Wittmann/ Can do! Come on!
Teague/ And, Thomas, continue whenever you're ready.
Wittmann/ (mumbled) Trying to figure out how to get this, urn .... how to get this, uh, full screen
so .... come on.
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Fruin/ You should be able to click the from current slide on the top left of your screen, if that ... (phone
ringing in background)
Wittmann/ Is it full screen right now (garbled) Now?
Teague/ I think it was full screen until you just touched something.
Wittmann/ All right, uh, more .... (mumbled) stop share (mumbled) Is that work .... is it full screen now?
Teague/ It is sharing your screen, and now it's full screen.
Wittmann/ Okay, my apologies. All right. Sorry about that. Um, the (garbled) phase of this was the
public input and public input was really to help us understand what the objectives were and
what some of the things for that, uh, we were trying to, you know, what ... what did potential
customers have to say, uh, as what some of the, uh, some of their needs were. And this included
having open houses, having the stakeholder meetings, uh, you know, having design -your -own
system, you know, where it was an online survey, where we got over 1,300 responses. We've
looked at, you know, operator interviews and we ... we talk with a series of, you know, social
service agencies, as well, to help us try to understand what some of the needs were within the
community. Um, you know, we got, you know, over 1,000 responses. We got, you know, close
to 100 attendees, uh, in person, and we talked with dozens and dozens of folks, you know, to
help us understand, you know, here's what some of the needs are in the community, here's some
of the connections that we can't make that we would like to make, and here's how we would like
to have, you know, Sunday service or late evening service or more frequent service, which were
the most frequent comments we received from that. The third phase of public input came after
we had designed a, you know, a .... three different service scenarios that, you know, matched
simply the things that we heard. And we had over, you know, close to 1,400 different responses
for this. We had in-person meetings in January of 2020, and we also had an open house, you
know, open houses at, uh, Iowa City, in downtown Iowa City, and Coralville, as well as the
University of Iowa, and we had close to 150 people there. So we looked at engaging the public
before we made recommendations, as well as after we made initial scenarios to help inform
what the preferred scenario would look like. One of the things we also looked at was market
demand data and you know, this is, you know, to help us understand where are the
opportunities, you know, for transit? Where could transit be most successful or where ... are
there clues for areas that could support service, that don't have service right now? So some of
those, you know, we ... we looked at, you know, where po... population and employment
densities. Where ... where do students live? Where do, you know, folks under the age of 18 live?
Where do seniors live? Where do people with certain social economic, uh, you know,
characteristics live? And the whole idea was to identify where are those gaps and are there
areas that we're either over -serving or under -serving, again just to help us to look at, you know,
is there a clue that we're missing with this. An example of this is the equity analysis and, you
know, this is ... this, uh, you know, looks at where, you know, lower income folks within the
Iowa City region live, and you know, this gave, you know, it's, you know, in this case, anything
that's darker brown indicates a higher concentration of lower income folks. And it includes, you
know, some of the areas around the apartment complexes in south of University Heights, as
well as around the downtown area, and this gives us a clue. It's like where are some of the
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needs that we have within the system, and, you know, are we serving these areas appropriately
right now? We did this similar thing for people of color, and some of the same concentrations,
you know, south of University Heights, you know, closer to, you know, to Mormon Trek and
(garbled) Melrose, as well as in the south Iowa City area, you know, south of Highway 6
are .... are concentrations of people of color right now, and again, we ... we ... we looked at this as
like are we providing the right amount of service to these areas right now, and are there
destinations that people that live in some of these areas that aren't being met right now, that we
can meet as a result of, you know, the ... the transit study. We also looked at the individual
performance of each one of the ... each one of the existing routes, um, and you know, the .... in
this case we're showing this in terms of what is the cost per passenger, and these are only for
weekday, during the daytime, we're not including nighttime routes or Saturday routes as a part
of this, uh, as a part of this graphic right here. But what it shows is that there's a wide variety
between the cost per passenger for certain routes, such as the free shuttle and Oak Crest and
Towncrest routes, and some of the worst,you know, some of the least productive routes, such as
the Westport Plaza and North Dodge routes, that have a much higher cost per passenger
associated with them, and if we look.... remember this graphic in terms of, you know, Westport
Plaza and North Dodge, Seventh Avenue, Manville Heights, and East Side express, these are all
routes that you'll see had the most changes associated with them, you know, from a
recommendations perspective, and routes like Towncrest, Oak Crest, and the free shuttle, which
are routes that are performing the best in terms of how many passengers are carried, were the
ones that, in essence, almost stayed the same or had improvements associated with them. So
there were some, you know, when we get to the ... what the recommendations for are, there is
a ... there's (garbled) rhyme to the reason here which routes were, you know, most affected by
this. We used the information, the market analysis, the public input, as well as, you know, how
each one of the routes were to develop three cost constraint alternatives. Uh, and we ... we
defined these as one of them focused on frequency, one of them focused on simplifying the ... the
route structure but maintaining the coverage that's there, and one of `em being an emphasis on
improving weekend service, which was one... especially Sunday service, which one of the big
things that we heard as a part of our outreach process. Um, and each one of these scenarios
could stand its own legs. Each one of these scenarios had, you know, things that we felt as a
team were good about it and things that ... that had shortcomings associated with it. But it, uh,
represented the ... the best practices and guiding principles that were laid out as a part of this
process. And we could implement these. And so these are the three different scenarios that we
present to the public, and the preferred alternative, what we're about to show you, reflected
what people felt was good and you know, reflected the least amount of what people said, `I can't
live with this, this really hurts me as an individual, it hurts my neighborhood moving forward.'
So we got a really nice, you know, mouth, the feedback, that said, `I really like this and scenario
one, but I can't stand this other piece. I really liked what you didn't scenario three but you did
it ... went a little bit too far here.' So we could take the feedback that we got for each one of
these and develop a preferred alternative that reflected, you know, what we heard back from the
community. So I wanna walk through the preferred alternative now and what each one of these
means. And so the things that the preferred alternative, you know, looked at focusing on and
addressing was the ... making sure the buses ran on time, more so than what they do right now.
Make the travel times more competitive right now. It's like make this service more faster than
what it is, address some of the things that we heard were confusing. You know, Darian had
mentioned earlier on that, you know, there's only four routes operate on the evening times or,
you know, a limited amount of routes operate on Saturdays, and no routes operate on Sundays,
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for that matter. But, you know, to have improved services on Saturdays, improved weekend
service,I mean improve weekday evening services. And then also begin looking at where some
of those opportunities are to address some of the job access elements that we heard, including,
you know, what we heard repeatedly was social, you know (garbled) service jobs didn't have the
8:00 to 5:00 shifts that, you know, the hospital (garbled) that we we looked at interest
improving frequency on two of the most popular routes and improving access to key
destinations, and reduce some of duplication. Now all of this in the preferred alternative is cost
constrained, which means that with the good there's gonna be some bad that comes with this
too. And so there are some drawbacks to this. It's, uh, some areas and some neighborhoods are
going to have longer walks to service, over what they have today. There's going to be
less ... there's less of a focus for a one seat ride, which means, you know, being able to, you
know, not have to transfer to the hospital area from, you know, from Iowa City Transit's, you
know, perspective. And, you know, one of the things that, you know, we could not, you know,
we were trying to figure out how do we make this pencil, but we could not make certain goals
within the existing budgets, such as creating Sunday service or implementing some day service,
we could not make that happen in the preferred alternative. So I wanna share some of the
highlights, you know, for the preferred alternative. Uh, I touched upon these a little bit earlier,
you know, some of the (garbled) you know, we've looked at addressing on time performance
problems. Uh, this was particularly endemic in the afternoon. Uh, le .... much less so in the
morning time, but in the afternoon we have a series of routes that once they got late, they
simply could not catch up, and one of the things we found nationally is that if folks can't depend
on transit and the bus is consistently late or it's late on one day and not on the other day, and it
just varies back and forth, people are going to stop riding it. And so addressing on- time
performance and making the service reliable is extremely important. So some of the strategies
we use to do this was to shift routes from major ...to major arterials, to improve the speed of
services. We've looked at reducing the amount (mumbled) deviations into parking lots. And
this is not just a speed element, but it's also given some the pedestrian and park vehicle conflicts
in parking lots, this is a safety issue as well. And we looked at, uh, shifting services off of
routes that we knew there was operational problems, such as Lee Street, which operators had
mentioned on the Manville Heights road ... route, that, you know, there were some turns in there
and especially when it snows, it was, uh, it was interesting to, uh, go down Lee Street, and
there's also roads that we knew there was heavy congestion, such as Newton Road, you know,
where buses were consistently getting bogged down, uh, and not being able to recover later
throughout the day. One of the other highlights is providing more direct service to major
destination or popular destinations, and you know, this is, you know, could mean anything
from.... service from, uh, neighborhood such as Pheasant Ridge in west Iowa City to the
Walmart-centered commercial area on Highway 6. This is one of the big things we heard is
like, `How can I get bet ... you know, better access, not just at jobs but, you know, to also to ... to
be able to take care of business. You know, if I don't have a car, how do I get to areas where I
can buy something, you know, more than just a grocery store. We also looked at from a route -
design perspective, and there's a graphic that'll show this a little bit later on, shifting service
away from big loops that are, you know, going one direction and much of Iowa City's transit
service right now focuses on big one-way loops that requires you in many cases to ride all the
way around in order to get to your destination. You know, and this is a disincentive for ...for
existing riders, and in some cases there's like, you know, three routes in one area. But if you
look at .... well, one of `ems only one direction. The other one's in the other direction. And one
of them only operates during mid-day. You have three different patterns to try to understand
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Page 9
when you're only trying to serve one neighborhood. And so by making a ... one round structure
that shifted away from loops, the bi-directional service. So you could say if I get, you know,
catch a bus at this stop in my neighborhood in the morning, I'll return across the street, you
know, so it's a little bit easier to understand. And this is especially important because 20% or
more of your riders are new every year. And so you have to train a new set of riders every year,
you know, to ... to be able to understand your service and the easier make it for folks to say,
`It's ... I can understand where I'm gonna go and how I get back home,' the more likely it is
somebody is going to take that leap of faith to say, `I'm going to use the bus today to try to get
to where I need to go.' One of the other elements, you know, highlights of the preferred
alternative is increasing frequency on some of the core routes. And, you know, there was a
couple of routes that really stood out in terms of, you know, being good and this, you know, in
terms of how much ridership they had and we look at as a part of the preferred alternative to
having a bus every 15 minutes from the Oak Crest neighborhood and you know, that (mumbled)
there's a cluster of (mumbled) massive cluster of apartments, to both, you know, the University
of Iowa campus and downtown Iowa City. You know, so we'd be looking at improving service
from every 30 minutes to every 15 minutes on the Oak Crest route in the morning peak and the
afternoon peak. And likewise, we'd be looking at improving the service on the downtown
shuttle, the free shuttle, to every 15 minutes throughout the day. It's ... it's 15 minutes most of the
