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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-08-14 Transportation Committee MinutesTRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE OPEN SESSION MEETING MINUTES AUGUST 14, 2018 1. Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 9:00 am in the Public Works Administration Conference Room. Present were Council President Lloyd Martin, Council Member Dennis Dare, Council Member Tony DeLuca, City Manager Doug Miller, Mayor Rick Meehan, Hal Adkins, Jim Parsons, Mark Rickards, Catrice Parsons, Thomas Dy, Elwood Vickers, Terry McGean, Brian Connor, Ron Eckman, Bethany Hooper and Greg Ellison. 2. General Update and “Follow Up’s” – Mark provided the Committee with ridership figures.  Bus ridership for the month of July is down 2% from last year.  Bus ridership is down approximately 4 ½ % year to date compared to last year.  Mayor Meehan stated that bus ridership figures are still trending in the wrong direction. After this season need to evaluate and make recommendations to the Committee on what can be done to increase the ridership.  Mark stated that Tram ridership is up 6% to date from last year. To date this year we have no mechanical issues that prevented us from meeting deployments of Trams.  Hal stated that last year the maintenance issues that we had with Trams prevented us from having full deployments out during peak times and he felt that was what affected ridership.  Mark explained that this time of year, we are more focused on retaining the staff that we have then we are on hiring additional staff. Currently we have 111 Part-Time Bus Drivers on staff. Despite the number of part-time drivers on staff it is not impacting buses from meeting deployments.  Councilmember DeLuca stated that for next year he would like to see us attack recruitment efforts hard starting in the Fall. 3. Update of “TransLoc” System – Mark presented the Committee with updates on “TransLoc”.  “TransLoc” is receiving about 1,000 hits per day.  Mark also pointed out that he monitors the headways from “TransLoc” on a regular basis and we are meeting our headways. 4. Bus Shelter Lighting – Hal informed the Committee that DP&L installed two LED lights; one at the 142nd Street South Bus Shelter and one at the 3rd Street South Bus Shelter.  Brian stated that he has had Transportation employees view the shelters at these locations to get their opinion on whether the LED lights better light the shelter; employee consensus is that it is a whiter light because they are LED; however not necessarily brighter.  Mayor Meehan stated that when riding down Coastal Highway at night the bus shelters are dark; for safety purposes need to be better lit.  Hal stated that the request for lighting for bus shelters could be put in the annual “ATP”; however he did not see MTA agreeing to fund the request. Hal could also work with Jennie and City Manager Miller to find funding to cover the cost of solar lighting for Bus Shelters.  Hal also stated that another option could be working with Terry and DP&L to place additional light poles near shelters. Terry stated that there may be issues with adding additional light poles close to shelters.  Terry stated that he did take a reading at the Bus Shelter on 48th Street which is equipped with solar lighting; light levels are 3 to 4 times brighter than other Bus Shelters.  Hal informed the Committee that in the July Transportation Committee packet a breakdown of various options for lighting in Shelters was included. Terry evaluated the information Brian compiled and suggest that the middle of the road option which will cost approximately $80,000 for solar/LED lighting for shelters.  Councilmember DeLuca stated that in the long term it is more cost effective to go with solar options.  Councilmember DeLuca asked if the lighting at the Shelter on 48th Street could be repaired. Brian stated that it could and that the City Electrician’s have already been and looked at the shelter and identified the issue.  Council President Martin stated that the tops of our bus shelters are white and not clear; therefore light from the overhead street lights does not get into the Shelters.  In July information was presented on the cost of a pilot program for solar lighting in shelters; the cost was approximately $11,000 for the pilot program. Hal will work with City Manager Miller and Jennie on funding and implementation. 5. Update on Proposed “Public Works South Facility” RFP for a Design/Build Contract – Hal informed the Committee that the RFP is out and that a list of interested Contractors who attended the pre-bid meeting is included in agenda packet.  RFP is out for Design Build of facility  September 11, 2018 is the date that the RFP’s are due.  Once submissions are opened; they will be evaluated. Once evaluated bidder will have to go before OCDC with their submissions before final project approval, then on to the Mayor and City Council with OCDC support.  Intention is to start building facility in Fall.  Hal stated that since no decision has been made on what to do with Whiteside not time sensitive. We may need to use Whiteside the summer of 2019 if construction is not completed.  