Tehama County
California

Regular Item
16620

Public Hearing: Unmet Transit Needs

Information

Department:Tehama County Transit Agency BoardSponsors:
Category:Claims/Warrants/Transportation

Financial Impact

N/A

REQUESTED ACTION (S)

The purpose of today's agenda item is to provide a brief overview of the process and invite public comment regarding unmet transit needs. The Unmet Transit Needs process specifically excludes:

 

·              Primary and secondary school transportation.

·              Minor operational improvement or changes, involving issues such as bus stops, schedules and minor route changes.

·              Improvements funded or scheduled for implementation in the following fiscal year.

 

a)              Overview of unmet transit needs process

b)              Open unmet transit needs public hearing

c)              Invite public comment on unmet transit needs

d)              Close the public hearing and refer comments to the Social Services Transportation Advisory Council (SSTAC) for review

 

BACKGROUND INFO

The annual unmet needs process and this public hearing are a requirement of the Transportation Development Act (TDA).  This process consists of the following steps:

 

1.               The Transit Agency Board holds a public hearing to receive comments.

2.               The Transit Agency Board of Directors refer the public comments to the Social Services Transportation Advisory Council (SSTAC) for review. 

3.               Identify "unmet transit need" and "reasonable to meet" in order to develop a recommendation SSTAC who compares the comments to the attached adopted definition of for the Commission.

4.              The Agency Board of Directors consider the recommendation and then adopt a finding by resolution.

5.              Transit needs that are 'determined to be reasonable to meet' are funded prior to allocating Local Transportation Funds (LTF) to local streets and roads.

 

Meeting History

Feb 24, 2020 8:45 AM Audio Tehama County Transit Agency Board Regular
draft Draft

Transportation Planner, Maeve Kellogg, gave an informational presentation on The Unmet Transit Needs Process where she presented the following slides:

Unmet Transit Needs Process overview; Public Transportation Funding; Funding Distribution; Defining Unmet Need; Exclusions to the Definition of and Unmet Need; Determining of an Unmet Need is Reasonable to Meet; Challenges of Funding a New Transit Service; Unmet Needs Public Hearing Process; Unmet Needs Survey Previous Year's Successes.

Director Hatley opened the Unmet Transit Needs Public Hearing.

Transportation Planner, Maeve Kellogg stated the previous year's successes included: Increased route frequency to Rancho Tehama Reserve; adding a connection line to Chico via Orland and Glenn Connect; the expanded Paratransit area to ten miles beyond the fixed routes; Absorbed Shasta College into a fixed route after the pilot service expired; Expanded service to the Paskenta Band Nomlaki Indian's Tribal Offices and Resort grounds; Added a monthly trip to Tehama County Gleaners food bank; expansion of Saturday service to five (5) transit routes that now begin at 8:20 AM and conclude at 4:00 PM. two (2) routes in Red Bluff, two (2) regional routes and a Corning route.

Ms. Kellogg further discussed this year's survey process began on December 1, 2019 with staff distributing surveys throughout various locations in the County and surveys were also available on taketrax.com in English and Spanish.

Transportation Planner, Maeve Kellogg, discussed 2019\ 2020 Unmet Transit Needs Survey statistics: TRAX is the most used service; Ridership occurs mainly on daily\ one time per week; Roughly 60-65% of riders are on Routes 1 & 2, followed by the regional routes 3A & 3B. Ms. Kellogg also reported Saturday service is steadily increasing with 19% of riders reported in 2018 and 2019 and 31% of riders reported using the service in 2020; 65% of riders reported use services for medical appointments, followed by shopping at 62% and social recreation increased from 18% in 2019 to 35% in 2020.

Following questions, Ms. Kellogg was thanked for her presentation.

Director Hatley opened discussion.

Transit Ambassador, Valerie Chavez discussed the evening route 3A at 5:00 crossing 99W at San Benito being a high-risk and needless crossing. She requested that portion of the route be evaluated for necessity. Ms. Chavez expressed concern regarding the bus stop on Main Street at Villa Columba and requested collaboration with the City to paint curbs indicating bus stop location, parking restrictions and increase parking enforcement to improve safety.

Director Williams discussed current accessibility to South Shasta County and the need for a connection to facilitate transit for doctor appointments and Shasta College access.

Following discussion, Director Hatley closed Public Hearing.