time, but there's these gaps that it's like 15 minutes for two hours and then there's a 30 -minute
gap, and so we'd be looking at creating consistency here so that if folks say, `I want to pick up
the shuttle. I know that it's going to be there every 15 minutes,' rather than, say, `Is this the, uh,
the exception to the ruler We want to make it easier to understand. We also ... looking at, you
know, creating a new 20 -minute peak service to the Lower Muscatine route. This is what's
currently called the mall route, uh, that serves Kirkwood Community College and south Iowa
City. So, you know, improving frequency and there... responding to both some of the residential
development that's occurred there, as well as the request from Kirkwood Community College to
say we'd like to have more frequent service, you know, we ... we have this partnership that we'd
like to continue and, you know, with, uh, University of Iowa. It's like, you know, how do we
get folks between our two campuses more effectively and, you know, by creating additional
frequency we can begin doing something like that. That ... the last piece is, you know, we
wanted to improve Saturday service and, you know, um, so every route, with the exception of
the free shuttle and you know, the ... the high school -oriented routes, would operate on Sun ... on
Saturdays (laughs) instead, you know, in addition to a weekday. So this is also an
improvement ... an improvement on frequency, not just on a weekday, but also a tremendous
improvement in quality of service for patrons and potential patrons on Saturdays. This .... this
goes into the .... the last bullet here, the simplifying routes. You know, there... there's 26 different
routes in Iowa City right now. I've worked in, you know, dozens and dozens of systems for a
community this size, 26 routes is a lot. And, you know, one of the reasons is that there's a
different route for weekend... weekday evenings and on Saturdays. And by simple ... we looked
at simplifying the service so that somebody who comes new to your community and say, `I have
to learn one pattern to get from my neighborhood to where I need to go.' Um, and so we, you
know, we'd be looking at, you know, not hav.... having consistency of weekday evenings,
weekdays and Saturdays. We'd also be ... begin looking at skipping routes on ... on arterials,
rather than going into neighborhood streets. Again, so people don't feel like, `Oh my god, this
bus made a turn into a neighborhood that I've never been into. Am I going the right spot,'
and .... and certainly that's a fear with the current big loops that are happening right now. Will I
get to where I want to go, uh, eventually. I think one of the last pieces is that we wanted, you
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Page 10
know, currently all routes have a name. And we wanted to say let's supplement the name with a
number so that folks could understand, you know, it's the number, you know, that the number
seven, you know, south, uh, Lower Muscatine route, uh, rather than the mall route, and this
is ... this is important because right now there's a lot of routes that have very similar names/ West
Side Drive, West Winds, West Hospital, Westport Plaza - all start with "W" and, you know, I
know when I started looking at the system, I got very confused and I've been doing this for 25
years and, like, how is somebody that hasn't.... doesn't think about this on an ongoing basis,
how do we not confuse them with very similar sounding names, and so adding a number to this
is just another way we can, you know, uh, make this easier for them and simplify things for
potential patrons. So I wanna give an example of what, you know, this is on the right hand side.
It's a map of the daytime routes. This ... not sure that week, you know, the evening or Saturday
variations of this, but this is where service goes right now, the orange lines, and it looks like a
nice bowl ... uh, spaghetti is the best way to pufit. You know, circuitous routes. Uh, service on
neighborhood streets. Uh, you know, there's multiple routes on top of each other. Turn and
there's different alignments by different times of day. So this is what it looks like today. And
this is what the preferred alternative, you know, looks like, you know, half the number of routes,
yet serving almost all of the same area, and I wanna walk through the recommendations for
each one of these, uh, potential routes and what each one of these potential recommendations
and, you know, do this .... and so that we show what the routes look like. We show, you know, a
brief description, what the highlights of that would be, and also began looking at what are some
of the drawbacks to it. You know, how many people would be negatively affected by this
potential recommendation? So I want to start with northeast Iowa City, which would be served
right now by, you know, routes 2, 11, and 7, and route 3 which is a high school route when...
when... when, um, high school's in session. So the North Dodge route, you know, is very
similar to today's North Dodge route, you know, and the, you know, each one of the Court
Street, you know, the Court Street route stays on Court Street, and, you know, extends a little bit
further east, and the Rochester route also extends a little bit further out to Scott Street, and I'll
try to do this, you know, without the benefit of the graphic. Uh, but, you know, the .... in
essence the route to the Court Street route consolidates the existing, um, Eastside Express and
Court Street services, and improves the mid-day service from every 30 minutes to every 60
minutes. And anyone who's using the Eastside Express right now, which you know on the
eastern side .... in the eastern edge of Court Street, would have their service during peak times
also improved from a bus every 60 minutes to a bus every 30 minutes. The extension of the
Court Street route would have a new terminal loop at Frauenholtz-Miller Park, which is, you
know, currently served by the Eastside Express. Um, the Rochester route, uh, would extend to
North Scott Boulevard instead of Amherst Street. And the reason for this is at the intersection
of, you know, Scott and Rochester, there's a commercial and healthc... and healthcare node, uh,
that, you know, we wanted to provide closer service to, and we felt like we could do this,
improve the speed of the route, even though it's a little bit longer. Scott Boulevard's a little bit
faster, you know, than, you know, going on the neighborhood streets. And, you know, serve
more people and extend the reach of who might .... we might serve as a part of this. And route 7,
the, you know, we looked at, you know, truncating it at one of the ... at one one of the deviations
on this in the Prairie du Chien area, you know, to improve on-time performance and serve the
ACT, uh, campus during peak... during the morning times and the afternoon peaks only and
continue out to Pearson for every, you know, every other trip, uh, you know, throughout the day.
Uh, the frequency of both route 11 and route 7 would be no...no different than what it would be
today. Um, the Eastside loop, which is, you know, designed to serve middle school and high
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Page I l
school kids would remain as is today. So what are some of the impacts on existing riders and
you know this is, you know, this map shows what the existing quarter -mile walk shed is from
today's stops and any shading you see in red indicates houses or...or areas that were previously
within a quarter -mile walk shed of a existing stop. And how many in a little bubble represents
how many riders, you know, were in these areas that would have a longer than quarter -mile
walk as a result of this ... this recommendation. So in the, for instance, in the Prairie du Chien
Road area, you know, there'd be approximately 16 riders that would have a five to eight minute
walk to service, uh, you know, that currently have a much closer, you know, bus stop, and then
the Huntington Drive area, there will be five riders that would be affected by, you know, that
would have negative impacts like this as well. In the southeast Iowa, you know, uh, you know
region, you know, there's currently, you know, we're looking the recommendations, you know,
look at, you know, uh, you know, changes or maintaining service on route, you know, route 9,
the Towncrest route, um, you know, the route 5, uh, the Lower Muscatine and south Iowa City
routes, and also route 13, the South Gilbert route and, you know, let me walk through each one
of these. You know, the route 5, the Lower Muscatine, Kirkwood route is ... looks very similar to
the former mall route. The Towncrest route, route 9, looks... is very similar. So identical
virtually to the existing services on the Towncrest and the yellow line, you know, the route 1,
the south Iowa City line is, you know, a big change in south Iowa City from what what was
there today. And let me let me talk about what that might be. Um you know, right now, the
south Iowa City route is, you know, the recommended south Iowa City route, you know,
consolidates services on the Lakeside, Cross Park, and Broadway route into one route that
operates consistently in one alignment throughout the day. The Cross Park route only operates
during mid-day, the Lakeside route only operates during a portion .... and late operates, um, you
know, only to some of the residential areas in south Iowa City, and the Broadway route serves
the south Iowa City area in one direction only. So we ... we're looking at, you know, trying to
take three different options that one has right now, depending on the time of day and the
direction that you need to go, and trying to create a consistent alignment that operates every 30
minutes throughout the day. In addition to operating every 30 minutes through the day, one of
the things we clearly heard as a part of our outreach process was access to jobs for .... in ... in in
certain areas was extraordinarily important. So we looked at extending the service that ... from
south Iowa City into the Heinz Road industrial area. This gives us additional access to ... to a
grocery store a Fareway that's there, and also to the job, you know, the ... the jobs that are located
in that area. So this was a better .... we ... we felt like this was a better way to not just connect to,
you know, creating consistency to get to downtown Iowa City, but also other opportunities that
this, you know, that we heard were very important for south Iowa City residents. Uh, to ... to be
able to say, you know, how can I get to where I need to go.? How can I get to a job? How can I
get to go shopping, and provide these folks that have very high need more options than what
they have available to them right now. For the Lower Muscatine route, route 5, this was an
extent ... you know, it's taking route 5, in essence, and ... or the mall route, pardon me, and
streamlining the route to remove some of deviations like into the mall. Uh, there... there ... the
ridership is, the mall is not what it used to be, is basically the ... the big step here, and ... uh... but
also look at, you know, how are there any other destinations that we should be serving with this,
and we added two different destinations, the Quarters and the Bon Aire Mobile Home Park, and
by serving these two destinations, you know, we've (mumbled) bump the frequency up every 20
minutes on weekdays, which is again, you know, not only improve service to some of these
apartments in higher density area .... you live.... residential areas, but also has the additional
impact of, uh, providing better service to Kirkwood Community College. What it also does is
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Page 12
that the Quarters runs its own bus right now from the Quarters to Kirkwood Community
College to downtown Iowa City. It allows a partnership or the potential for a partnership with
Iowa City Transit, you know, to help fund that route. You know, so that there'd be one less
private bus in ... in downtown Iowa City, and those riders would be on Iowa City Transit instead
of on a .... a private route. Um, this similar type of partnership is in discussions with Coralville
Transit at the Latitude, um, apartment complex. You know, again, they have their own private
bus and it's really trying to figure out a way ...how can we make, how can we leverage some of
the funding that the Quarters is spending on transportation right now and have Iowa City Transit
be the one that benefits from that, from a ridership perspective, as well as fully utilizing the
capacity that is on that corridor. The other element, you know, other route in there is route 9,
the Towncrest route. We'd be looking at no changes in alignment or weekday frequency over
what's out there today. It's a good route. We wanted to keep it as is. Uh, and the last piece is
the South Gilbert route, route 13, and this would replace Westport Plaza service to the Coals
Mobile Home Park, and would also address one of the other things that we heard as a result of
this effort, which is access to Terry, you know, Trueblood Recreation area. This is not just
important from a ... providing recreational, you know, access, but also from a polling, you know,
there's a polling place there. And this I guess (mumbled) going to be a little bit important in a
couple weeks. You know, how do we provide access, you know, to an area like that, but it also
provides additional capacity on some of the growing portions on South Gilbert Street, you
know, where a.....a significant number of new apartments have opened up or are about to open
up, um, you know, along there. How we can accommodate those, you know, you know, what is
demand going to be from those and this provides some additional... additional capacity, you
know, to ... to some of these growing areas. So what this, you know, what are some of the
impacts associated with some of the changes with this, uh, with (mumbled) Some folks in the
Sheridan Avenue area, there's about four of them, would have a longer walk to transit, and in the
Highland Avenue area there's about five riders that would have ... also have a longer walk to
transit as a result of these recommendations. At the same time, you know, there would be
additional access to the Terry Trueblo... Trueblood Recreation Area. And, you know, so there's,
again, this is a trade off right here. It's like we're asking certain folks to walk a little bit further.