Hal also brought up the need, with the building of this facility, for a traffic light at 3rd Street. We have had Traffic Group do a study of the intersection. Terry stated that the original study that was done; did meet one of the criteria of SHA for a traffic light; however SHA felt that the gap’s in traffic were adequate and it did not warrant a traffic light. Traffic Group has now done a gap study for the Town of the intersection. The gap study has shown that compared to recommended gaps and timeframes; that there are not enough gaps of sufficient duration and recommend a traffic light due to this finding. Terry will go back to SHA and request a traffic light. Hal pointed out that this traffic light would be an unbudgeted light for SHA and funds would have to be found to cover cost; the cost to install would be approximately $250,000.  Terry will continue to work with SHA on getting a traffic light installed at 3rd Street and will report back to the Committee. 6. Discussion on Inlet Parking Lot  Terry started the discussion with the positives of the conversion of the Inlet Parking Lot: 1) Fewer staff needed for the operation. 2) When the system has a failure it does not affect the entire parking operation as a failure with the old system did. 3) There have been no traffic backups with the old system; other than on July 4th. 4) With the old system had to contact the vendor to perform repairs when system went down; with new system we have part in house to make necessary repairs to kiosks. 5) With the new system there is less handling of cash.  Terry also pointed out the main issues that have been brought up to date with the new system: 1) Majority of complaints have been with people knowing how to use the machines and the majority of these complaints are in the inlet lot. The same system is used for on street parking and other municipal lot; however no receiving complaints on those areas. 2) Line at kiosks. Terry stated that when the new Inlet Parking Lot was designed the idea was to disperse the kiosks around the lot. Terry stated that he is seeing that most people seem to be utilizing the kiosks which are near the information booth; in future move two of the kiosks from near the South Tram Center to the booth area. 3) Terry stated that he was not sure if we needed more machines or not; need to evaluate usage on current configuration. May need to set up banks of machines in high use areas. 4) The button on the kiosk to add time; allows you to push the button and add max time; working on software change which will allow this button to increase in increments of one hour. 5) Having some issues with loss of communications for kiosks. Kiosks use wireless cards for connectivity and are testing different wireless carriers to see which works best. The old system batched groups of transactions; the new system confirms every card transaction real time; make look into possibly batching credit card transactions from kiosks. 6) Invoices for overages are starting to be sent out. Number one complaint is the $25 processing charge added to the invoices; some invoices only for twenty five cents. Terry suggested waiving any invoice that was less that $1; for July the revenue loss would be $900. Effective August 1st we will no longer be sending out invoices that is less than $1.  Terry is looking into costs of adding permanent VMS boards at the inlet to post parking information.  Per Terry it appears parking revenue is down for both inlet and street parking. The number of vehicles that have utilized the lot is also lower than 2017.  Mayor Meehan asked if people are cutting their stay in the inlet parking lot short. Terry stated that the revenue, number of transactions and number of vehicles is within 2 ½% of last year. Answer to Mayor’s question is probably no, people are not cutting their time short at the inlet lot; but to compare apples to apples Terry would like to be able to further analyze the transactions and revenue figures. It appears from the information seen thus far that people are staying about the same amount of time in the inlet lot.  Terry also pointed out that of the invoices processed to date and sent out; approximately 50% have been collected. Need to also further analyze invoicing at see if $25 is appropriate for a processing fee.  An inquire was submitted from the website asking if you could come into the inlet lot and put in payment for one hour and then have the system automatically bill your credit card for an time over the one hour. Terry stated he felt this was a good suggestion; however due to credit card policies he does not believe that the system can be programmed to do this.  Mayor Meehan stated that this was a great preliminary wrap-up of the Inlet Lot. Would like a final wrap-up at the end of the season presented to Committee.  Mayor Meehan stated he had a concern that people were not staying as long; and asked about encouraging them to pay when leaving. Terry stated that he would advise against that; he felt it would cause backups similar to the past with the booths because so many people would be trying to leave at once. Hal also stated that from web inquiries he would advise against this; as he is seeing a pattern of inquiries where people lose track of time and do not add enough additional time when paying when leaving.  