Minutes 05-08-2014 - Laserfiche WebLink

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larger plan will make sense when this comes back in June. He said the approval of the services is necessary in order to implement anything this fall. Commissioner Pelissier said she appreciates the work that has been done to integrate the regional and local routes. She asked if the Board is going to be asked to approve 5-year bus plans. She noted that the plan says performance standards have to be reviewed, and some routes may not work out well. Erik Landfried said this discussion is just about the types of services that will be implemented at the local level. He said this is just putting some meat on the bones. He said this is the approval that these are the services that need to be pushed forward for implementation. He said adjustments can be made along the way, and approval of the program does not lock them into running these services for 5 years Commissioner Price asked if routes 4 or 6 are going just to Durham Tech. Bret Martin said both of these will. Commissioner Price asked if there will be a stop at the hospital and medical center as well. Bret Martin answered yes. Commissioner Price said she is having trouble seeing this as a plan that really works for the people of Orange County. She said everything seems focused on going to Durham, and she would like to see more focus on getting people from Efland to Hillsborough, and from Hillsborough to other parts of the County. She said this is not servicing people that need to get to the services that are here in the County seat. She said she is glad to see that the 420 will be a no fare route, but she is concerned about all the different routes and the lack of stops along the way. She said if it is not frequent enough, people will not use it. She asked if this was intended to go more toward Durham. Bret Martin said OPT services are concentrated on getting people from the northern part of the County and the area between Mebane and Hillsborough to Hillsborough and back, as well as making connections to Chapel Hill and Durham. He said the circulator route is still there and will be funded, and OPT is providing the opportunity for people to commute from Efland to Hillsborough during the peak period to catch the express route or the 420 or the circulator around Hillsborough. Commissioner Price asked if there will be a bus to go from the Orange County Durham Tech Campus to the Durham Campus. Erik Landfried said there are a couple of different ways this can be done. He said the new route or the circulator will take riders to the stop at the Maxway area to get on the route to Durham. He said most of the service is not going to Durham, and he is happy to discuss this offline. Bret Martin said there are a whole lot of other things that staff would like to see happen, as shown in the unfunded list, but there are fiscal constraints. PUBLIC COMMENT: Hank Maiden said he lives in Carrboro, and he takes the 420 to get to Hillsborough. He said he takes CTX from the 54 bypass. He said he gets on the 420 without paying a dime, because he is 65 plus and that is his free pass. He had to go through the regional transit program to make this happen. He said the people he rides with on the 420 are predominantly UNC employees or graduate students. He rides the mid-day service to go to the Sportsplex and he sees the riders that use it. He has walked the routes on these maps, and he knows how narrow and deadly those roads can be. He hopes that there will be some concern about enabling people to use bicycles and carry them onto the buses. He said OPT enables people to carry bicycles.