But at the same time we're able to get more frequent service on the Lower Muscatine Road, for
instance, and service to a new destination that was a ... a ... a requested, uh, destination. In
southwest Iowa Cityuh, you know, we ... looking at, you know, having four different routes.
One of them is the South Gilbert route that we had just mentioned briefly there. The Oak Crest
and route 8, um. ..... the, uh, west Iowa City route, uh, which is in orange, and let me just
describe this right now. (mumbled) it goes from downtown Iowa City, uh, past the hospital on
Newton Road, and then continues, uh, west on Melrose, and when it gets to Mormon Trek and
Rohret, it splits. So it comes every 30 minutes, uh, north of Rohret and Mormon Trek, and
every hour one bus would go to west .... you know, to on Rohret Road and the other one would
go to West Side Drive. So that, uh, there'd be two different tales of this route., I guess is the
best way to put it, and the combined frequency on the ... the core piece is every 30 minutes
throughout the day. Um, you know, so ... and the last piece is route 12, which would serve the
Pheasant Ridge area and connect it with, you know, the commercial area by the Walmart, and
some of the other commercial establishments here, and provide a more direct way from
residents from this, you know, very dense and in some cases, higher need area, uh, to get them
to a place to shop and, you know, potentially work as well, uh, before you know continuing the
route into downtown Iowa City. So, you know, from what the specific frequency improvements
are of that, you know. The Oak Crest routes, one of your best routes, uh, be looking at no
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Page 13
changes in alignment to this. We'd be looking at, you know, operating every 15 minutes during
peak hours, uh, just better serve these areas and to feed the ridership that's already there. Uh, be
looking at creating a, you know, the ... the west Iowa City route, uh, which, you know, continues
to provide service on Rohret and West Side Drive. Continues to provide a connection from
Rohret Road and West Side Drive to the hospital, which was one of the things that as a part of
our outreach effort, we heard loud and clear was a big priority for these neighborhoods, and
yeah, and then also has higher frequency throughout the day, a bus every 30 minutes along
Melrose, uh, you know, to, you know, between, uh, you know, Mormon Trek and Melrose,
and ... and the hospital. So that midday frequency would be improved as well. I touched a little
bit about... about the, you know, big, you know, what I consider a big deal about the Highway 1
route, route 12, which is a new connection... between west Iowa City and some of the
commercial districts, you know, south of Highway 6, and it also rather than, you know, looking
at, you know, three different variations or three different large loops, you know, that is the Plaen
View, Westwinds, and Westport Plaza routes. It consolidates it into one route that is easier to
understand, serves multiple destinations, and, you know, uh, you know, serves multiple different
trip types as well. The last route in southwest Iowa City is the Westport Pla... was the South
Gilbert route, which replaces the Westport Plaza service, um, and you know, I think, you know,
we touched upon that a little bit as well during the south Iowa City, uh, discussion. So wanted
to talk about, you know, also show where are, you know, who is negatively affected by these
recommendations here and, you know, the Mel .... along Melrose Avenue, you know, to the .... to
the west of the high school, there would be approximately 18 riders who would have a longer
walk to service, uh, you know, and you know, depending on where you are, it could be a much
longer walk, more than 10 minutes walk, you know, in order to access service. The Rohret
Road area, you know, there's some, you know, parts of the neighborhood that have service right
now that would not as a part of this. You know, one of the reasons we looked at shortening this
was this... this, you know, the current service in that area is the ... one of the worst offenders for
being late and we needed to shorten the route to keep this bus on time, uh, you know, during
peak times and you know, last on Riverside Drive, we'd be looking at, you know, depending on,
you know, uh, either by the Airport to the north, you know, closer to Highway 6, as well as, you
know, south, you know, we'd be looking at up to an eight minute walk to transit for up to 10
riders, uh, you know, as a result of the recommendation of changing the Westport Plaza route.
Got one more to go, uh, you know, the northwest Iowa City is currently served by, you know,
routes 6 .... or is by, you know, the, uh, Manville Heights route and, you know, we're in here. I
just wanna talk a little bit about routes 10 and route 6, and I mentioned route 10 going past the
hospitals and then continuing out to west Iowa City, and the other, you know, route is the
(mumbled) you know, what is currently the Manville Heights route. We're calling it the
Peninsula route, route 6, and you will see that it goes directly into downtown Iowa City, rather
than going into Manville Heights, and the reason for that is that, you know, Manville Heights
has very, very ...that the ... the neighborhood has very low ridership and some of that ridership can
also be served by Cambus services. Uh, you know, so the recommendation here is to have a
more direct shot and a direct service into downtown Iowa City, you know, and you know,
to.....for the ... the west Iowa City route, again, to continue to serve, uh, the hospital area, before
serving the Rohret Road and Westside Drive areas. The impacts of this, there's approximately
eight riders in Manville Heights that would not have access to an Iowa City transit route. Uh,
but many of these, you know, depending on where they are, would still be within a shorter
walking distance to a Cambus service, uh, that it would continue to serve the east side of the
Manville Heights neighborhood. So with, you know, with that, I want to sum up like, you
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Page 14
know, we talked a little bit about what the routes look like. We talked a little bit about, you
know, where they might go. This is right now a summary of the 26 different routes that Iowa
City Transit operates right now. Six of them operate on evenings and on Saturdays, uh, and
there's a different route name for them, and there's different alignment for them, and in most
cases the service during the mid-day is hourly. So, you know, this service is very much
designed to get you to an 8:00 to 5:00 job, but much less well designed for anybody that has an
irregular shift or even for students, you know, for whom, you know, getting to ... to and from,
you know, classes, once an hour service is not... not... simply not that attractive. And the
preferred alternative, this is the same summary, rather than 26 different routes, we'll be looking
at 13 different routes, with the same route alignment for weekend service or evening service, as
well as weekday service, and it's a, you know, we'd be looking at this, in some cases some
consolidated routes with overlapping services to make, you know, additional frequency. But
overall, seven rounds would have either fit, you know, have more frequent service during the
mid-day, urn .... you know, either 15 minute service on the downtown shuttle throughout the day
and then 30 minute mid-day service on south .... in south Iowa City, on Court Street, along
Muscatine, or you know, on Oak Crest, Towncrest, and in west Iowa City. So this is a ... an
improvement over what ... what's there today and it serves... it's a focus, more of a focus on not
just your peak commuter services, but, you know, other job seekers, other types of service, you
know, service jobs that may have non-traditional hours, that are not as well served by...by these
types of patterns. So, you know, one of the challenges that we ran into, let me just make sure I
didn't miss anything, one of the challenges we ran into this, though, and what ... one of the things
that we set a goal for ourselves, like, we really want to figure out how can we address one of the
top needs (mumbled) for users or non- users. It was either one or the, you know, the first or
second priority. Um, you know, the, you know, how do we afford Sunday service, and we
looked at a scenario (mumbled) you know, if we were to, you know, create Sunday level
service, you know, identical to what the preferred alternative call for Saturday's, it would
require about 12% of ICT's annual operating budget. And the question is, like, well, could we
still do that, and it was like, well, we could. I mean, we could cut back a series of things such
as frequency on Court Street and west Iowa City, and on Oak Crest, and we could delete service
to ... on South Gilbert to Terry Trueblood Recreation Area, and Cole's Mobile Home community,
and if we did that, if we reduce service on weekdays and Saturdays by doing something like
that, we could afford Sunday service. However, the implications of doing that would mean that
you would not generate as much ridership, you know, total. You would lose ridership, you
would lose a lot, you know, a fair amount of ridership by doing something like that. And you
would sit ... you would lose some of the, you know, potential gains in terms of trying to serve a
bigger market, uh, over what's out there today. So Sunday service is a big deal. And, you
know, I've worked in a community of similar size in Missoula, Montana and, you know,
we ... we've looked at, we finally ...it took years but finally got Sunday service, you know,
implemented after years of trying this, of trying, but it's... it's... to do it in Missoula, it required
additional resources, and here are the trade offs to provide additional service, just using your
existing son... existing resources, the trade offs to provide Sunday service, what you lose is
greater than what you would gain on Sundays, in my opinion. So it's an unfortunate answer.