Mayor Meehan stated this is still a learning process; and he has received a few complaints via US mail; from people who do not have cellphones and feel that they have to have a cellphone to park in the inlet lot. Has been replying back to them conveying that they do not have to have a cellphone; lot still accepts cash; as well as credit cards.  Mayor Meehan stated that at the end of the summer we need to look at net revenue; revenue versus cost; feels these figures will be up.  Mayor Meehan also stated the last figure he had we had 160,000 people utilize the inlet parking lot. Tom Dy stated that as of August 12th that figure was 205,000. When you look at the number of complaints received compared to the number of users of the lot the percentage is pretty low.  Terry stated that he hoped most people would start using the phone app; it alerts you when your time is about to expire and allows you to add time from your phone.  Mayor Meehan stated that goal moving forward is to address the concerns being voiced and overcome them. Also need to continue educating the Public on how to utilize kiosks.  Councilmember Dare stated that he works in the information booth at the inlet parking lot frequently and would like to have some instruction cards on how the kiosks work to hand out.  Councilmember DeLuca also suggested having instruction cards at City Hall to be handed out.  Terry stated that we are having some Parkeon instructional cards printed; do have instructional cards for ParkMobile.  Mayor Meehan suggest that once we have instruction Parkeon cards put some in the Boardwalk Information Booth; in the booth in the inlet parking lot; in City Hall and occasionally maybe have employees in the inlet parking lot handing them out; could possibly even have Jessica Water and himself to hand out. Mayor Meehan stressed that it is important to have cards handed out to better educate public. 7. MDOT/MTA Acknowledge Transfer of Five (5) Additional Buses to Replace Portions of our Fleet – Hal informed the Committee with the dollar amount being funded for the Campus Project that MTA would not be funding other things such as additional bus purchases for the next few years.  Brian informed the Committee that we have twenty-two buses meeting their useful life.  Per Hal, last year MTA transferred five buses to us for $1. These buses had meant MTA’s useful life criteria; however are in better mechanical shape than some of our existing fleet. Thus we have requested five more buses this year; and will be requesting additional bus transfers to get us through the next few years where we will not be awarded Grant for new bus purchases.  Hal informed the Committee that Brian is working with Wayne Pryor on some funding that maybe available to replace buses with clean energy vehicles due to VW being fined and funds being distributed through State Transit agencies.  Mayor Meehan asked if once Campus Project is complete and funding is available for new buses if we would be looking into purchasing additional articulating buses. Hal stated that we would and that he felt six articulating buses would be adequate for our fleet. Mark did include articulating buses in the ATP; but will not be funded.  Councilmember Dare asked if funding for articulating buses could be included in the VW Mitigation funds. Hal asked Brian to carry that request to Wayne Pryor.  Hal also told the Committee that a few year out from now; when funding for bus purchases becomes available again; we need to consider looking into other fuel options. 8. Disposal of Bus 200  Hal informed the Committee that bus 200 was acquired in 2016 at a cost $1 from MTA. It is a motor coach and has no federal or state strings attached on how it can be utilized. The only historical use for this bus has been Scamper Camp. No one has been using the bus for anything other than Scamper Camp; the last time the bus was utilized was in 2017.  Ron Eckman informed the Committee that the bus has mechanical issues and that since we received the bus from MTA we have spent approximately $19,000 on repairs. The bus has over 400,000 miles showing on the odometer. The last 2 times the bus was utilized it had to be towed back to the shop. The costs associated with repairing this bus could be as little as $7500 or as much as $35000 depending on what the engine issue turns out to be.  Hal stated that if the Town still has a desire to have such a bus with no Federal or State Usage strings attached he would like to have discussion in the fall to pursue acquiring another bus.  Councilmember DeLuca stated that we should dispose of bus 200. 9. Tram Replacement – Hal asked Catrice to update the Committee on the timeline.  Catrice stated that two of the Jeeps should be delivered by the end of August. Two Jeeps are being built now and should be delivered by the end of September. One Jeep has not been built yet; but should be built and delivered by the end of the year.  Ron Eckman spoke to the upfitting needed for the Jeeps. When we get the first two Jeeps here; they will be taken to Meadows Hydraulics immediately; and other Jeeps will be taken there as they are delivered. The timeline for upfitting; Ron anticipates four of them should be completed by the end of the year.  Council President Martin asked if Jeeps would be available for Winterfest; Ron stated that he doubted they would.  