Minutes 03-22-2012 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Patrick McDonough said that when Triangle Transit got the pie chart from Chapel Hill Transit this morning, he heard something different in their meetings than did Chapel Hill. He said that the governmental entities are better at prioritizing their own needs than prioritizing shared needs, due to limited resources. This is where the public input will help. Commissioner Yuhasz said that this is a markef justified plan and the priorities should be more time hours to regional groups. He said that 25% to Saturdays and Sundays is excessive. Commissioner McKee said that most of these hours are going to be dedicated to Chapel Hill and Carrboro, but there is a growing need for transit in rural Orange County. He said that he does not want to be constrained by artificially early timelines and deadlines and not make the right decisions. Commissioner Jacobs said that he agreed with Commissioner McKee but he does think that this pie chart has proportionality. He thinks that there needs to be proportionality between Triangle Transit funding, Chapel Hill Transit funding, and Orange Public Transit funding. Chair Pelissier said that she does not want to pick specific routes, but that is up to the transit entities. Frank Clifton suggested that the Board take a consensus on the direction the County Commissioners are going to give the staff. A motion was made by Commissioner Jacobs, seconded by Commissioner Hemminger to state that the preference for guidelines was based on the percentage thaf was set forth in the original bus hours as articulated in the chart that we have in the agenda materials, and that specific bus routes will be up to the providers. The Board will listen to the public as it makes it preferences known regarding which routes it wants various providers to prioritize. Commissioner Yuhasz said that when they look at proportionality for the bus route scenario, it could be that a large percentage of the hours are in the bottom half of the prioritized route. He would not want to see some higher priority routes to be lost from certain providers because they are in the smaller percentage of overall hours. He wants to give way to the priority in the original list. Craig Benedict said that the pie chart from Chapel Hill Transit has all 6,000 hours of supporting the existing services under their piece of the pie. Discussion ensued about the proportion of bus hours. Chair Pelissier recapped the motion, which was to ask staff to come up with a draft bus plan that follows the proportionality that was used last year in looking at the bus hours. Each provider will select their priority routes. However, Craig Benedict said that the numbers are different from the 64%, 24%, and 12% in our agenda materials. In spring of 2011, according to his calculations, the numbers were Chapel Hill Transit—43.95%, Triangle Transit—31.46%, and the remainder was OPT (roughly 24%). Commissioner Hemminger said that her second was based on the numbers on the pie chart, which has 64% for Chapel Hill Transit, 24% for Triangle Transit, and 12% for OPT. Commissioner Jacobs said that the pie chart was generated by Chapel Hill Transit and the ones from Craig Benedict were from last year. Patrick McDonough said that this discussion is demonstrative of different visions that different staff inembers have had over time. Commissioner Gordon said that she wanted to keep the pie chart percentages of 64, 24, and 12.