It's not necessarily something I want to be saying, but, uh, that's that... that's...that's why the
recommendation for no Sunday service, within the constrained budget, is in the, uh, preferred
alternative. So that was a little bit negative, you know, in terms of like we can't do this, but
there are things that we can do as a result of this, and the preferred alternative will improve
ridership because of the ridership increases that will come from Kirkwood Community College,
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Page 15
the Quarters, the apartments on ... on Oak Crest. People will ride more often or new people will
arrive that aren't riding today, if service levels are improved in those areas. One of the other
areas where ridership will increase is during the mid-day. It, uh, it is, you know, the difference
of hourly service versus service every 30 minutes is big and not just that. You can get to a
service job right now, uh, during the mid-day and get back home in the evening, because the
evening services have been improved and are more direct and come ... become more, you know,
and ... and are easier to access. So you could have non-traditional work jobs and still use ICT in
order to get to and, you know, there ... there and back, and this is not just on the weekday
evenings. The same holds true on Saturdays, uh, where the service levels (mumbled) at the
very bare bones right now. We'd be operating every route that op .... you know, all but two
routes that operate on weekdays would also operate on Saturdays in the preferred alternative.
We have better access to areas of high need, you know, this Pheasant Ridge to shopping, you
know, to shopping and jobs. South Iowa City to the Heinz Road, uh, employment areas, as well
as an additional grocery store. And also, you know, for all these areas the additional weekday,
evening, and Saturday service. You know, by making the service more direct, less confusing,
uh, you know, reducing travel times, it right -sizes the system for where you are right now, and it
sets you up for that next piece, which is `how do I address some of the things we heard about
that we couldn't afford giving our additional... additional resources or existing resources, such as
service on Sundays, such as service, you know, to new areas that are growing such as
Sycamore... down Sycamore and south Iowa City. You know, we ... we can use this as a baseline,
say we've done the hard ... the hard part, which is or, you know, to say... service has changed the
needs, the needs have changed in Iowa City. Our route structure has remained the same for
decades. We can make a change to reflect what the needs are right now and build upon that for
the future. And that's what the preferred alternative looks to bring. In addition to the preferred
alternative, you know, we've got a couple of other things that I want to touch base on and one of
them is, uh, has to do with transit stops. Um, you know, the ... one of the things that, you know,
when we were doing our field work and going around, it became very clear that, you know,
there... you've got a lot of areas where bus stops are very close to each other. In some cases, you
know, a 10th of a mile apart. Uh, on Oak Crest, for instance, was one of the places we
measured, and this is one of the things that's always a trade off, where it's like what's more
important. - faster service on a bus or less walking for patrons to get to there? And depending
on who you are, if you're, you know, if you're using a walker, your answer is going to be very
different than if you're an 18 -year-old kid that's, you know, super spry and can ... can walk
everywhere. So finding the right balance is ... is the real key here. But one of the things that
system after system after system across the country has shown is that you can improve the
speed or your vehicles, and the reliability of your service by looking at consolidating some of
the stops so that, you know, if, you know, that ... to find that balance to say, you know, stops
shouldn't be 100 yards apart or 600 feet away, or 200 feet away, or whatever that number is, but
folks will walk a little bit further and most people are willing to trade faster bus service for a
slightly longer walk. And so as a result of the transit study, we looked at, you know,
opportunities to consolidate or relocate, or in some case add, uh, stops to improve speed and
reliability. These are suggestions. These are, you know, say here's... here's where you have
opportunities. You know, Darian mentioned there's 600 stops right now. One hundred and fifty
of them should be looked at in terms of `do we really need these,' and, you know, I'm sure, like,
you know, at least a third of these are going to say `yes.' But it's an opportunity that you look
at, you know, it's like to say, you know, we have an opportunity to improve our reliability,
improves our speeds, uh, you know, to make this happen. It's not just about the speed and
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reliability. It also has to do with the dollars that you have available to you to improve your bus
stops. On the right, the upper left- hand corner is a picture that I took, you know, this winter.
You know, here's what a bus stop looks like. This is on the Oak Crest route. There's no
amenities here. It's not ADA -accessible. And, you know, the more stops that you have like this
means that there's more stops you have to upgrade to ADA levels. It's more stops you're going
to get requests for capital facility improvements to. It's in, you know, it's a ... if we look at
consolidating these stops, it means that we can concentrate where our capital resources go into
areas where they... they're, the stops are actually used effectively. We can, you know, look at,
you know, improving... put shelters in places. We can look at better signage. We can put a...
heating. We can put lighting. We can put real-time information at some of the shelters, and the
difference in quality of waiting, for instance, in the stop to the upper left, to the stop in the
lower left. It's like night and day. And you know, it's like, where would you, where would you
as a user feel more comfortable, you know, standing waiting for a bus? Um, you know, so this
is ... this is why consolidating stops. It's not just about improving speed, but then being able to
focus resources in those areas that need ... need the investment to improve it so that bus riders
feel like they're... they're valued and they don't feel like they're, you know, stand... literally
standing on the side of a road, you know, unsheltered. One of the other elements... we looked at
this and Darian also alluded to this, was the vision for transit ,and this is, you know, we ... in
talking to the community, this is one of the hardest things about, uh, you know, doing these
types of plans. There's always more need than there is the resources to be able to do something.
And so, you know, that the need exceeds the funding. And so if we were to say, you know, what
were some of the big priorities that we heard? Well, you know, that's like, what can we do to
improve transit? Well, what can we do to improve mobility within the region? And there's a
couple of things that came up, and we have nine different, you know, potential
recommendations for this, and it includes (mumbled) we'll go into a fare -free Iowa City Transit
service. That's a ... there's a ... got a discussion on that a little bit later on. But improve, you
know, increasing the number of corridors where there's a bus every 15 minutes, not just during
peak time, but during the mid-day as well. Uh, implementing Sunday service. Improving
Sunday service so it operates earlier and later. This was a, you know, one of the things that
existing riders said was very important. Having service that goes later than 10:00 P.M. Um,
either, you know, with ... on ... on weekdays or, you know, for anybody working in the restaurant
industry. How does the dishwasher get home, for instance. Uh, you know, these are really
important things, you know, its like so looking at what are some of the lower cost ways to be
able to do this and, like, an on -demand, you know, late-night service, for instance, or how do we
serve some of these neighborhoods that don't have the density for service right now, for ...for a
big 40 -foot bus or a 30 -foot bus to go in there. But how do we serve some these lower density
neighborhoods that, you know, said we have a need for service. We want mobility too, and
begin looking at on -demand type services, you know, to serve some of these areas. One of the
things we also heard and, you know, was, you know, we don't want to go to downtown, you
know, downtown Iowa City for every trip type. You know, why can't you put service between
east and west Iowa City, along Highway 6, or up and down Scott Boulevard, or First, uh, or
Camp Cardinal, you know. So these are all, you know, looking at cross-town services is a fancy
word for a route that does not go to downtown Iowa City. Uh, is one of the things we also
looked at, is it part of the transit vision? And the last piece was a new Iowa City route, you
know, route that would serve the South Gilbert corridor and the HyVee area, and then
Sycamore, you know ...you know, this ... and then go further south and Sycamore than, you know,
what the current Broadway route and Lakeside routes do right now. Get closer to the new
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elementary school, get closer to some of the ... where the residential growth, I mean it's
happening right now. Uh, but where even more residential growth is anticipated (mumbled) to
be happening. So really start thinking about... it's not just what can we do today but starting to
think ahead for the future of, like, where are those needs going to be and what what could those
look like. Now I think, you know, uh, you know, the ... this was talked about in terms of -it's a
big lift and, you know, there's at ... this number should scare (laughs) I mean it scared me when I
first, you know, calculated this, but it's a big lift. If we did everything as a part of the, uh, you
know, the, you know, the vision for transit, it's close to $10 million in additional operating costs
annually. And one time capital costs of, you know, close to $19 million and the ... the CAP one-
time capital costs, you know, is, uh, includes electric vehicles, which are more expensive than,
you know, uh, than the regular diesels. But the capital costs, you know, are often... there's...
there's grants that can offset some of this. So that the number looks big, but, uh, it's not
something that you would necessarily be paying, you know, that ... or the taxpayers of Iowa City
directly would be paying, you know, for ...for something like this. But this gives you an idea of
like what would it take to do each one of these and, you know, it's in communities that we've
worked with beforehand when (mumbled) we looked at what is the vision for transit. It
typically said, what are the ... things that are most important to us, and begin biting off, you
know, bite -size, you know, and it's like what can we implement in the next five years? How
will we find revenue to be able to do these things. Uh, you know, so it's a ... it's an ambitious list,
but this is, you know, really if you were to say, what did we hear, what are the needs today, what
are the needs in the future, and how do we meet the goals that you've set out for yourself, the
double ridership in 10 years. Here's a list of things that you can do in order to make that
happen. One of the last things I want to talk about is ... the last thing I want to talk about, is the
fare policy and the fare structure, and you know this is, you know the ... you know, one of the
things that, one of the goals that Darian talked about was the... improving the fare structure, of
making it easier to understand, and I wanted to, you know, give an example of This is the
overall fare structure. That includes Coralville Transit and, uh, Iowa City Transit, and you can
see that there's, what, 16 different categories and only three of them have compatibility
between, you know ...you know, inner city (mumbled) Iowa City Transit and (laughs) Coralville
Transit, but there's a lot of options and if you think about what an operator, you know, has to go
through. It's like somebody flashes a pass or, you know, says I'm only paying 50 -cents. There's
opportunity for conflict here. And the other thing is, you know (mumbled) look at, it's like
here's what the fares are. It's complicated! And if market research will show you that one of
the things that prevents new passengers or new riders from using a service is they're scared of
looking like an idiot when they get on a bus, to say, `I have no idea how to pay. I have no idea
what my fare should be,' because there's ... is it a dollar, is it 75 cents, is it 50 cents, is it free. I
have no idea. You know, oh, it's 3:05; it's not free anymore. It was 10 minutes ago. So it's ... it's
...what I wanted to illustrate here is that there's some complications in what the fare structure
looks like right now and what the compat... compatibility looks like. So we looked at, you
know, several... multiple different options to say how can we simplify this? One of them was to
say, `Do you need to have a fare in the first place?' And so this is a big policy decision, uh, you
know ...you know, should we begin looking at this. And I'll talk about the benefits of this, and
you know what the, how ... what other agencies have ... their experience has been, and also what
the drawbacks are associated with this. The benefits are, uh, simplified administration, you
know, it's like there is a cost to counting the money. There's a cost to having fare boxes.