Catrice stated that the 1st Coaches would not be delivered until November; then they will have to be taken to Meadows Hydraulics as well.  The Town’s 8 sets of Trams are expected to be delivered by April 5th.  Councilmember Dare asked if the modifications to the Jeeps would enable them to pull 3 coaches, if needed. Ron Eckman stated that yes they would be able to tow 3 coaches.  Hal stated that we will need to transfer the current ad panels from the existing coaches to the new coaches when we receive them; before putting into service. There will be an unfunded expense of approximately $26,344 to complete this transfer. Another issue regarding the ad panels; they are backlit with LED lights and some of the lights are not working; these lights will need to be replaced at an additional cost of approximately $27,752 that is unfunded.  Hal also asked in May of 2019 once all new coaches and Jeeps are delivered, upfitted and put in service; do we pursue selling the current power units or do we keep one for backup should one unit go down. Other option is to pursue the purchase of another Jeep so that we will have a backup in case of mechanical failure. Council President Martin stated that we definitely need to have a backup so that the availability to provide full deployments is there even in case of mechanical breakdown. Councilmember DeLuca asked if his recommendation was to keep a power unit or purchase an additional Jeep. Council President Martin stated that he would recommend an additional Jeep; Hal agreed with the recommendation. Hal will work with City Manager Miller, Budget Manager, and Catrice, on pursuing purchase of an additional Jeep as a backup.  Councilmember DeLuca asked if in the interim we keep a Tram; Hal stated that he felt by the time we were in a position to sell off the old Trams; the issue of purchasing an additional Jeep to use as backup would be resolved. 10. Synopsis and Action Items  Bus ridership for the month of July was down approximately 2% from last year.  Bus ridership is down approximately 4 ½% year to date.  Need to evaluate why ridership is down after Season if over; and come back to Committee with recommendations on what can be done to increase ridership.  Currently there are 111 Part-Time bus drivers on staff; despite number of drivers on staff deployments are not being impacted per Mark. Councilmember DeLuca stated that we need to attack recruitment effort hard starting in the Fall.  “TransLoc” is receiving approximately 1,000 hits per day.  Hal informed the Committee that DP&L installed two LED lights at bus shelters; one at 142nd Street South and one at 3rd Street South; per employee observations does not make shelters brighter.  Move forward with pilot program for solar lighting in Bus Shelters; Hal will work with City Manager Miller and Terry McGean on funding and implementation of pilot program; estimated cost $11,000. The cost to move forward with installation or recommended solar lighting in all bus shelters would be approximately $80,000.  RFP for Public Works South Facility is out as a design/build proposal.  September 11, 2018 is the date that RFP submissions are due.  Submissions will be opened and evaluated. Once evaluated selected bidder will have to go before OCDC with their submission before final project approval.  Intention is to start building facility in Fall.  Terry/Hal had requested SHA put a stop light at 3rd Street; SHA had denied request. Traffic Group just completed an additional study to justify stop light; a gap study. Results of study show that there are not enough gaps in traffic and recommend a traffic light. Terry will go back to SHA and request a traffic light. If approved by SHA light would be an unfunded expense for SHA at an approximate cost of $250,000.  Terry McGean provided Committee an overview of both positives and negatives of new Inlet Parking Lot system and configuration.  Terry pointed out that the majority of complaints that we are getting are regarding how to use the kiosks in the inlet parking lot; however the same kiosks are being utilized for street parking and in other municipal lots and are not receiving the complaints/concerns or questions regarding the use of those kiosks.  When lot was designed idea was to disperse the kiosks; from looking at usage and visually observing it appears that most people are utilizing the kiosks near the information booth; in the future will be moving two kiosks from South Tram area to the information booth area. When season ends will analyze kiosk usage and move kiosks accordingly; possibly set up banks of kiosks in certain high usage areas.  Mayor Meehan stated that our goal moving forward is to address citizen concerns being voices and overcome them; as well as continued education efforts on how to use Kiosks.  Terry is looking into cost of adding a permanent VMS Board at the inlet parking lot.  Parking Enforcement has sent out there first batch of invoices; have received quite a few complaints about the $25 processing fee for the overage invoices. Effective August 1st no overage invoices will be sent out for any parking time overages less than $1. Per Terry for July revenue loss will be approximately $900. Terry also informed the Committee that of the overage invoices sent out about 50% have been collected to date. May need to analyze processing cost in future.  