There's a cost for staffing, you know, to do this. Ridership and productivity goes up
dramatically. Missoula, Montana, which is a system that I took fare -free almost, you know, six
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or seven years ago. Their ridership is up 70%. This is pre-COVID numbers. This is February
2019 numbers, up 70% over what it was when we started. That's almost your goal of doubling
ridership right there. And the biggest thing they did was get rid of their fares, and they also
have a parallel university system that operates there. So it wasn't just sneaking riders from the
university system. It was the community stepping up. It also has operational benefits. There's
less time spent say, you know, paying the fare and the travel times are faster as a result. The on-
time performance of Iowa City Transit's routes, right, you know, before ... while they were not
paying fair due to COVID, service was significantly more reliable than what it was beforehand.
One of the things that fare -free also shows is that people will change their patterns, if the bus is
fair free. There's no need to pay. Existing riders will ride more often, and new riders will be
attracted to this. And if you look at some of the things we've seen in Chapel Hill, North
Carolina. You know, that's where University North Carolina, is as well as, uh, Missoula,
Montana, which is where University of Montana is, there is ... it becomes a part of the local
fabric, you know, that our buses are free. We can get to wherever we want to. And people
respond to that. The Chamber of Commerce has supported it. It's a matter of community
recognition and pride, you know. So, on the other hand, there are some costs, you know, and
you know, that go along with the benefits. In the case of Iowa City Transit, uh, for fixed route
services, we'd be looking at between a 701 million passenger per year increase. Now before
2019 or before COVID, the average baseline would say is like you were carrying about 1.5
million passengers a year. So with this, you'd be looking at adding between 700 and a million,
you know, 700,000 and a million passengers as a result of this, and it will cost you, you know,
there's additional operating dollars. There's a couple routes you'd have to operate more often,
and you'd have to replace the fare box revenue, which is about 1.3 to $1.4 million annually.
And, you know, we'd have to buy a couple of extra buses in order to make that happen. But for
an investment, you know, of, you know, a ... a relatively small investment, you could have a
massive increase in ridership, and it is the ... by far and away the most cost effective way you can
take that step toward meeting your goal of doubling ridership in the next 10 years. There will
be implications on para -transit as well. So this is if the fare goes away on fixed route, the fare
must go away on para -transit as well. And there's costs associated with that, due to the
increases in demand. So it's like there's.... they're a package deal. So it is a... it's
transformational. It will ... it can change things, but again, it's a ... there's a cost associated with it.
And it's not just replacing the fare box, but you're gonna need additional buses, you're gonna
need additional operating dollars, uh, to be able to do that. Um, you know, inner-city transit,
which is what I, you know, the system in Olympia, Washington, is a system we just took fare -
free in January of 2019, and in the first two months before COVID, uh, ridership was up more
than 25%, you know, so this is, again, is a huge opportunity to quickly increase the number of
people using your services, uh, at a relatively low, uh, investment. But recognizing that that is a
big policy decision, uh, we wanted to also look at what are some of the other options to simplify
fares. Um, and so, you know, the goals, you know, for... from... from a fare analysis perspective,
we wanted to improve passenger experiences, streamline fares, make it easier, and then also
make it more affordable, you know, for low income and disadvantaged populations, and what...
what are some of the options we looked at right there. This is the same table, uh, that showed
the recommended... this is the recommended fare .... fare, uh, structure. And I think there's a
couple of takeaways here rather than, you know, just simply looking at every single line item on
here. It's the consistency between Iowa City Transit and Coralville Transit, so that transfers are
a possibility, that if that the fares are similar, you know, whether it's a ticket price. It's a 10 -ride
ticket element, you know, whether it's elderly and disabled fares, whether it's low income
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elderly folks, folks to the Medicare (mumbled). That the the fare is the same so the confusion is
not necessarily there in terms of is my fare good on this, you know, how does this work
regionally. So this is, again, a way to improve legibility, simplify things, and... and, you know,
make it ... the regional fare structure, uh, easier to understand. However, you know, this, you
know, simplifying does, again, has a cost associated with it. And so we looked at, you know,
what would be the potential ridership increases or ri .... as well as the cost increases associated
with this, and the graphic right here shows some of those, uh, changes for both Coralville
Transit and Iowa City Transit. Iowa City Transit is the, uh, the red and orange colors. Um,
the ... the impacts of simplifying the fare structure would have minimal impact on Coralville
Transit, and, you know, would have, you know, it would lead to an anticipated increase in
ridership for Iowa City Transit, as well as a, you know, a need to, you know, fund a revenue
shortfall of approximately $55,000, but by doing so, you know, reduced, you know, the fares for
some of those that need it the most, you know, people with disabilities, Medicare card holders,
SEATS card holders, um, you know, would all have lower fares as a result of this, and
the ... there will be ability to transfer from one agents to the other, regardless of what pass type
you have. So, I've done a lot of talking, uh, probably too much right now. Uh, so I'm gonna,
you know, turn it back over to Darian, uh, to talk about some of the potential funding options,
and I believe it will be time for question and answer afterwards.
Nagle-Gamm/ Okay. All right. I'm just getting everything situated. I hope you can see my screen now.
Okay, so last couple sides, really quickly, um, that we're gonna talk about are potential funding.
You heard of a lot of potential enhancements. Some of those vision items that Thomas
mentioned, um, that we heard from the public, but we weren't able to ... to, uh, propose within
our existing funds. So how ... how do we potentially fund some of these, and our goal
(mumbled) excuse me, our goal tonight is not necessarily to just figure out how to fund all these
enhancements definitively, but really want to just (mumbled)t through that preferred transit
system design alternative and really determine what enhancements you may be interested in,
moving forward. Ultimately staff will come back with some more information on a few
revenue sources, um, because really there's ultimate way or there's multiple ways that we can...
that we can potentially, um, get this done, really. So some of those sources. (both talking)
Yeah, sorry.
Fruin/ And, Darian (both talking) Sorry, we can't see your screen. There you go. Thank you.
Nagle -Lamm/ Can you see it now? Thanks. Thanks, Geoff! So, um, some of those potential funding
sources include increasing parking fees to help with our operating expenses. Just one second
here. Sorry, I'm going to turn my my ... my screen is now .... now I can't see myself. Bear with
me. Okay, there we go. So again, increase parking fees is a potential way we can help support
some of those additional operating expenses. Thomas talked about a potential partnership with
the Quarters or there may be other entities in the community that we could potentially partner
with that would benefit from, um, from our transit system enhancements. Um, that's another
operating expense, uh, that could be potentially covered through partnership. Um, I know many
of you sit on the MPO, local MPO, um, Urbanized Area Policy Board and so this may be
familiar to you. But there's a federal surface transportation block grant funding source that
comes from the federal government every two years, I believe is when we apportion it, and in
the spring there will be $8 million coming to the metro area that can be used for either road
projects or capital projects, as they relate to transit. So that would be transit buses or transit
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facilities. So that's another potential, um, upcoming, uh, funding source. Caveat with that is
that I believe in the spring that we'll be programming out to the years 20 and 25 so that
wouldn't be a potential immediate source, but that might be one to think about for the future.
Of course, um, as Thomas alluded to, there are state and federal grant funding sources,
especially when it comes to buses. Again, those are in the capital expenses. We were the lucky
recipient of the low, no emissions grant, which is a federal, um, grant funding source for the
four new electric buses we'll be replacing buses with. So there ... that's not the only funding
source, but there are others we can certainly look into. Uh, we have received some, um, much
needed emergency CARES Act funding from the federal government that can be used for
operating expenses or capital expenses. I've indicated it's sort of limited in terms of operating
expenses, because we do have ... we were awarded 5.1 million, um, we have used probably about
740,000 thus far, and it's really meant to help us get through this pandemic. So there are
funding, uh, there's some funding available there, but it ... it's not necessarily guaranteed that,
um, it will go past the amount that we've been allocated today, but it is an option for capital and
operating. Property taxes, of course, is another option for operating or capital expenses.
There's also utility tax, um, that could be used to help support operating expenses. And last but
not least, um, sales tax, which can be used for potentially, um, supporting operating expenses
and capital expenses. All right, so last slide. Next step, so the reason we're here tonight is to
bring you up to speed on where we're at with the transit study and to really get your initial
feedback. I know we've just given you a lot of information, but that's really important, um, to...
for us to determine the path forward. We'll also be planning for in-person and virtual public
hearing, safe in-person, socially distanced, and virtual public hearings, um, in early 2021 to
present the proposed routes, stops, and service changes. We plan to do a full public outreach
strategy to make sure people are aware. We're going to be distributing flyers about the events in
multiple languages. The ... the best practice for making this large-scale changes or proposing
large-scale changes to your transit system is to really distribute flyers for each route that a rider
knows and loves and rides all the time so people can understand (garbled) say for example the
Broadway route today and the south Iowa City route, um, in the future, and those are the types
of materials we'd be translating in multiple languages as well. We'll be touching base with our
stakeholder groups that we've been engaging. We'll, uh, we've got an idea to have an
information booth at the interchange to connect directly with customers, and if it's cold enough
there might be some hot cocoa there, um, to keep people warm. Um, direct outreach to our
transit populations to continue with that initiative. Um, digital outreach, legacy media, and you
know, on -bus a bus enunciator messaging, which is we've been cleverly using, uh, new
techniques during the pandemic to help remind people to wear masks, but we can certainly also
use that to help remind people about upcoming transit changes. So, um, we're going to be
developing a phased implementation plan, field evaluating, and finalizing all those transit stops,
placements that Thomas talked about, those recommendations. We need ... we need to get out to
all the stops and really take a look at all of them, and then ultimately finalizing the ICATS plan
and bringing it to the Council for consideration in the spring, with our eye on launching, um, the
first phase of any transit system design changes in the summer of 2021. Last but not least, um,
good news story is that we don't have to wait to implement everything in the transit
recommendations from the transit study until next summer. Um, we really think that some of
the fare and fare policy recommendations that Thomas walked... walked you through to help,
you know, bring Coralville and Iowa City in better alignment could be implemented sooner, um,
and really when agreed upon by Coralville and Iowa City. So, um, with that I wanted to tum it,
um, over to the Council, and we'd be happy to answer any questions, um, or comments that you
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may have about our presentation or the transit study!
Teague/ Thanks, Thomas and Darian. (echoing) Councilors, we have (echoing, difficult to hear) 30 I'm
sorry, 15 minutes before we have to stop for a break for our formal meeting, and so we'll have a
hard, fast stop at 6:45, but this is a lot of information. It was a great presentation. So thanks to
you and Thomas for really navigating us through this. I have lots of comments, but I'm going to
defer to our Councilors first.
Mims/ Well, I would just say, yeah, thank you very much to both, uh, Darian and Thomas, and as the
Mayor said there is a lot of information here. I'm excited to ... to delve into this a little bit deeper
and to, you know, kind of have the slides to go through at my own pace and review. So other
than saying I'm really excited to see, um, the input you've gotten and the strategies you've taken
to try and meet a lot of the needs in the community, and your, uh, your reasoning and rationale
for some of the things that are not in there, which I think is also very helpful. Um, I guess I
don't really have any more comments at this point other than thank you. There's a lot here. I
want to sit down and digest it, um, and be interested in more conversation maybe when we have
a dedicated work session to this.
Taylor/ Yeah, I (both talking)
Thomas/ I'll try to keep my comments brief too, given the time constraints, but I ... I would say, um,
clearly one of the big moves that, um, I think we're being asked to consider is the question of
free fares, and I ... I have to say I was, um, I think if we're looking at this in a forward sort of
way, you know, with respect to climate change, quality of life, issues of equity, uh, that fare -free
service is very attractive to me, uh, as a way of increasing ridership, um, and making a
statement about the direction we're going as a community. Um, so that ... I think in terms of that
big vision, that certainly is a very compelling one, and then the question is, how do we pay for
it. Um, I certainly think trying to balance, uh, parking, for example, our parking rates, um, may
be too low, and so we try to incentivize what we want to incentivize, and at least, uh, see if we
can't rely on increasing our parking fees, which is all sort of within the transportation system, to
...to make that happen. Uh, some of the other, quickly, uh, issues, I ... I really like the route
reduction. It's a much more legible system. Uh, there is more, um, walking required. Uh, so I
would again speak to making sure those walks are safe and comfortable. Typography is going
to be an issue, I think, uh, as well, um, and if we have a way of putting bikes on the front of the
vehicles, the buses, you know, and linking that, um, those longer distances by way of bicycling
that that may not ... not be quite as much of a hurdle as it would be otherwise. The numbering
system is great. I think that's much more memorable and easy to to understand as well. Uh, the
transit stops, reducing the number, making sure they're attractive, comfortable, uh, makes a lot
of sense. That really speeds up the trips because you're not stopping as often. So you just need
to make sure that that wait, where you're waiting for the bus, is a really comfortable and safe
place to be, as was noted. So I think overall it's a really impressive, um, effort. Uh, thanks to
everyone for ...who participated and, uh, look forward to making action on this.
Taylor/ I would echo that, that I thank you, Darian and Thomas, for the presentation. I was really
excited to finally get this information, long awaited, and, uh, I think it was you, Thomas.
(mumbled) you'd mentioned that it's been decades, the system that we have in place is decades
and ... and that's not an exaggeration. I know someone who drove bus over 30 years ago and
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these routes are exactly the same and the system is exactly the same as it was then. So, uh, it is
high time for changes, and as ... as John Thomas mentioned, you know, to go from 26 to 13,
that's pretty amazing, and that's exciting, and it seemed like it's really very well planned out and
I appreciate the information, and, uh, we'll have to have some time, I think, to digest it, uh, and
look at the financial aspect of it too. So thank you again.
Salih/ I really think, um.....first, yeah, this is really amazing and great work, hard work. I don't know
how you do all this, is a lot. And I thank you for putting the time. Uh, I guess this is took like
your entire time. You seem like you were very busy to put all this data together, you know, my
only concern is, um, of course, great job putting this out. Yes, I'm gonna go everything other
people said, uh, about how it's amazing putting this together. But, you know, I really concerned
that I understand that you reduce the hour to around 12 or 15. But my concern will be reducing
a route .... what about those route is just like, uh, what the people saying about this route that
been reduced, and also just talking about improving the transit. When we ... when we first have
this study to improve the transit, and we knew that this is will come with additional funds, to
improve something that means to put more fund into it, which is right now it seems what I
understood even though I was .... most of the presentation my internet was out. I did not hear it
very well. But my understanding from wh... from my meeting was the City Manager and the
Mayor that there is, uh, you know, we using the same bucket just to ... using the same bucket to
improve the transit. I guess using the same bucket's never going to improve it the way that we
want, because when we say when gonna add Sunday service, that's money! When we say we
want more, uh, like evening service that's additional money, and when we ... we say we want it
like to add more hours, this is money too, and they're saying that we increase the frequency, but
we are making people left out. I guess the survey mentioned that there's a lot people want
Sunday services, because those ... the low income people who need the services, after -hour
people who work after -hour, people who really want to have more ... two job (unable to
understand) one is a low income people, and they don't, most likely, they don't have a car and I
guess here in the city we don't want to encourage people for the climate action plan to drive
cars, even if they have. So I understand that, but it is not enough. I understand from the
calculation I caught is like 1.5 million to add late services, Sunday services, and improve
Saturday services. Around 1.5 more, uh, if I can catch it right, and also, you know, just like, uh,
adding that—the route that has been eliminated. I don't want to talk too much on that, but I
wanna hear from people. I hope the people that they knew the route would be eliminated, they
have to come out and tell us, is this something really going to be difficult and if this route was
really ...a lot of people was using it, I ... I hope they can come out and speak about that. Uh, but
for me, I think this is great, as you know like this, but we need Sunday services! We need, uh,
Saturday services. Those people, like improving Saturday services and adding late services,
those the most important who low income people always ask about it, and I think that's one of
the thing that we ... when we ask for this study, those was the main thing that we asked for. I
hope as a Council to think. I know that, uh, you guys, they're just waiting for our directions.
You will do whatever the Council come from. Nothing against you all! But I'm really saying
that Council should think about those three things — late services, Sunday services, Saturday
services, who those people. Low income, people of color, black people, and we are doing Black
Life Matter now. Hopefully you guys think about this. Thank you.
Taylor/ Darian and Thomas, I just want to do maybe a quick clarification on ... on the words that are
being used, and I know I used it. I said, uh, reduce, but I think it's, uh, more clear would be that
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they're consolidated, they're being consolidated. The routes. You're not truly eliminating any...
any routes as such, but consolidating them. So there aren't going to be any routes that will no
longer be serviced, is ... is that correct?
Nagle-Gamm/ Yeah, so that's... that's correct, um, Pauline. So really the point was to ... to go ... to take a
deeper dive into neighborhoods that had multiple transit routes, and look and see if multiple
routes could be better served by...by a reduction in the number of routes, but really making one
route that's better. Um, and the perfect example of that is in south Iowa City really. There was
there ... three routes. There was Broadway. There's Lakeside, and there is Cross Park, which
only functions part of the day and had very low ridership, and I think it's because it's very
confusing for people and they don't ... they don't really understand where it goes. And both, as
Thomas mentioned, both of those routes are loop routes. So really people can get on the bus
and then they have to go out of their way if they're heading towards downtown, for example,
out of their way and then go back to the downtown. So really condensing the routes into one
really strong route that provided direct out -and -back service on the same route. So it's very
predictable, you know, uh, as Thomas mentioned, you're going to get on the bus here. you're
going to get off, um, across the street at night. So that was, um, that's what ... that's what we
mean by reduction. So it's a reduction in number, but it's really a consolidation of service, to
a ... to a smaller and more effective number of routes.
Salih/ That's really is not my understanding. I hope you clarify this more to me because what I
understood from the City Manager, I told you I was often on during this, uh, you know
presentation, but what I understood that, you know, around from ... from around 20 route become
12 and 15, and what I exactly the example that the City Manager gave me when I asked him the
question, he said some people have to walk to go to that route that was close to them, but their
route is no longer ...the bus cannot come on that, but they have to walk like some distance so
they can catch the bus on the other route. That what my understanding, I don't know, using like
some word that maybe is not clarifying exactly what .... what you meant by that. Would you
please explain?
Nagle -Gamin/ No, you're... you're correct. Um, so there... with the consolidation of routes, um, in
certain neighborhoods, there will ... it will require that some people walk further to get to that
one route. So if there were three routes that canvas the neighborhoods in a ... in a variety of
different ways, um, it's consolidated to one route, some people will have to walk further to get
to that... that... that one consolidated route. That is correct.
Teague/ I wanted to give Councilor Weiner an opportunity before our time is up.