Terry informed the Committee that it appears from data he has evaluated to date that the revenue for both the inlet parking lot and the street parking is down from last year. Would like to further evaluate figures to be certain comparing apples to apples; with all the available payment methods. Mayor Meehan also requested that at the end of the season an analysis of the net revenue be evaluated; revenue versus costs; feel this number will be up. Tom Dy informed the Committee that through August 12th the number of vehicles which have used lot are 205,000. When you compare the number of complaints to the 205,000 users percentage of complaints is pretty low.  Mayor Meehan asked Terry to present the Committee with a final update on the inlet parking lot at the end of the season.  Mayor Meehan also stated that we need to place Parkeon instructional cards in Boardwalk Information Booth, City Hall, and Parking Lot Information Booths; as well as on occasions of heavy use possibly have employees in lot to hand out these cards. Will also work with Jessica Waters are getting cards out to public; to assist in education of kiosk and lot use.  Hal informed Committee that due to MTA funding of Campus plan; funding for new bus purchases for the next few years will not be available. As we did last year, we are requesting that five buses be transferred to the Town at a cost of $1; these buses are in better shape than some of our existing fleet of which 22 have meant their useful life. We will also be requesting additional buses be transferred from MTA to Town to get us through the next few years in which new buses will not be funded.  Mayor Meehan asked if once Campus project is finished and bus purchase funding is available if we would be looking into additional articulating bus purchases. Hal stated that we would; and that to him optimal number for our fleet would be six.  There is also another grant that has become available at State level to purchase clean energy vehicles using fund obtained from the VW mitigation. Brian is working with Wayne Pryor on submittals for this funding through the Maryland Department of Environment. Councilmember Dare asked is articulating buses could be part of the Town’s submittal for this funding; Brian Connor is to work with Wayne Pryor on whether articulating buses would be eligible or not.  Hal also informed the Committee that we need to start considering alternative fuel options for the future bus purchases down the road.  Hal informed the Committee that we need to consider the disposal of bus 200 which is a motor coach with no Federal or State usage regulations that the Town acquired from MTA in 2016 for $1. The only usage since we acquired bus has been Scamper Camp; bus has mechanical issues and has not been utilized since 2017. Life to date repair costs on bus are $19,000; bus has over 400k miles on it and estimated repairs cost could be $7500 to $35000. Do we desire to keep bus or dispose of this bus. Councilmember DeLuca stated that we should dispose of bus.  Hal also stated that discussion need to happen in the fall to decide if we want to pursue acquiring another such bus that would not have the Federal and State usage regulations that other buses in our fleet have; is there a need.  Update on Trams given by Catrice o Two of the five Jeeps ordered should be delivered by the end of August o Two more Jeeps are being built now and should be delivered by the end of September o One Jeep has yet to be built; estimated delivery date by end of year o Once Jeeps are delivered will be taken to Meadows Hydraulics to be upfitted; Ron Eckman anticipated all five Jeeps will be upfitted by the end of the year o First Coaches should be delivered by the end of November; once delivered will have to be taken to Meadows to for brake retrofit o The Town should have all eight sets of Coaches by April 5th  Hal informed the Committee that existing Ad panels would need to be removed for current coaches and placed on new coaches at a cost of approximately $26,344 and that some of the ad panels have LED lights that are out that will need to be repaired at an approximate cost of $27,752; both of these are unbudgeted expenses in the FY’2019 budget. Hal will work with City Manager Miller and Budget Manager to find funding.  Once all new coaches and Jeeps are delivered and in service will pursue purchase of additional Jeep as a backup; and then pursue sale of current coaches and power units. Committee agreed additional Jeep is needed as backup. Hal will work with City Manager Miller, Budget Manager and Catrice on obtaining. 11. Adjourn – Councilmember DeLuca motioned to adjourn the open session at 10:12 am and go into closed session as permitted under General Provisions Article 3-305(b)(14): Before a contract is awarded or bids are opened, to discuss a matter directly related to a negotiating strategy or the contents of a bid or proposal, if public discussi on or disclosure would adversely impact the ability of the public body to participate in the competitive bidding or proposal process. Council President Martin seconded the motion, vote was unanimous, with Mayor Meehan absent. Adjourned to closed session. The next Transportation Committee Meeting will be Tuesday, September 11, 2018 at 9 am in the Public Works Administration Conference Room.