Weiner/ So, I mean, I really appreciate the ... sort of the structure and the simplic.... simplification of the
routes. I've lived in a lot of cities and this one has always seemed this... our ...for our relatively
small city this has seemed like a really... almost opaquely difficult situation. I concur with the
notion that it can be, um, it can be intimidating to step onto a ... a transit, any transit system, if
you don't know how much it's going to be, or if you don't exactly know where it is, or where
you should get off. Um, that said, what I heard from the beginning, from our City Manager to
the end from Darian was sort of here's what the current money would buy us and here is what
we can have in addition that we know you all want, but we just want you to know how much
extra it's going to cost. And I, and I believe that I also heard the City Manager say essentially,
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um, we need to think bigger, and I was really actually excited to see that there's a number of
these services, such as Sunday service, improve Saturday service, late ... late weekday service,
um, that can be added on without additional capital costs. So I think it's a great starting point,
and I think the framing of it for me, which is, as I said, you know, here's... here's what... here's
the money we have now. But... and here's what we can do if we just ... if we decide to invest
more in it is a ... is for me a very good way to frame it.
Teague/ All right, well, we are at our 6:45 and what I'm going to say in regards to the transit study is I
really believe that we have to think with the end in mind when we're thinking about this. We've
already been talked .... uh, we've already been shown future improvements, and I really believe
that those future improvements, Council, we really should consider them now. That would
involve Sunday services, late night services, whether it's on -demand, whatever the case may be,
as well as, um, the ... the fee, uh, the free fare. So, I'll leave it at that. We need to dedicate a ... a...
definitely a future work session to this. We're going to go ahead and (both talking)
Salih/ (both talking) ...speak, Mayor.
Teague/ (both talking) Oh, yes, I'm sorry about that. We will allow, uh, Councilor Bergus to speak, and
then after that we will end our time here and go to the formal meeting.
Bergus/ That's fine, Mayor, we can ... we can pick it up later. I agree with everything that all the other
Councilors said. Thank you.
Teague/ Sorry for the oversight. All right. All right, so we're gonna go ahead and end our time now.
Um, is there any pressing thing that anyone wants to mention before we go into our formal
meeting, any clarification of agenda will have to be done on the spot.
Fruin/ Mayor, if..if I may real quick just for the... anybody in the public that may be watching, if I
suggest to Council, um, I think we'll have some work session time, won't be a full session, but
some work session time to continue this at...at your October 20th meeting. I think it would be
good for our planning purposes, knowing that we have an implementation schedule and a
budget, um, presentation that we've got to pull together in the next couple months to ... to follow
up this presentation with the Council discussion as soon as we can.
Teague/ All right, sounds good. IA think the Council is pretty much open to that. I see some noddin'
of heads. All right, great. We will see you all back at 7:00 P.M. for our formal meeting. See
you soon!
(BREAK FOR FORMAL)
(RECONVENE AFTER FORMAL)
COVID-19 Update:
Teague/ We are at the work session, returning to the work session. So earlier today at 5:00 P.M. we
started our work session and we weren't able to get totally through it. And so we're back at our
work session, uh, just continuing, um, the work session. So I think what we, uh, where we kind
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of left off was definitely ending, um, some comments to staff about the transportation study, and
we're going to be meeting again. We're gonna dedicate some time at our next work session, uh,
to that topic, which will be, I believe it's the 20th of -yes, the 20th of October. So we do
welcome people to come back to, uh, listen in on that work session and also, uh, reach out to
Councilors, if you have any thoughts and comments. All right, we're gonna go to the next item
on our work session agenda, which is COVID-19. I do know that, uh, Councilor Weiner, I
always count on it, was going to give some updates about COVID-19. Any other comments
that people want to give related to COVID-19?
Continue Discussion of Black Lives Matter and Systemic Racism:
Teague/ Alright, moving on to the next one is, uh, continuing our discussion, um, with Black Lives
Matter and systemic racism, and I know that, uh, we mentioned a little bit earlier today that
we're going to be having our last session, uh, within the public, uh, our listening session, which
is gonna to be at the Dream Center, and our ...I know that Councilor Bergus just mentioned that,
um, can you mention, um, that it's gonna be at the Dream Center and it's gonna be Thursday at
5:30 P.M. Did you have an address for that at all, Councilor Bergus?
Taylor/ Southgate Avenue.
Bergus/611 Southgate Avenue.
Teague/ 611 South Gate Avenue at the Dream Center. So please come out there. This is really an
opportunity, uh, to speak to anybody from the community, but we're going to be also focusing in
on our youth. So we're excited for that opportunity. Any other items, um, on the Black Lives
Matter movement and systemic racism that anyone want to mention for now?
Weiner/ I would just mentioned that ... that I hope that we get as robust the series of applicants for the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission as we had for the Human Rights Commission, uh, and
that I look forward to seeing what we ... the applications we have, um, in ... in the next month.
Clarification of Agenda Items:
Information Packet Discussion (September 17, 24; October 1):
Teague/ I would agree. All right. We already went through the agenda items. So, um, don't need any
clarification there. The info packets! We're going to go through ... we have three of them. Um,
so info packet number ...um, dated September 17th. And then info packet, um, September 24.
Now I do know that we need to, well, September 23 ... 4th. And we'll get to items one and two
listed below, um, from the October 1 st in ... in a minute here. Hearin' nothing from September
24`x', we're gonna go to October 1 st and we will talk about, um, IP 5, but we're gonna talk about
that ... well, let's talk about that first and then IP 6, that does involve ... wait a minute, I am
blankin' on...
Salih/ Mayor, if you don't mind if you can talk about the thing that I can attend and the thing that I
cannot attend, leave it last so like I can just walk out.
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Teague/ Yeah, that's what I'm trying to think ... think about, but yes. (laughs)
Taylor/ That's.... that's item number two, Mayor.
Teague/ All right, I was trying to figure out which which one it was. All right. So then we'll do all but
item number two. So I guess our City Manager wants to talk. Well, there was a memo from the
City Manager about the CARES ACT, um, is round three, Community Development Block
Grant and CV funds. So, can we get a little update on that, please?
Frain/ Yeah, Tracy Hightshoe's on the ... on the call as well and, um, as we had mentioned before with
the third round of, um, CARES Act funding coming our way. We don't know exactly when that
will be, uh, but we, as .... as staff have suggested a, uh, small business support program. So if
you recall, the first two rounds of CARES Act funds we've had, we've designated towards non-
profit funding, and housing and utility relief. Um, with this next round of 424,000, we're
recommending to Council that, uh, we look at a ... a small business support program. So Tracy
has outlined, um, what that might look like, um, in a ... in a brief memo, and we just want to get
your ...your comfort level with us, um .... uh, running with that concept or if you want to, um,
press pause and consider other uses. That would be ... this would be a good time to ... to let us
know.
Mims/ I would just say, I like that approach because I think that can also have a huge impact on
individuals who are having problems making rent and mortgage payments, because if...if these
small businesses compete, people... can keep people employed, then those people are going to be
that much better off and much less at risk of, um, problems paying their bills. So I think we've
put a lot of emphasis, and rightly so, in terms of rents, mortgage payments, utilities, etc. in the
first two rounds. But I think we're working with small businesses, um, and some of this is
focused on those people with low income, uh, wage eamers, etc. I think makes a lot of sense. It
could help us kind of a in a double ... in a double way here.
Taylor/ I agree.
Frain/ Tracy, is there any, uh, clarification that you need or questions that you need answered in order
to proceed with this?
Hightshoe/ No. Um, as long as Council wants to support a small business assistance program, we will
work on administration of that, who we partner with to administer it, and then the program
parameters. Once we develop that, we do have to do an annual action plan amendment. So
you'll be ... you'll be getting this back again in another council meeting. So hopefully, um, it'll
either be the next Council meeting or the first one in November.
Thomas/ I guess just one quick question I had just to, uh, perhaps verify what is assumed here is ... is
(mumbled) these small business... small business owners (garbled) perhaps verify what is
assumed here is .... these small business.... small business owners going (garbled)
Frain/ Tracy, you need to mute your (both talking)
Hightshoe/ ...sorry I didn't catch that. Are they going to be what?
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Thomas/ Local. Uh, are they going to be local businesses? (several talking)
Fruin/ ...mute your (garbled) Go ahead and try again, Councilor Thomas.
Thomas/ Okay, um, I just wanted to confirm that when we're talking small businesses (both talking)
Hightshoe/ They will have to qualify and meet federal guidelines. So (both talking)
Fruin/ Go ahead and try again, Councilor Thomas.
Thomas/ Okay, one more time, uh, small businesses that are local. Is that the case as well?
Salih/ You are muted, Tracy.
Hightshoe/ ...was a delay. So I'm not sure when I should start talking or not, um ... (echo in background)
Eleanor Dilkes, City Attorney: Just say yes. (laughter)
Hightshoe/ I am now?
Taylor/ No, not now.
Hightshoe/ (laughing) I don't know when I should talk! Um (echoing) Yes! (echoing) Okay, there is a
delay. Um, I don't know why, but yes, we can put parameters on it. We can put ... we can cap it
annual sales. We can cap it by number of employees. We can say no change. So we will ... we
will be developing those parameters, but the intent is for small businesses. I hope to god you
guys all heard that!
Teague/ All right. Any other, um, thoughts on that item? Any other items from October 1', outside of
number two, which is IP6.? Hearin' none, now we're going to excuse our Mayor Pro Tem.
Unless you have somethin' else you wanna mention, Mayor Pro Tem.
Salih/ Ah, it is ... this is the last item. Right? I don't have to come back, do I?
Teague/ Um (both talking)
Salih/ Good night, everyone!
Teague/ Yes (laughs)
Salih/ And also we finish early, before nine. That's great. Okay. Bye, everyone. Thank you. Bye,
bye. Good night!
Teague/ All right, so I think our Mayor Pro Tem is gone. So IP 6 from the October 1 st is the memo
from the Neighborhood and Development Services Director, update on City -assisted COVID
housing programs. So, um, maybe we'll... Tracy, did you want to give us an update on that or
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no?
Hightshoe/ (echoing) Sure! (laughs) Lord I hope this works! Just remember I'm on a 15 -second delay.
So if you guys speak, I'm not gonna get it for about 15 seconds. (laughs) Okay, so at your last
Council meeting, um, you requested staff to reach out to our COVID relief, um, agencies and
ask if they needed any additional funds to help them with staff capacity to get the programs out
to the people who need it most. So I spoke with Shelter House, CommUnity, and Center for
Worker Justice. Shelter House and CommUnity both said no, they feel that they have adequate
funds to administer the programs that they have. Um, we did get a chance to speak about...
CommUnity's administering the first, um, wave of funds, that first round of funds for 246,000.
Um, that ... they've expressed an interest that when we renew the contract for 390,000, um, they
won't be able to administer that just because they're in the process of hiring a new Director of
Services, opening a larger second Food Bank site, and implementing new programming for
their crisis intervention and mobile. They are working closely with Shelter House, um, and so
they're going to work closely with Shelter House to spend the rest of the 246,000 and then
Shelter House has requested to administer the second round of these funds, which staff fully
supports. The State of Iowa has over nine million in their first round of (mumbled) solutions
grant. Um, it's to the CARES Act, and Shelter House is the regional sponsor of those funds and
they'll be hiring additional housing case managers. So they'll have the capacity to minister that
second round, and they feel they have ... they have sufficient administrative funds to do so. I did
speak with Center for Worker Justice. They requested additional 8,960 to employ a full time
staff member for about 14 weeks, starting as soon as possible, um, for services, to get their...
their needs out. Um, staff looked at it. Typically we missed (mumbled) 10% or we allowed
10% of the programs for admin. We do allow up to 20% if there're special needs. We typically
cap it at 20%. That's usually the HUD standard for admin. So what staff was looking at is if we
don't increase their allocation, but we increase the amount of money that we're giving for, um,
admin activity up to 20% of the funds that they ...they've already administered that first 25,000.
So now for additional funds, if we give them that ability to go up to 20% admin, that would net
them about, I believe it was an extra $7,500 to contribute to admin and that would be standard
for what we do with our programs, and it's that balance between how much goes to direct
(mumbled) and how much is used for agencies for admin. So that was our recommendation.
Um, in fact, they're... they're ready for their next allocation. They get up to 37,500. Were going
to give that one-third increments. So based on your guidance, we will process a check
tomorrow, so that additional 12,500, so it'll just be a question of if you want to give an
additional 8,960, that puts them up above that 20% admin fee, or if you allow me to keep the
same allocation, but go up to 20%, you know, switch that from 10 to 20. So that's what we
needed your direction for tonight.
Mims/ I'm going to start maybe on a little bit different angle on here. And I've talked to a number of
the Councilors about this prior to tonight. I'm ... I'm uncomfortable with how we have even
gotten here. Um, in my almost 11 years on Council, I don't think I've ever been in a situation
where I've had a fellow Council Member, um, working for an agency, and particularly high
level in an agency, and coming and asking Council for money. And while Mayor Pro Tem has
recused herself and, you know, the City Attorney has talked to her about that, and she's recused
yourself. I believe it still puts the Council in an awkward position, um, being asked to allocate
money to an agency that (garbled) for in this case is actually directing, at least temporarily, and
I think it can look really odd and questionable to the public about how money is being allocated,
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uh, when it is this kind of a situation. So I'm really uncomfortable with the position that we are
in.
Teague/ I..I think I wanna respond to that a little bit. Um, I hear what you're sayin'. There is some
level of uncomfort, um, when we consider that as a fellow Councilor coming to ask for money.
Uh, we know that people within our... anyone on this Council could, you know, receive CDBG
funds, Home funds. We could be a developer, and we could get TIF funding. Um, I mean if we
choose to do that, and there's no ... nothing that says that we can't ... do that, and so I ... I hear what
you're saying as far as the level of un .... uncomfort. Um, but also I think we have to look at the
need. Um, I think it's right to recognize her position, her role on Council, how, you know, it's
comin'...her position with the agency. It is a not for profit. Um, what I hear and what I heard
from Maya, I believe that was her name. I'm sorry, Miss ... Miss Hernandez earlier, was just
talking about that challenge of the individuals comin' in, um, requesting funding from the
Center, and so we've already granted the funding, uh, for the Center. I think what I heard them
talk about is the challenges they're having, uh, just from an administrative side, um, with all the
needs, and it's just not, um, it is needin' a, you know, needin' a rental check. But there's other
things that have caused them to need that rental check that is still COVID-19, um, related to
some degree. So, I am comfortable, as Tracy mentioned, um, typically it's 10%. I think the
max is 20%. I am comfortable going up to the 20%, but I don't believe that because a Councilor
sits on our Council, we all get water from the City. You know, we use services from the City
and we pay for services from the City, and that's no different here where we have a Councilor
on the City Council and reaching out, um, through her role or position and directly... directly,
whatever the case may be, um, that is requesting services. So, for me the 20%, I'm comfortable
doin', and I would just encourage other Councilors to look at the need, um, recognize the
person, uh, the Mayor, the ... the Councilor's role, but look at the need that's bein' asked.
Dilkes/ I just want to slip in here for just a minute, Mayor, and just a ... a clarification, um, to ... to what
you were saying. With CDBG and Home money, we could not do this because Mayor Pro Tem
is in a posi.... is in a decision making position with respect to those funds, and the HUD rules or
the HUD conflict rules are ... are quite strict. Um, because these are local funds, that's a
possibility.
Teague/ Thank you for that clarification.
Taylor/ I agree with Councilor Mims that this decision was just little bit uncomfortable to make, uh,
since technically it was a request for funding for an organization, uh, in which a fellow Council
Member plays a major role. However, I am very familiar with the work of CWJ and what
they've done over the past few years to improve the lives of individuals in the community uh,
with the campaign to raise the County's minimum wage, the community ID program, wage theft
cases, and support for the residents of Forest View, uh, and so I'm sure that they are doing what
they can to assist persons who don't qualify, which is those are the persons that we're looking at,
I think, for them to help. They don't qualify for other COVID-19 financial assistance programs
for one reason or another. Um, perhaps they're an immigrant and don't have adequate papers to
qualify for federal programs, but I would like to see some data on the numbers they believe that
they, uh, might get, anticipate that they would assist, cause I have no doubt that there are a
number of individuals that'll need their help. But I'm not sure whether it would require a full
time position, uh, for that ... someone dedicated just to the cases related to COVID-19 financial
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concerns. So I ... I agree with Tracy's recommendation about the 20%. I mean, we don't warm
go above that. That's the standard, uh, and ... but not really in favor of the additional 8960.
Bergus/ I just want to speak to what both Councilor Mims and Mayor Teague raised. I think what's
difficult about this particular situation in terms of the conflict of interest is that this evening we
heard twice about, um, the Center for Worker Justice's struggles with staffing and the
limitations on that. And I think that just really makes for me very acute how—how ...where that
conflict is and what ... what position we are now in in considering this request. So I just want to
make that explicit because it is very uncomfortable. And I think we got awfully close to that...
that threshold tonight. That said, um, I think that, you know, to ... to what Councilor Taylor was
saying about the number of individuals served, I very much believe that the type of service of
the Center for Worker Justice provides isn't necessarily going to be that it's a great number of
individuals. I think we've ... we've heard very compelling stories about the amount of time that it
takes, um, in serving some of those who have the most barriers for accessing these funds and
that it may be there are ... there is additional effort required for each individual person. So it
might actually take more time, more administrative resources to serve the same number of
people, just due to, uh, the barriers that they're facing individually. I'm also comfortable with
the 20% threshold that ... that staff is recommending here.
Thomas/ Yeah, I .... I'm supportive of providing the 20% cap, up to the 20% cap, uh, and I think what's
compelling is ... is the need and, uh, the work that CWJ is doing. So, you know, while I suppose
in a ... in a best of all possible worlds, I would prefer that there be a cleaner, uh, relationship
there, um, or no relationship at all, I guess you might say, but I'm ... I'm ... the... the more
compelling argument for me is that there is a need and that CWJ is ... is working hard to provide
those services.
Weiner/ So I guess I, um, echo what Councilor Bergus said, there's... it is uncomfortable. I'm ... I've been
thinking for some time it's uncomfortable. For example, I stepped down from the Shelter House
Board before I was sworn to Council so that I wouldn't have to deal with .... with conflicts. That
said, this ... it ... we're dealing with a very vulnerable population with very real needs right now,
and that's why I will support the capping it at 20%.
Mims/ And I'll just say I ... I will support this and I agree that the CWJ's doing a lot of work and with a
very vulnerable population. The reason I started the way I was is I think it is important for this
Council to think about. I hope it's important for candidates for Council in the future, to think
about what other roles they play in the community and the potential conflicts, and I certainly
support and respect Janice for the fact that she stepped down, uh, Shelter House Board. I know
that was a very difficult decision, and I think you and I talked about that before you made that
final decision. And I think it was the right one. Um, I think it's important as Council Members
that, uh, that there is .... there is not ... that we do everything we can to minimize that conflict of
interest in the decisions we make, and I think that's particularly important, um, in light of the
political climate in this country right now. So I just, I felt it was really important to bring that to
the forefront. I will support up to the 20%, um, for the reasons that other Councilors have
articulated.
Teague/ Any other discussion on this topic? I think, uh, Tracy, you got direction from Council. So you
have 20% ...and I will ... I will just echo what Councilor Mims just said, urn .... that I ... I do
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believe that candidates that want to come to City Council should really look at any potential
conflicts because it does put us in an uncomfortable position when we go to make decisions.
Um, all right! All right, anything else for tonight... before nine o'clock! (laughs) All right,
hearing none, we are done for the evening. Good night, Councilors, and good night, everyone
out there in Iowa City.
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